Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1921-11-03
President Advocates Broader
Rights in United States for
the Negro Race.
SOCIAL EQUALITY IMPOSSIBLE.
Blacks cheer-From White Section Of
Audience Silence Was Absolute and
Stony-Says U. S. Must Solve
Peace Problems.

first time in history a Republican
President came into the heart Of the
South and delivered a straight-from-
the-shoulder talk on race problems.
President Harding spoke to great
throng of Alabamans, white and black,
and told them pointedly that unless
the United States is false to it's pro-
fessed democracy, the negro must be
accorded equality in things political,
business and educational.
Race >amalgamation, there can
never be-" said the President, "but ]
say to you now, whether you like it or
whether you don't, unless our democ-
racy is a lie, you must recognize that
equality. I say that to all America,
North and South, and black and
white"
The President was encircled by a
great crowd Of thousands who milled
restlessly on their feet under torrid
Alabama sun. Two-thirds Of his au-
dience were white, the other third
eyed the thin cline of COLOR that ran
zig-zaggedly through the crowd and
marked the separation Of whites and
blacks. From the colored section Of
the crowd came cheers and applause !;
from the white section silence that
was absolute and stony.
Omitted concentration for war shall
never be challenged again" said the
President. "Our tasks now lie in ap-
piled concord and no less patriotic
devotion in solving the problems Of
peace. These are not easy tasks. A
world disordered amid the unheavals
of war is not readily put in order
again.
"But we shall succeed. Unshaken
by world cataclysm, we hold our foun-
dations to the eternally right. The
nation which withstood internecine
conflict so heroically fought as the
Civil war, will tolerate the threat Of
no minority which challenges the SUI
premacy of laws or endangers our
common welfare.
''The establishments and RESERVATIONS
OF peace are not easy. War invariably
leaves it's impress on the industrial
and financial life of every participant
ing people. With all my heart crave
better and higher industrial state,
as compensation for the sacrifices
made. But we can no more main
tain the abnormal heights than we
can favor return to the old time levels.
There must be-there is-a righteous
mean between these two extremes,
and we mean to find it, 1t will be a
lawful pursuit, orderly in our prac-
tees and reverent for the government
where justice is supreme and law is
our security"
The President paid high tribute to
Two Alabamans, Senator Oscar w. I'm
derwood, who introduced him, and the
late Senator Bankhead.
| The right Of the American negro,
broader political, economic and educa-
| tional advantages, based on pride Of
race, but never on an aspiration for
social equality, was championed by the
President here in plainly worded
enunciation of his views on the whole
American race problem.
These are some Of the principles on
which the President appealed to the
nation to LAY aside old prejudices and
old antagonists" and give support to
a constructive policy of racial relation
ship.
Politically and economically" he
said, "there need be no occasion for
great and permanent differentiation.
provided on both sides there shall be
recognition of the absolute divergence
in things social and racial"