The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1919-10-25
lContinned from PAGE 1.l

- NHAb
trict Of Columbia lost their white
workers to the Government in very
large numbers The high average sal
airy of white men who went to the
Government remained at $1,000 or
$t400 a year. But the skilled Colored
mechanic whom prejudice excluded
from the public service found himself
earning IS to IS a day. BY a twist of
events, he had become the economic
superior of many of his white neigh
bors here in the District.
Now it can hardly be said that the
Negro was to blame for this entirely
natural effect of obvious causes. Yet
he has been blamed by many envious
persons who would have us believe
that the Colored worker has got out
of his place, and has become a men
ace because employers pay him more
than they used to-" DR.. Scott smiled
again, Il have some old fellows work.
ing around the university grounds
who collect $3.50 a day from us. They
received about s1.25 under the pre-
war wage standard. l can't abuse
them and get a mob to chase them
to make them work for less, but fear
that expedient is sometimes resorted
to elsewhere in the economic strug-
gle. 1t is one kind of human nature
to strike at your most exposed com
p%etitor, and the Colored nan is fire.
quently the easiest target.
But such tactics, if permitted to
continue, simply undermine our de-
mocracy and cannot possible bring a
solution of the problem. Thoughtful
teachers, students and employers are
coming to see this quite clearly. Side
by side with the disgrace of lynching
there is growing up in the South a de-
termination among the better ele-
ment of both races to top this evil
before it engulfs the whole nation. So
we have here an open letter to white
college men of the South signed by
members of the faculties of eleven
different State universities in the
South in which a fine tribute is paid
to the Negro, and all are reminded that
mo people is stirred to higher things
when habitually referred to in dis
paraging or contemptuous terms. Or
binary human beings live up to or
down to the role assigned them by
their neighbors.
Beside that fine letter may be plac.
ed the ringing denunciation by Gov.
Beckett of North Carolina of the cur.
rent effort to revive the Ku Klux
Khan, in which he assets: Just now
all of us need to be c~onsiderate and
kind and trustful in our dealings with
the Negro; the best and the wisest
men in both races are" On the en-
%couraging side also there is the ex-
ample of such Southern employers as
the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company
which prizes its colored workers so
highly that it is catering on a large
Scale to the black mans strongest de-
sires by providing fine facilities for
the education of his children, and 9TH
er agencies for his welfare.
NO, l am not respondent over the
outlook. The situation is serious but
not desperate. All healthy sentiment
in favor of fair play is growing up
on many sides. Wise and courageous
leaders of both races are now contend
ing that the first and biggest task of
democracy is to keep her own house
in order. 1t is vain to talk ideals UNI.
less we practice justice. And in the
final triumph of justice | never lose
faith
DR.. Scott stood silent by the window
for a moment, then turned with his
face full in the morning light, and
summed up his hope and convictions.
To all your questions there is a
cheerful answer If there is a crisis
in the race. problem it is because the
alton has ignored, neglected and push
ed the problem aside. To solve it we
must face it and who shall say we
are afraid to face it?
TOO often the whole question is
complicated and we'll meaning efforts
regatived by many persons North
and South, who c~onjure up the spectre
OF social equality" a term which, as
often used, is a misnomer. Every
self-respecting Colored mar and wo-
+A NSNANNNNo LIN lASiN " CNVly OluCl
individual to decide whom his asso-
ciates and companions shall be. Nor
is the NegrO-and | think | am rather
well acquainted with the main hopes
and aspirations of my race-desirous
OF imposing himself upon any one. or
any purely social group in which he
is not welcomed. But that has moth
ing to do with the civic rights and
privileges to which every decent man
is entitled, Certainly it has no place
in the minds of those nearly 200, 900
black soldiers who have returned
from France, where in the eyes of ma
tive men and women they were not
regarded as pariahs but simply as
good fighting men who knew how to
do the job they were sent to do.
Nor do u people dream of using
force to overcome those who spitefIl-
ly treat them. save within the bounds
of strict and instructive self-defense,
What the Negro wants with all his
heart, and what America will proudly
concede him, ! do believe, can be stat,
ed very easily.
In substitution for lynchings, he
wants justice in the courts: he wants
the privilege of serving on juries; the
right to vote; the right to hold office,
like other citizens. He wants better
educational facilities; abolition of the
Jim Crow" car and of discrimination
and SEGREGATION in the overnment ser
vice; the same military training and