The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1919-08-27

II 1O044A "1II1OAt ~
ception that employees stood by their
in sickness and distress, and that
practically without exception they
would resent personally and effect
lively any effort on the part off any
body, black or white, to wrong or in
terfere with The colored people in
their employ.
He found the negro practically dis
franchised here2. Yes. But if the
franchise brought them no better re-
suits, nor any more intelligent and in
use of it, than they exer
cised in Chicago, they had not lost
much. They We're no wthe prey of an
undesirable class of politicians in Chi
cago, on n hand, and large indus
trial interests on the other, who, de-
spite their terrible condition, wished
to keep them there-the one to profit
by their ballot, the others to retain
an unemployed and unorganized bal
ance of labor with which to oppose
the labor unions. Both these inter-
ests were doing everything in their
power to retain these negroes, and to
influence all the white people of Chi
cago to assist them, by making them
believe that it would be a crime aga
inst civilization to let any of these
negroes come south again.
People Are Mislead.
Just as the white people Of the
north are being lied to about the race
prejudice and infamies of the south,
just so the negroes of the south were
being lied to about the glorious well
the north. He had tried to find some
record of a race riot in the south since
the reconstruction period, and he
couldn't. He could find where in
furiated mobs would lynch the cul-
prit guilty of the most heinous crime
a man could commit, but he could not
find a single instance in which a mob
had Unfortunately murdered, and
beat and plundered and burned ne
groes because they sought to make a
living in competition with white la
Dor. Right here in Greenwood he
found ten negro carpenters to one
white man., and working on the same
jobs with them, and earning the same
wages, and no complaint or dissatis-
faction on the part of anyone. Why
were these conditions misrepresented?
Why were the whites of the north
being fed up on the horrors of race
prejudice in the south, and the ne
groes on false promises and visions
of the north? Was it philanthropy ?
Was it philanthropy that strewec
thirty-three members of their ace
corpses on the streets of Chicago
wrecked their home and offices, and
put five hundred of their color in the
hospitals with broken bones and
bruises, simply because, in answer tc
alluring and lying propaganda of so.
cial equality and higher wages, they
had in good faith come to Chicago anC
and East St. Louis, and come into
competition with white labor, anc
moved into white residence sections ?
The fact was that the northern in.
dustrial concerns were beginning tc
learn that the southern negro was the
most easily exploited creature or
earth, and utterly without any con.
science or scruples whatever, or any
regard for the extent of misery o,
suffering it might cause the negro
was using him for a strictly selfish
purpose. This was bad enough, but
worse still, some colored agencies, un.
d~oubtedly in the pay of these selfish
interests, and for other selfish ad.
vantages they could get out of it
were still doing, an dwould continue
to do all they could, to mislead the
negro. There was a large white ele,
ment and a colored element also ir
the north, who literally believed al
the propaganda of these selfish anc
prejudiced interests against the south
He would do all he could in his hum,
BILE way to present to them such facts
and facts only as he found on this
trip. Facts that he could verify, anc
Tat they could verify, and that nc
living man could disprove for the rea.
son that they were facts. He depre.
Gated the fact that the south had not
taken some such step long since. He
was surprised that it had not.
Make Favorable Impression.
The other speakers were equally in.
teresting, an dtheir talk much along
the same line. The colored members
of the committee seemed very active
while in Greenwood. The most i'm.
pressive feature of their work was
that they went after facts-incontro-
vertible facts. Their whole aim anG
object seemed to be to determine ac-
curately and absolutely ,whethen OF
not it was to advantage of the negro
to stay in the south or to migrate to
such centers as Chicago. Their po-
sitive declaration here was that they
had found average living conditions
including housing, wages, and social
contract, better than in Chicago by
all odds.