New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-08-06
RIOTS ARR CAUSED
BY Big EXP Ll)I TERS
POLITICIANS AND EMPLOYERS
USE NEGROES AGAINST
WHITE WORKERS.
SPECIAL AGENTS TOUR SOUTH
TO SOLICIT NEGROES TO
COME NORTH.

Many cities Of the East, and partic-
Eularly our national capital, have had
terrible race riots. Now the evil has
spread to Chicago. About two years
ago East st. Louis and several other
centers experienced the same viola
tions Of law and order. Chicago now
registers total Of not less than 80
dead and hundreds, if not thousands,
of injured.
What are the causes of such out
breaks in country which above all
Others claims to be land Of law and
order? Why do we add to the ma
ional CRIME Of lynching, fighting be
tween races which compares with old
Russia S pograms against the Jews? 8ss
Two great factors stand out as hav-
ling special significance:
|. The exploitation of the negro
BY employers and politicians to the Diet
riment of the common white people.
2. The fact that we have contented
ourselves with race determinations in
stead Of merely race differences. The
work Of freeing the negro was only half
done by the Civil war. The freeing
of the negro from slavery should have
been followed by the guarantee Of equal
opportunity.
Negro Half Free.
How the politicians and employers
can take advantage Of the half free
negro is not hard to understand. In
our large cities the negroes live. in a
certain section OF tie city and the
Politicians organize them ito back spe-
scial privilege with their votes in return
for minor political favors. City re-
formers and working class candidates
in general must, therefore, always meet
a big, ignorant, controlled negro
vote. This produces much i'll feeling.
But the big thing which Immediately
causes the outbreaks is the use of the
negro to beat down the white work
mans wages. The negro Workmen,
especially those in the South, are prac-
tically unorganized. Their standard Of
living is decidedly below that Of the
northern whites. And northern en-
ployers have been bringing them in
in ruthless fashion since the war started.
Masses of Blocks Imported.
3 They have special agents touring
the South to solicit the negroes under
false pretenses and making up trains
for shipment to northern cities. Then
they shift these trainloads Of ignor-
ant negro workers to any place where
white labor is making fight for bet
ter wages and working conditions.
Testimony brought out in the in
vestigation of the East st. Louis riots
showed that trainload after trainload
of negroes had been dumped into that
city to such an extent that a large part
of them were starving. Their want
was consequently causing them to
commit crimes and to work for any thing
an employer would offer. Politicians
representing the employers in that city
looked to the negroes for votes to main
tain their system. Little wonder, there
fore, that the white Workmen in that
city broke out into violent blind rage and
hate.
Protests Of northern workers against
these tactics were held down by the
false loyalty and support the war"
propaganda of the special interests
and we are nov. reaping the results Of the
failure to5right injustice in time. Where
ever an inferior race has been 50 used
against native Worlmen, the same