The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1922-01-07

This stiFled voice of which | am
now writing is the voice of the Col
ored people. AS novelist-a nov
list in my spare time-and as a man
very curious by nature about human
reactions, the peculiar situations
created by color in America have
always appealed to me. do not
understand why American fiction
does not treat of them more fire.
quently.
The Negro Question.
It is the educated. highly intel
hgent Colored people who get my
interest and sympathy. cannot
get up any race feeling 2bout them.
| am particularly proud to have
known Booker T. Washington and
to know Mr.. Dubois En6 fhis time
in spite of great Ersssurs Of en-
gagements. / was Blhls 10 spend
two hours last SuDaBy Listening TO
the proceedings 81 tine washington
correspondence tluh, an orEaniza-
ton which BATTLES iY lEtter and in
terylew and appeal against the harsh
exclusion from thsHtrss, schools.
meetings, restaurants. libraries and
the like, that prevail bfue.
| will noi discuss here the rights
and wrongs OF q ABr thai cuts off
! from most Of the intellectual neces-
stiles and e0nNsn5sncas Of life many
people who would pass as refined
and cultivated whites sn an Euro
pean country: I mention this gath
ering merely 10 note a very interest
| ing topic upon which was called
TO account thereof.
Once or twice in these papers
do not know II the reader has not
ed i'll have mentioned the French
Training of Senegalese troops and tbs
objection felt by other European
peoples to their extensive employ
ment in Europe | was asked at tn,
correspondence club whether tn
objections / had made to this wer
not fostering race prejudice" an
some interesting exchanges followed
/ / was inclined to argue that tn
! Importation of African Negroes int
Europe for military purposes wa
, as objectionable as their importa
ton into America for economic ser
} vices, but some of my hosts, som
: of the younger men, did not Sc
it in that light. They were warm
ed towards the French by the not
|, liable absence of racial exclusiYenes
in France and they see the ideal
of that epoch-making book, 81
France Negro, from an entirely diff
ferent angle. Why not a Blacl
France as big or bigger than Whit
France and a new people who hav
learnt military discipline, militar
service and united action from Eu
rope?
A Black Napoleon.
why not black Napoleon. pres
ently?" said the young man. lit
tie wanting, / thought in that alb
ject meekness which is the American
ideal of Colored behavior.
He was imagining, suppose
something happening in Africa rath
er after the fashion of the enamel
patton of Hayti and of great Afri
can armies pushing their former
rulers back to the sea. But Colone
Taylor has recently suggested
another possibility, namely that o.
France finding herself in the grill
of black Pretorian guard. 1t il
just conceivable fancy-a PretoriaI
guard, French speaking and ultrs
patriotic. keeping French socialists
and paeifists and bolsheviks in theil
proper place.
/ do not believe very much il
either of these possibilities, nor ever
in the third possibility of European
power fighting each other will
black armies in Africa. but dc
perceive that dreams of worlC
peace will remain very unsubstan'
tial dreams indeed until we car
work out a scheme, or at least gen
eral principles OF action, for the
treatment of Africa between the
Sahara and the Znmbesi river, 0
scheme that win give some sort Of
quietus to the jealousies ana hos
tilities evoked by the economic and
and political explorations economic
and political explorations OF an
aexed and mandatory territories up
on national and competitive lines
in this region of the earth. For II
seems TO be the fact that tropical
and sub-tropical Africa has another
function in the world than to be
the home of the great family OF
Negro peoples. Africa is economi-
cally necessary to European civilizA-
tlon as the chief source OF vege-
table oilr and fats and various other
products of no great value to the
native population. European civil
cation can scarcely get along with
out these material resources Of AT
RIGA.
African Barbarism.
Now here we are up against a
problem entir ~ different from the
problem that arises in the case OF
India, indo China and China, which
lis the problem OF a politically pow
erless but essentially civilized pop
ulation which can be trusted Ia
mCdernize itself and come into line
With the existing efficient power
IL only il is protected from oppres-
sive and disntegrating froces while
III adjusts itself. Africa Is quite In
capable = anything of the sort Ne
gro Africa is mainly stiIl In state
Of tribal barbarism: Ia the after
half Of the nineteeath centilrs It's
peoples werc In a condition Of deep