The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-12-10

President Harding and Social Equality
From the Crisis.l
For fifty years we who, pro and
con, have discussed the Negro prob
lem, have been skulking behind
phrase Social Equality Today
President Harding's speech, like sud-
den thunder in blue skies, ends the
hiding and drives us all into the clear
light Of truth.
We had our excuses perhaps in the
past: about every problem Of human
relations turks penumbra Of
possibilities, (which we
would not discuss. It seems unnec-
sary, inappropriate, beside the point.
And so defenders Of the higher train
ing of women have hesitated> to ex-
plore sex freedom for females; and
lovers Of democracy have declined to
consider the possibility of the masses
voting their own wages 1t is not
that we have denied the ensuing prob
lens that shadow our main object,
but we have said with a certain
truth: Sufficient unto the present
tangle is the obvious evil thereof. Let
us follow the clear light and after
ward turn to other harnesses.
But sometimes this becomes sud-
denly impossible. Sometimes the So
considered minor, problem is so ire
mendous and insistent that it leaps
to the fore and demands examination
and honest facing. This is; particu-
lraly SO when we have not simply
ignored the problem but have DELHI
erately and cynically lied about it.,
denied it, and said not that. "Social
Equality'' was not a pertinent and
pressing problem; but rather that it
was no problem at all. -
The Birmingham Speech.
! And now comes president Hard
ing's Birmingham speech when un-
Willingly or deliberately the President
brings the crisis. We may no longer
dodge nor hesitate. We must all,
black or white, Northerner or South
erner, stand in the light and speak
plain words. IL.
The President must not for a mo-
ment be blamed because, when in
vited to the semi-centennial of great
Southern city of industry, he talked
Of the Negro instead of the results
Of profitable mining. There is but
one subject in the South. The South
erners themselves can speak no other,
think no other, act no other. The
eternal and inevitable Southern topic
is and has been and will be the Black
Man. 49,
Moreover, the President laid down
;hree theses with which no American
IAN disagree without degree of self
almost inconceivable,
namely:
: 1. The Negro must vote on the
same terms that white folk vote.
2. The Negro must be educated.
8. The Negro must have economic
Justice.
The sensitive may note that the
President qualified these demands
even dangerously, and yet
hey stand out so clearly in his speech
hat he must be credited with mean
ng to give them their real signifi-
ance. And in this the President
made Drawer, clearer utterance
han Theodore Roosevelt ever dared
Q make or than William Taft or
William Mckinley ever dreamed of.
'or this let us give him every ounce
f credit he deserves.
Social Equality.
But President Harding did not |
top here. Indeed-he did not begin
ere. Either because he had no ade-
uate view of the, end of the fatal |
ath he was treading or because, in
is desire to placte the white South,
e was careless of consequences, he |
ut first on his program of racial
ettlement a statement which could |
ave been understood and was under
TODD and we fear was intended to
e understood to pledge the nation,
he Negra race and the world to
doctrine SO utterly inadmissible in the
wentieth century, in a republic of
rec citizens and in an age Of hui
nanity that one stands aghast at the
motives and the reasons for the pro-
ouncement. =
It may to some seem that this |
tatenent is overdrawn. Some puz-
led persons may say: But Negroes
themselves have told me that they
epudiate "Social Equality" and
malgamation Of race; in fact, right |
ere at Birmingham, Negro applause
+ the President was audible.
All this does not minimize
!. emphasizes the grave crisis pre-
ipitated by the Presidents speech.
t emphasizes the fact Of our mental
or transparent and DELHI
rate dishonesty in dealing with the
1egro.
Social equality may mean two
Kings. The obvious and clear mean
ng is the right of a human being to
ccept companionship with his fell
DIV on terms of equal and reciprocal
ourtesy. In this sense the term is
and defended by modern
men. It has not been denied by any
ivilized man since the French Revo-
ution. It is the foundation of de-
nocracy and to bring it into being,
he world went through revolution,
var, murder and hell.
But there is another narrow, stilt-
d and unreal meaning, that. is some
ines dragged from these words,
lamely: Social equality is the right
o demand private social companion
hip with another.
!. Or to put it more simply: The
cal meaning of "social equality" is
to association with men,
md the forced and illogical meaning
$ the right to demand private assoc
iation with any particular person.
Such a demand as the latter is idiotic
md was never made by any sane
,erson; while on the contrary, for any
person to admit that his character is
such that hefis physically and moral
v unfit to talk or travel or eat with
lis fellow men, ~or that he has no de-