Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1920-04-10
THE PASSING THRONG

Ored citizens of Seattle and | concluded the
whole with, something must be did.
Whether or not anything has been or will
be done to improve conditions deponent ver-
lily doth not know but hopes what was said
in that connection was like unto good seed
that fell in fertile soil and in due time will
take root and spring upwards. Today ] am
going to talk to you and each Of you on the
death rate among colored folks, which, after
careful investigation, | find no less alarm
ing than the Seattle criminal record. The
4. S. census has recently issued death rate
bulletin which declares the mortality among
the colored citizens Of this country very
much higher than among any other distinct
class, but believing that report the work of
prejudiced southerners l gave it little or no
consideration. One day this week 1 called
on the local superintendent of one of the
largest insurance companies in the United
States, which unlike most companies, does
great deal Of work among colored folks, and
was shown that companys mortality report,
and it shows the death rate among the col
ored folks double treble and quadruple that
of the white folks. The heaviest death rate
among the colored citizens is between twelve
and nineteen years of age, this is especially
true among the males, which is almost four
times greater than among the whites OF like
ages. Among the females the death rate be-
tween twelve and nineteen is about three
times as great as among the whites. How
ever, after the colored citizens get beyond
fifty the rate is almost the same as among
the whites and beyond sixty-fve it is even
lower than among the whites
A cause for all this is found in the whole
sale dissipation of colored youths, who not
only carouse until the wee hours of the
morning, which carousing is in non venti
lated social club rooms, where disease and
vermin parade around like men Of war. Even
when not in such club rooms the average
colored boy is not sufficiently clad to with
stand the rigors Of the night and tubercu-
lOsis takes him off before manhood is fairly
reached. It's the exception and by no means
the rule for colored boys between fifteen and
twenty years Of age to spend an evening at
home or to return home, when he goes out,
much before midnight, and this he does, not
one or two nights in the week, but almost
every night Of course he makes bluff at
working the following day, but it's only a
bluff and the 81 GINS Of decay are seen IN his
face while yet mere YOUTH Insurance
companies are seriously discussing the adj
visibility of writing no more policies on
young men of the critical age.
For nearly an hour l chatted with Miss
Lucy Case, Seattle woman who has de-
voted the most of her life to uplift work,
not in the sum district, but among men and
women, who labor for their life, and while
I have frequently differed from her on po-
litical issues and doubtless will do so just
as frequently in the future as [ have in the
past, yet in my opinion, it was an honest diff
ference and I gave Miss Case credit for be-
ing absolutely honest in her convictions. At
her request I caleld on her and she endea-
vored to interest me in political propa
ganda, which was recently put out by the
Committee of 4S. which is national in it's
scope and the planks of its platform are as
follows
FPublic ownership Of transportation, in
Guiding stock yards, large abattolrs, gram
elevators terminal warehouses, pipe lines
and tanks Public ownership of other public
utilities and of the principal natural re-
sources, such as coal, oil, natural gas, min