The sun., 1919-07-24
The Riots in Observation-Disclosures
Subject Race.

The Hi0tS In WashfDgtOn--Ame
Subject Race.
1t is a bold thing and fine thing
and a loyal thing that our neighbor
the World does when 1t states to Its
Democratic readers in the South the
exact truth about the responsibility
for the race riots that have been dis
grazing the nations capital city. We
reprint with admiration these fear
less words:
''One of the most brutal forms of
oppression is the punishment of a
whole race for the crimes OF indl-
viduals. For many years this has
been and 1t still is the practice in
American States that do not recognize
the citizenship of the negro.
"Deplorable as all this lawlessness
d, the response of the black man to
the white man was bound to come
some time. The negro has long been
tree. He has acquired some educa-
zion and property. He has made a
place for himself in industry. The
laws under which he lives guarantee
him equality. He escapes no respon-
sibility that rests upon the white
man. Yet In large sections of the
Union when riot is afoot he Is
stripped of every right and driven
either into hiding or violence.
lis there anybody in the South or
elsewhere who imagines that tho
compulsory service OF $50. 900 negroes
IN the United States Army. in many
instances 30 creditably as to win
high commendation. has had no infiu-
people at homer VINO Is foolish
enough to assume that with $4,000
colored men in uniform from the
Southern States alone. as against
$4,000 white men, the blacks whose
manhood and patriotism were thus
recognized and tested are forever to
Be logged. lynched. burned at the
stake or chased into concealment
whenever Caucasian desperadoes are
moved to engage In these infamous
pastimes?
I'VE grieve over the hardships of
many subject peoples a long way or
and on occasion manifest something
like indignation. but in all the world
there Is hardly a population so God
forsaken and law-forsaken as our
own blacks. Whether It is agreeable
Or not therefore. the Washington
outbreak Is q warning to all Ameri-
cans that their race wars hereafter
are going to be race wars The
negro citizen is going to have his day
IN court 1t ought not to be neces-
sary for him to fight for It"
The truth of this utterance sug.
geste some underlying truths.
For about half century the Four
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments tc
the Constitution have been nullifled
In the Southern States by means OF
the well known expedlents practised
in that section in order to keep the
negro from the polls and to deprive
him Of the political equality which
those amendments were designed to
secure. The negro's citizenship" In
that quarter has been made a mock.
cry. The World describes accurately
his present status under the evaded
and nullified laws of his country when
It refers to his people as "our OWL
subject race"
That is not the whole story of law.
lessness and wrong. The Fourteenth
expressly provides that
when male citizens are deprived In
any States Of the right to vote for
Presidential electors or Representa-
lives In Congress "the basis of repre-.
sentation therein shall be reduced In
the proportion which the number OF
such male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male citizens TWEEN
ty-one years Of age in such State"
This penalty of reduced potency in
and Congress elections
was intended to deter the white In,
habitants Of the Southern States from
doing that which they have openly
and defiantly done to the
subject race for fifty years or there
about 1t has been and still is as
much of a dead letter as the political
equality OF which the subject race
has been deprived. The Southern
States In contempt of the Constitu.
ton in the matter of the negro's vote
have continued to enjoy in Congress
and in the Presidential elections a
based on the falseilood
that every negro entitled by the