The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-10-27
PRESIDENT HARDING GIVES HIS
VIEWS0N RACE PROBLEM IN A
NOTABLE BIRMINGHAM ADDRESS

proportioned to the honest rights and
deserts Of the individual.
Men of both races may we'll stand
uncompromisingly against every
suggestion of social equality. Indeed,
it would be helpful to have the word
equality eliminated from this con-
sideration, to have it accepted by
both sides that this is not a question
of social equality but a question of
recognizing fundamental, eternal
and unacceptable difficulty. We shall
have made equal progress when we
develop an attitude in the house and
community thought of both races
which recognize this difficulty. Take
the political aspect, | would say, let
the black man vote when he is fit to
vote; prohibit the white man voting
when he is unfit to vote. This especi-
ally would appeal to the respect of
the colored race. | would inculcate in
it the wish to improve itself as dis
tinct race with a heredity, a set of
traditions, an array of aspirations all
its own. Out of such racial ambitions
and pride will come natural segrega-
tons, without narrowing any rights,
such as are proceeding in both rural
and urban communities now in south
ern states, satisfying natural inclina-
tons and adding notably to happiness
and contentment.
"On the other hand I would insist
upon equal educational opportunity
for both. This does not mean that both
would become equally educated with
tNIyn
ten generations. Even the same races
do not accomplish such an equality as
that. But there must be such educa.
ton among the colored people as will
enable them to develop their own
leaders, capable of understanding and
sympathizing with such a dfferentia-
ton between the races as | have sug-
gested; leaders who will inspire the
race with proper ideals of race pride.
OF national pride, of an honorable
destiny, an important participation in
the universal effort for advancement
of humanity as a whole. Racial ANAL
gamaton there cannot be. The part
nership of the races in developing
the highest aims of all humanity there
must be if humanity, not only here
but everywhere, is to achieve the
ends which we have set for it.
Il can say to you people of the
South, both white and black, that
the time has passed when you are en-
titled to assume that the problem of
races is peculiar and PARTICULAR,
your problem. More and more it is
becoming problem of the North,
more and more it is a problem of
Africa, of South America, of the Pa
cific, of the South Seas, of the World.
1t is the problem of Democracy ev.,
erywhere, if we mean the things we
say about Democracy as the ideal po-
litical state.
THE one thing We must sedulously
avoid is the development of group
and class organization in this ciuntry.
There has been times when we heard
too much about the labor vote, the
business vote, the Irish vote, the
Scandinavian vote, the Italian vote
and so on. But the demagogues who
would array class against class and
group against group, have FORUM
ately found little to reward their eff
forts. That is because, despite the
demagogues the idea of our oneness
as Americans has risen superior to
every appeal to mere class and group.
And so would wish l might be in
this matter of our national problem
Of races. | would accept that a black
man cannot be a white man, and that
he does not need and should not as
pire to be as much like a white man
as possible, in order to accomplish
the best that is possible for him. He
should seek to be and he should be
encouraged to be, the best possible
black man, and not the best possible
imitation of white man.
1t is a matter OF the keenest
national conscience that the South
shall not be encouraged to make its
colored population vast reservoir
Of ignorance, to be drained away by
the process of migration into an
ether sections. That is what has
been going on in recent years at 4
rate so accumulated that it had caus-
ed this question of races to be, as l
have already said no longer one of
particular section. Just as l do not
wish the South to be politically en-.
tirely of one party; just as l believe
that it is bad for the South and the
rest of the country as well, so do not
want the colored people to be en-
tircly of one party, wish that both
The tradition of solidly Democratic J
South and tradition of a solidly Re-
publican black race might be broken
up. Neither political sectionalism, |
nor any system of rigid grouping of
the people will, in the long run, pros
per our country.
With such convictions one must !
urge the people of the South to take
advantage OF their superior under
of this problem and to as
sumo an attitude toward it that will
deserve the confidence of the eolored
people. Likewise / plead with my
own political party to lay aside every
program that looks to lining up the
black man as a mere political, ad-
iunct Let there be an end of pre-
iudice and Of demagogy in this line.
Let the South understand the menace
which lies in forcing upon the black
race an attitude of political solidar-
ty.
Every consideration, it seems to