New-York tribune., 1919-12-27

THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS. By Carr
Walter i.ippmann' Pubiishsd by Har-
court. Brace & Howe.
Carl Sandburg. practical poet that ne
is, would naturally concern himself
not so much with the Chicago race
riots themselves as with the conditions
that produced them, and may produce
them again.
Walter Lippmann has written an in
dignant Introductory note to this pam
phlet, in which he denounces our treat
ment of the negro as unworthy of a
true democracy. He advocates race
parallelism. The parallel lines" he
explains, do not join except in infinity,
which is further away than anybody
need Yorry about just now
Carl Sandburg, no more than Walter
Lippmann. cares to see the two lines
meet. However, his Investigations in
the Black Belt, which ne made for The
Chicago Daily News" three weeks be-
fore riots broke out, showed him the
necessity for a constructive program
to better conditions. Just as plan
was being drawn up the riots com
menced.
The uprising was due. roughly
speaking, TO three causes-bad housing
conditions, due to the enormous in
crease in colored population; economic
and social inequalities, and an unusual
amount of delinquency. Chicago, be-
cause Of its liberal government, has
attracted a large number of ,black
folk. After every lynching in the South
there Is an influx of more. In fact.
one enthusiastic friend writes his
friend, and so on, until now the Black
Belt contains more than i25.000 in
habitants, and Chicago is the third city
IN the number OF colored people. The
negroes have been active and public
spirited. and their own realization Of
this, combined with the democratic
spirit OF war, has made them feel
thoroughly Americanized. and therefore
eligible for the rights OF regular Amer
lean citizens.
Perhaps, if the negro population had
not more than doubled since the war
the issue might not have come to a
head so soon. But, as the colored peo-
ple spread and consequently tried to
rent or buy more dwellings,, housing
dlfflcultles arose which enbittered
them considerably. Property in negro
districts deprecated in value, but,
nevertheless, the rents went up. The
results are that only small percentage
own their homes, the rest pay rents
lsproportionate to their wages and
the homes themselves are often unsani-
tary and badly kept up.
Had the police been alive to the
''white hoodlums" around the stock
yards and the dangerous number of
gamblers and loafers in the Black Belt
the riots might have been far less seri-
ous. According to Carl Sandburg, "a
Chicagoan might pick up as many
Broken Blossoms in these districts as
Thomas Burke found in one quarter OF
London
No one can read this graphic and
inclusive report without a desire to
help solve so unique and important a
problem. When will those old spirit
uals cease TO apply to the modern ne
gro? Almost any one of them is as
appropriate now as it was in the old
slave days, when Uncle Tom used to 20
to church with his family and sing:
Nobody knows the trouble 1 see. Lord.
Nobody knows the trouble ! see,
Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord.
Nobody knows but Jesus
Brothers. will you pray for me:
Brothers, viii you pray for me.
Brothers, viii you pray for me
And help TO drive Old Satan away?
V R.