The courier-index., 1919-10-24
To the Negroes: BelUare of NelU
 Prophets and Strange Teachers
(Memphis Commercial Appeal.)

This is an editorial addressed directly to the negroes of the south. We want the negroes in the Memphis territory to read it carefully. It was written for their own welfare.
 No sane and right thinking white man in the south wishes anything for, the negro but prosperity, health and happiness.
 We have had some strange do- ings down here within the last three years. Under the press of war many negroes went north. The wages were attractive and promises were roseate. It is the right of the negro, if he thinks he can go into any other country and do bet ter than he can in this country, to go hence. It is his right to live in the country or to live in the city. It is his right to toll in the field or in the factory. But the exercise of a right may not always be best for the individual. We have right to live in Labrador if we wish, but we would be very foolish if we made 1t our permanent abode.
 Some of the negroes have re- turned from the north. Others are taking their places in the north. Their general experience in the north has not been pleasant. There have been riots, and no matter where the fault was, the negro, be- ing in the minority, suffered more from these riots than did the white people.
 In the south there has been much unrest during the last twelve months. Agitators have gone among the negroes just as they have among the white people. But the agitator is more dangerous to the negro than he is to the white man. The experience of the white man is broader than that of the negro. He is, therefore, in bet ter position to separate the false from the true than is the negro. A white agitator can speak to a crowd of white people and tell them they have the right to go across the street and take posses sion of all the property there, but the white people do not attempt to do this, because while they might grant the theory of the orator, they know his theory is not practical. Other white people know that they can secure only that which they earn as the fruit of their effort that they can not get something for nothing.
 If we could all be rich by wish ing for riches we would all be millionaires. Even so, unless all of us millionaires went to work with our hands or brains we would starve to death.
 ! Here and there white men have gone among negroes and have told them that they were being de prived of certain inalienable rights i, Certain negroes go among them and preach to them theories as te property which are impossible , They tell them they are not receiv ing half as much for their cotton a: they should get. They tell then that their land rent is too high They tell them that they are tho victims of profteers. Now, thi: may be true in some cases. Bu' if the negro is suffering from thes' ills, so also is the white man. Il the negro is paying a high price for bacon on the plantation, h' should remember that the whit man in the city, or his white neigh Dor, who is a tenant farmer, | paying the same price.
 There are millions of American people that have suddenly got tn idea that less work and more wage is a solution for all troubles: Thi doctrine has filtered down amoni the colored people, and some O them are being told that they cal get along with less work or shoul' get along with less work.
 Some negroes have come bacl from Europe, where they saw con ditions that they think should ap ply in this country. Now thes