New-York tribune., 1917-07-11
Men Of Vision
The Need of Races, Black or White,
the World Over


To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Colonel Roosevelt has been very much
criticised by a certain section OF the white
press for denouncing Mr.. Gompers at the Car
negie Hall meeting on the pretext that ne
was ungentlemanly and rude to have acted
as he did and on such an occasion. am
no apologist for Mr.. Roosevelt, but as negro
respect and admire the gallant Colonel.
think him the greatest leader OF the white
race in America.
I do not believe Mr.. Roosevelt has more
love for the negro than Mr.. Gompers, and /
can fully see and understand that Mr.. Com
pers has no love for the black man, but do
realize that Mr.. Roosevelt is deeper thinker
than the labor leader, and that he used MS
resourcefulness of thought to save his coun-
try and his race from stigma that would
have otherwise gone down in history as a
despicable outrage against race OF people
whose color is offensive to the white race be-
cause they, fortunately unfortunately, are
not white.
Mr.. Roosevelt at the Carnegie Hal! meet
ing turned the East st. Louis riot from race
riot to an industrial riot lie gave out to the
world from that meeting that the white peo-
pie of East st. Louis did not kill black men,
women and children because they were blacK
and not white but because they were usurp-
ing the reserved labor rights of trade union
ism. | believe differently from Mr.. Roosevelt,
but | admire him for his splendid vision in
planning the salvation of his race, the future
of his people, the world over. Mr.. Roosevelt
knows that just as negroes in America are
only ten in hundred to the population, so
also are the whites but ten 10 the hundred in
the population of the world, and the daily
slaughter of the white race in Europe will
still further reduce the proportion. Mr.. Dan
es a few months ago in an article said that
the future great world war will be war of
the races, and myself believe it will be so,
although would never like to see it,
Mr.. Roosevelt knows this, and he also
knows that America as a white nation is be-
fore the world to-day as the dispenser Of
democracy, and every nation and race Of peo-
pie have their eyes centred on the Republic
If the Republic is to prescribe democracy and
race hatred together, then she will be stitch
ing the sore with one hand and opening 1t
with the other The darker races of the
world are not blind in realizing that If white
people kill black men because they are black
and not white, then the same principle VIII
be applied in killing everybody who Is not
white Such a realization would lead 10 union
of sentiment and feelings -mong the darker
races, and if there is to be future war of
the races, as Mr.. Daniels predicts, then it will
be between the darker races on the one side
and the white race on the other, for the white
race has been the only offensive race to
lynch, burn and kill men, women and children
because they are of a different color.
Mr. Roosevelt sees and knows all this, and
because of that he sacrificed his natural cult
ural gentility and made the unlocking darker
races of the world to understand last Friday
that the East ST. Louis riot was not one Of
race but of labor, of which Mr.. Gompers was
the representative. Africa, China, India and
Japan have been forced by Mr. Roosevelt's ac-
tion to accept the white man not as race
enemy, but only as a dangerous labor COM
pettor, and as far as labor troubles go they
can always be settled by arbitration or some
thing other than war.
Mr.. Roosevelt has altered the pages of his
tory and has saved his grandchildren from
the bitter revenge Of race, which such blot
as the East st. Louis riot would have helped
to engender in the heart of the darker races
of the world
Mr. Roosevelt is a genius, and though am
not of his race | admire him in the same way
he admires the negro and would do service
for him. II the negro and darker races had
leaders of the vision of Theodore Roosevelt
then the situation of the world would have
been different and mankind at large would be
happier, but some day our men of vision will
appear to meet the Roosevelts of the white
race and to join hands together like brothers
and make the world safe for true democracy
MARCUS GARVEY,
Negro Traveller and Lecturer.
New York, July 10, 1917.