The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1919-08-02

CHICAGO in TEIROES OF RACE WAR
Constant Rioting Taking Place-A Con-
siderable Number of Both Whites and
Blacks Killed and Injured
Chicago is passing through the sor-
REST period in it's history. Aside from
the surface and elevated railway strike,
the city is in the throes of race riot, in
which, at present writing, 81 have been
officially reported as killed, and from $50
to 800 wounded.
The trouble began on Sunday after
noon, when rioting broke out between
Wnlte and negro bathers along south side
beaches, from 29th street to 35th street.
Riots also broke out at the stockyards.
resulting from ill feeling between white
and black employees, which had been
brewing for some time. So threatening
did the situation become, that Acting
Chief of Police Alcock, threw 400 mount
ed police reserves into the riot district
and these, armed with rifles and fixed
bayonets, marched through the streets.
Since then, fighting has been going on
almost constantly in various parts of the
city. No sooner is one riot quelled by
the police, than another breaks out.
Every hospital is filled with victims.
Nurses from other cities have been ar
irving to take care of the wounded.
The negro zone, the heart of which is
at 35th and State streets, is practically
barred to every one but negroes. Street
cars are not running and taxicabs are
ordered to skirt it. The food supply has
been shut off to grocerymen.
Many instances have occurred of men.
both white and black, being dragged
from automobiles and stabbed, beaten or
shot, In one instance, two lady stenog-
raphers walking the street were attack
ed by negroes, and as they ran, both
were wounded by bullets. They were
taken home in an automobile.
At present writing, one can not pre-
dict just what the outcome of the stu
alton will be.
Governor Lowden, in statement. has
said that the situation is very tense, and
there never was time in the history of
Chicago when it was so important for
It's citizens to exercise self-restraint as
now He added that there was but one
question of any moment, and that was
the maintenance of order. He also de-
clared that, while things might be look
ing better, one can never tell when fresh
outbreaks may come, or how far they
will go, or where they will end.
Mayor Thompson also has issued a
proclamation calling upon the citizens of
Chicago to assist in every way in pre-
serving peace and order.
An editorial in The CHICAGO Tribune
throws considerable light on the causes
leading up to these outbreaks. It reads
in part:
"Riots are increasing in violence and
frequency, not alone because of neigh
borhood friction, but because of conflicts
in interests which are extensions of
neighborhood life, such as at bathing
beaches and on street cars.
"The issue is beginning to be sharply
drawn. The colored people do not seem
disposed to recede from what they con-
slider just position in the community
and the whites seem determined not to
give way, as they conceive it, before a
penetration of colored people into neigh
borhoods which heretofore have been re-
stricted to white population.
ALO CO1O1Cu PCOpIC luOlSI UPON luSC
and equal advantages. White people
take the position that the "encroach-
ment" of Negroes is not just to them
because depreciation of property values
always follows.
Regardless Of the validity of the
claims of the whites, it is a matter of
fact that these claims exist. The whites
do resent the appearance of colored peo-
pie in white neighborhoods and this re-
sentiment does, whether justly or not,
work change in neighborhood feeling
and in property values. We may as we'll
look the facts squarely in the face and
we ask the colored people to consider
them.
IF the whites and colored cannot re-
frain from riots and bloodshed and in
terminable violence on the bathing
beaches, how long will it be before this
question is asked: Shall there be sepa-
rate bathing beaches for the whites and
colored?
"If the races cannot get along in
certain neighborhoods without fights
and brawls and police interference, how
long will it be before segregation will
be the only means of preventing daily
murders and perhaps recurrence, ON
a scale vastly enlarged, of the East ST..
Louis disaster?
"If a colored person cannot enter a
street car without this being the signal
for shooting and furore, how long will
it be~before public policy and the pro-
fo0 of o1r