Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1923-02-24

conditions. which will benefit mater
tally the black people OF the wsrid. 1;
shows too that DIR. Du Bots still: enter
tains the opinion that Garvey's plan.
are feasible. He evidently is OF tn,
opinion that tho egotisml vi the leader
is sowing seeds !, the destruction ol
the great organization which he has
launched and managed. He says:
Just what it has cost the Negro race
in money to support Garvey IL Is hard
to say. but certainly not less than d
million dollars. And yet with all this
there are certain peculiar satisfa.t.
ions. Here has come q test to the
.r,erican Negro which he has not
had before. A demagogue has appear
&C not the worst kind of demagogue
but. on the contrary. a man who mao
much which was attractive and under
standable in his personality and his
program; nevertheless. man whose
program anybody with common sense
knew was impossible. With all the arts
of the demagogue, Garvey appealed to
crowds OF people with persuasive eio,
Cucnce with the ringing OF all possible
charges of race loyalty and tire pas
'ardy Of the mulatto and the persons
ashamed of their race. and the i'm
p;acable enmity of the whites. 1t was
the sort Of appeal that easily throw.
gnorant and inexperienced people in
to orgies of response and generosity
Yet with all this. coming at critical
time, when the Negro was hurt at his
war experience and his postwar treat
ment. when lynching was still nat.
ional institution and mob-Iaw a ready
resort; when the rank and the file o.
ignorant West-Indian Negroes were
going wild over Garvey, the American
Negroes sat cool and calm, and were
neither betrayed into wild and unjust
attacks upon Carney nor into uncriti-
cal acceptance.
And again:
His following has ebbed and flowed
Its main and moving nucleus has oeen
knot OF black Jamaica peasants resi-
dent in America as laborers and serv-
ants mostly unlettered, poor, and IL.
norant, who worship Garvey as their
ideal incarnate. Garvey is bold Gar.
vey lasfres the white folk. Garvey
downs the mulattoes. Garvey forever
re matter what he does. Does he steal?
Bettcr let him steal than let white
folks. Does he squander? It's our
! money; let him waste. Does he fail!
Others have failed.
1t is this blind and dangerous MI
cleus that explains Garvey's success
IN holding his power. Around these are
q mass of West-Indians, resident in the
islands and in the United States. who
have honestly supported Garvey in the
hope that this new leader would di-
rect them out of the West-Indian III.
snasse of low wages, little educational
opportunity, no industrial openings.
and caste. Especially they seized upon
the Black Star Line. as isolated island
trs would. as plan of real practical
hope. This group reached sixty or
seventy thousand in number during
Carvey's heyday but with the failur.
Of his enterprises it is rapidly falling
awav
With these groups have always been
number Of American Negroes: the
ignorant drawn by eloquence and
sound; the grafters who saw a chances
of sharing spoils; and with these some
honest. thinking folk who paused ana
inquired, who is Carney. and what
Is his program? This American fol-
lowing though always small. grew
here and there, and in centers like
Norfolk. Chicago. and Pittsburgh
reached for a time into the thousands
But, on the whole American Negroes
stood the test we'll
DR.. Du Bots continues:
II Garyey's proposal of such new.
autonomous. and hostile black woriG.
i'm league with the brown and yellow
peoples brought from American Ne
groes p simple Missouri "Show us !"
They asked: What are you doing.
! and how? What are your concrete AMI
tactical proposals." They did not
| follow the more impatient couusels OF
"Carvey must CO." They did not slnnd
e or silence or ignore him The two
| hundred Negro weeklies treated nIn
fairly. and audiences listened to his
words and read his literature. And
right here lay his undoinG for IN,
more his flambovant promises were
carefully compared with his results
tho sooner the utter futilty of his pre-
ram was revealed
And again:
| Here is a world that for thousand
| years, from the First Crusade to tn,
Great War. had been breaking uowi
| the barriers between nations and races
in order to build a worldwide econom
ic unity and cultural solidarity. Tn,
process has involved slavery peonage
rape, theft, and determination, but It
is slowly uniting humanity 1t is now
proposed to turn back and cut out o,
this world its black eighth or it's color
ed two thirds. Not only is this virtual
ly impossible but it's attempt today
would certainly involve the white anc
colored worlds in a death-strugglt
whose issue none cln surely foreteIi
The power of the yellow, black. ant
brown worlds today is the economic
dependence of the white world or
/ them, and the power of the white
world is it's economic technic and or
ganization. The super-dipTomacy Of
race politics tomorrow is to transmutt