Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1920-07-17
harmony we shall succeed, but dissension
insures delay and invites disaster.

Let me remind you first that the question
before us is not Negro question but a
white mans question The Negroes did not
come to America of their own free will, but
were captured and brought here by white
men. They were held by white men for
centuries as slaves, ignorant and degraded,
with no rights which the white man was
bound to accept White men made them
what they were when civil war waged by
white men set them free. White men gave
them the rights of citizens under our Con-
stitution, and save for a few years when
under white leaders they exercised political
power and gave you governments not worse
than white men have given their fellow
citizens in our great Northern cities, white
men have made and now make the laws un-
der which they live, and white men enforce
them. No coored man has sat for years
in either house Of Congress, few if any sit
in the legislatures of our states, and in the
Southern states Of this country only very
few even have vote. They are in no way
responsible for the evils of which men COM
plain. If any of them are ignorant or
brutal, who made and have kept them so?
No race ever owed another as much as the
white race in this country owes the Negroes,
and those of you who remember the civil
the food which supported the Southern
armies and protected the wives and children
of your soldiers who were fighting to keep
them slaves. With this memory you can
appreciate what Grady meant when he said:
She must carry them in equal justice for
to this she is pledged in honor and in graf
itude''
Our coored people do their part as citi-
zens. When the country needs money they
pay their share of taxes, they buy their full
allotment of Liberty Bonds. When men are
needed they are called and serve bravely
and loyalty. In the late war 417,OOO of
them were drafted, and in the words of
Secretary Daniels, "NIore than 100000 Ne
groes went across the sea to fight, not a few
to seal their devotion with their blood and
many to win decorations for their fine fight
ing qualities and faithful services When
1t was suggested to the Secretary that Ger
man spies were trying to enlist them against
this country, he replied to the speaker, 'that
though here and there he might find traitor
among the American Negroes he might give
himself no trouble for l knew that the Ne
groes could neither be cajoled nor threat
ened nor bought to enter conspiracy to
lnjure this country.' Twelve millions of
citizens like these are an asset not lightly
to be thrown away, especially when we con-
slider how many disloyal elements are to be
found in our varied population
Let me recall to you what happened in
half century. When the end of the war
came in 1865 it found four millions of chat
tells without education, without property.
without experience, turned naked into hos
tile world changed in a moment into men
and citizens, with freedom which many
OF them did not realize and with rights
which they knew not how to exercise Com
pare them with the twelve million freemen
who dwell in this country today, possessing
millions of fertile acres, owning and manag-
ing banks, insurance companies and bust
ness enterprises of every kind winning dis
tlnction in every profession founding and
maintaining schools colleges, magazines aid
newspapers, proving their ability in every
walk of life Their leaders would be recog
nlzed as leaders of men in any country, a,,d
If the rank and file lack something of the
business ability and the aggressive qualities
OF the whites, who shall say that they have
not larger share of those virtues which
are enumerated in the Sermon on the Mount
the better and pent1er attrihutoc of ,oo,,