The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-09
THE WORLDS" MISTAKE

A distinguished English essayist de- clared that when a writer presents his views, it were we'll that he inform himself on the subject which he un- dertakes to treat. This is applicable to an editorial in the New York World Patients" a perusal of which recalls the observation of well-known uni versity professor working over q batch of examination papers that "It is remarkable how much ignorance some people manage to accumulate. | Commenting on the opposition by citi- zens of Tuskegee to the government s proposal to appoint negro officers and physicians for the federal hospital to treat negro war veterans, the World declares that Tuskegee is in an uproar over race supremacy; that white citi- zens declare they will not allow the hospital to open with negroes in charge; that the problem is clinical, not social, and is a matter of medical efficiency; that all questions of local pride and patronage are not worthy of considerationy and that the negro authorities of Tuskegee Institute have taken no stand in the matter.
 It is not matter of race suprem- acy at Tuskegee or elsewhere in the South. That has been settled in the North as well as in the South. The citizens of Tuskegee are not Gin an uproar," nor have they declared that they will not allow the hospital to be opened with negroes in charge. If the question is one of medical eff ciency, as the World declares, surely the government can obtain white phy- sicians who can fill the requirements Local pride and patronage are in no way involved. It is matter of pre- serving harmonious relations between the races at Tuskegee, in Alabama and throughout the South. For many years relations between Tuskegee h. and of the South have been sympa- thetically cordial and cooperative. To maintain so desirable a situation and to avoid injury to that school and to the negroes interests in the South, the authorities of the Tuskegee Insti- tute are reported to have expressed the view that white officials and physi- clans should have charge sf the gov ernment hospital. This attitude is at tributed to the head of the Tuskegee Institute himself, who wisely views the situation from the standpoint of tra- dition, custom and successful experi- ence for generations.
 The World seems concerned over some wild and absurd reports circu- lated by the so-called National Asso- citation for Advancement of Colored People," an organization composed largely of negroes in the North and which has put out much misleading propaganda about race conditions in the South, and has done the negroes of neither the North nor South any substantial good. That organization has not the prestige to make it's opin- ions of moment in this discussion. The whole proposition involves the dan- ger of injury to negroes of the South through mistaken policy of pacify- ing some negro voters in pivotal states. The government could and should ad- just the matter on the practical and ethical merits of the situation.
 So far as concerns the World and its accumulation of transformation, one is reminded of Dr. Samuel John sons criticism of a friends definition of crab as fred fish that walks backwards" Dr. Johnson pronounced the definition to be all right so far as he could see, with the following ex- captions: "A crab is not fish, is not red, and does not walk backwards"