Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1918-05-11

of our citizens. The Department OF Justice s
officers are at all times ready to swoop down
upon such as preach or advise or even suggest
sedition. That is eminently right and proper.
But we want to ask in all fairness, if
lynching and burning of colOred men, at such
a time as this, cannot be construed as tend
ing to create dissatisfaction; if forcing col
ored men, enlisted to fight for world democ-
racy and wearing the uniform of an Ameri-
can soldier, to ride in jim-crow cars, deny
ing them the right to occupy berths in sleep
ers on long rides permitting them to be re-
fused to eat so much as a sandwich in res
taurant, on a dining car, cannot be con-
str,led as exciting dissatisfaction We want
to ask the Department of Justice if the intro
ducton of segregation bills in Congress by
decrepit old Ben Tillman and his senatorial
comrade from Florida, at crucial time like
this, and Immediately following the subscrib-
ing for millions Of dollars of Liberty Bonds
and Thrift Stamps by colored people, and the
sailing of thousands Of colOred soldiers to
France to fight for freedom for the peoples
"over there, - cannot be construed as tending
to excite enmity on the part Of those of a GER
tain class against whom the legislation is
directed? We want to ask, in all fairness, Of
the Department of Justice, if an 1n-American,
un-rnilitary order like that issued by General
Ballou of the 92nd Division, placing policy
above justice, upholding discrimination when
practiced by soulless amusement profteers,
and brutally criticising colored soldiers for
exercising constitutionolly vouchsafed rights,
cannot be construed as interfering with the
prosecution OF the war by creating an antag
onistic sentiment in the ranks Of those who
much suffer from such an order?
The South may lynch and burn colored
and 4Io
typical of the hated Huns; colored soldiers
may be segregated and denied comfortable ac-
commodations on Government-controlled rail
roads; refused food in dining cars and restau-
rants denied admission to amusement places
to all OF which alien enemies in this country
are welcomed; members of Congress may
with lmpunity, introduce segregation bills af-
fectlng loyal people, and army officers may
promulgate viciously discriminating ORDERS
but when colOred men and women protest
against such rank injustice against people
who are splendidly doing their bit they are
regarded as incitors Of discord; germinators
OF an antagonistic sentiment against the Gov
ernment- seditionists, if you please, and some
Government sleuth, perhaps a Negro Judas
who has an itching palm for the thirty pieces
of silver, is ready to report the complainers
against injustice, and unfoundedly color his
report with a seditious hue
There is no sedition in the ranks of colored
men-there never was. There are no rebels
among coored men-there never was-not
even among those who have been forced to
suffer untold barbarious cruelty at the hands
OF former white rebels against this very Gov
ernment the Negro has always served loyalty
ALI the colored man is asking is that when
the race is giving Of it's men and treasures
literally and uncomplainingly, just as the
whites are, to fight to establish and maintain
liberty for oppressed peoples on foreign lands
the race should have an even break.
You cannot expect man to "keep on smil-
ing when someone is continuously brutally
stabbing him.