Evening star., 1921-06-06

hooo fourteen years ago Tulsa was 6
village. Today it is an ambitious little
metropolis of one hundred thousand
people.
While this is a rich agricultural
country it is the mineral wealth that
has given this city it's remarkable
growth and advanced it at least fifty
Men have come to Tulsa to make
money. Tulsa today is just emerging
from her argonaut era. This means
that the average Tulsan has been too
busy with his own private affairs to
invest his conscience in his citizen
forcement has been lax here fbr
years. gambling and bootlegging and
hi -Jacking." as the westerner calls
some bandit practices, have gone on
little mo!ested. This has developed
lawlesS element.
Southern Race Prejudice.
While Tulsa is !. western city in
40 per cent OF Its population comes
from states classed as southern. And
such part of the lawless element as
mas that background has racial
preJudices we'll intrenched.
Lack of enforcement has likewise
permitted bad negro element to de-
velop disrespect Tor both county and
CITY ofhcials and lack Of fear Of
oHcerS of the law.
.Oniy recently group of plblic-
these traditional conditions and the
once OF the attorney general of the
state has been making searching in
Vestigations into the lack Of efficiency
OF tne city and county officers.
The mayor OF Tulsa, who Is q nice
ana perfectly honest gentleman, or
dered an Investigation. The city ad-
tHhinistration Investigated itself and
round itself practically spotless
ABOUT one-seventh Of the popula-
these live in section in the north
east part of the city. In that section
dhere have been cesspools Of iniquity
Ihere most OF the criminals of the
found harbor. There this riot began
In It's inception 1t was the old story
negro put hands upon a white girl
me girl screams. The negro was
caught and put in Jail. The word
was passed among the element that
has not been taught to respect the
law that there was to be "necktie
party that night. That element of
whites began to collect around the
county courthouse and jail. 1t was
Then small band Of armed negroes
came by auto to the scene. The DO
lice commissioner asked them to go
home.
Police Beat Retreat.
The police. as a military body. was
conspicuous by its absence This same
ponce commissioner has since guile
lessly confessed that he knew that
Tor some time past the bad negroes
mad been collecting arms and ammu-
nition. and that some time ago he
went over and talked with some of
their leaders and told them that they
would be held responsible if anything
happened. But apparently no arrests
were made.
This is the kind of background out
of which the riot came.
~ The e,-1l whites who gathered around
the courthouse Tuesday night went
away to get arms when they found
the negroes arriving with arms. Tha
negroes went away for more men and
more guns. And before midnight the
var war OF races was on In the streets of
Tulsa. and was carried into the negro
district, where it ragged until well
into the afternoon next day =,
The lawiess whites went to clear oi,t
certain places where the tough eie-
ment congregated.. This lawless Sie-
ment fought back the fire depaii-
ment. Then it started to loot the
negro huts and houses and fires were
started to cover the looting BY Wed
nesday night the negro district was
a vast acreage of ashes and the state
militia held the city under martial
law.
True War Of Races.
Frankly. it was a war of races. Ra-
cial prejudices are as old as history.
They are not confined to southern
cities. Chicago and Omaha have had
their disSraceful stories. The police
of Boston failed their city and the
lawless went wild in the game of
loot. That which happened in Tulsa
might happen anywhere where racial
prejudice breaks out and where the
police force. through accumulative
years. is either corrupt or incompe-
tent and unable to cope with crime
conditions.
But with that splendid spirit which
is characteristic of the aggressively
progressive Tulsan, Tulsa lifts her
head from it's hour of shame with a
firm resolve to clean house and to
have polio force that can police the
crime carnival ends here and will be
buried with the ashes Of the part of
town that is gone.
What is more, the public spirited
prideful citizens of Tulsa have met in
conference to resolve and lay their
plans to rebuild and restore that
which the lawless have destroyed and
to build cleaner. better and more
sanitary section of the city than that
which ended in ashes. Tulsa will re-
deem her splendid name before the
world. The argonaut days of Tulsa
are history. The finer city with a
nobler and truer spirit and an awak-
ened conscience is the aftermath OF
this disaster.
Copyright. 1921