The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-04
EXTERM|NAT|O |ON OF NE EGRO POSSIBLE BY
 UNDE E N UTR|T|ON
Dr. Snyder Presents Striking Facts Regarding Present Generation of Negro
 Babies

tributing strikingly 10 the exter- imitation of the negro race is the burden of series of talks which Dr. J. Ross Snyder, baby specialist, has been making curing the past week to the luncheon clubs and other civic bodies. Dr. Snyder em- phasizes that it is the duty of the white race to take steps to remedy conditions because the Birmingham and other southern communities are so dependent upon the negro race for their prosperity and wei fare, to say nothing of the humani- tartan feature.
 Dr. Snyder has for many years been head of infant clinic at Hill man hospital and at the free dis pensary and in this position thou sands of negro babies have come under his observation. "Observa- ton has shown me- he said in his talk to the Kiwanis club, that the race is losing it's vitality so rapidly as to be a menace of the most serious proportions. Within the past 10 years there has been a strik- ing increase in the inability of negro mothers to nourish their chil- dren properly Careful observation shows that in most cases the infant begins to show lack Of proper nour- ishment after about the sixth or seventh month of it's life. Beyond that age it is almost universal to find negro children undernourished Such condition cannot continue without serious effects in the very near future.
 Better To Face Conditions.
 My visits to other hospitals in oth- CT cities of the south show me that Birmingham Is not alone in this con dition. It exists al lover the south
 If the babies of the race go on as they are at present 1t is easy to see that there will soon come time
 when there won't be any race. We
 men of the south may try to concea the real facts from ourselves, but il
 is much better from every standpoint that we face conditions and do what |
 cannot get along without the negro We might as well acknowledge thai to start with. We have got to get
 right down to hard, cold facts and lei | ourselves be convinced that there car i be no race barriers in the matter ot ] disease. Disease recognizes no bar
 riers of any kind. A diseased and i'm
 moral negro race cannot exist side by side with a moral and healthy
 white race. One Is affected by the other. There is no way round 1t ant
 no way to prevent 1t. It will not hurt the southern white man to do his i part in putting the negro on higher
 health and moral plane. Social equal ity has nothing to do with it. Having lived all my life among them l have
 never heard of any negroes agitat- ing for social equality except mulat-
 toes and that itself Is a boomerang
 upon the white race.
 Leaving By Thousands.
 "If the race is not depleted by lack
 of vitality due to ill health and un-
 dernourshment it is going to leave
 the south. It is leaving already by thousands. And If we are honest we
 must admit that it has much justifi- cation. The negroes are not only not given proper encouragement in the matter of health and living condi' l tions but they are preyed upon by
 many among us in a manner of which we should be ashamed I am tolo by one of the real estate men who rents chiefly to negro tenants thai his monthly repair bills are tre. mendous and in nearly all cases these
 repairs are to doors which have beer battered down by officers forcibly en- | -fr, in, urflh Hf 1 quor We need real laws to protect
 the negro from some of the depreda l tions that are made upon him. Loar i sharks are among the worst. Install. | ment plans of various kinds are abus ed shamefully to the negro's disad
 vantage Some of the benefit insur
 ance schemes are just as bad. Or i every hand it seems that there arc
 among us some men who make theil i living at the expense of the unfor- i tunate negro race.
 Ut may not be pleasant to hear al
 this but it is our duty to get busy
 and do something about it. You know i and | know that Birmingham coulc : not keep going fou thirty days with.
 out the negro. There is no use try ing to fool ourselves about that Therefore the purely selfish aspect oi the situation ought to prompt us tt
 activity even if we are not moved
 as We should be by the Humanitarian
 aspect. Have you seen the novels that most of our negroes are forced to live in? Health and morality are | impossible in such quarters. Tuber- culosis and worse are knocking al every door And there is no barrier to these disease guests which pre- vents them from coming over to the other race. Let's not try to fool our selves about this any longer. It is your problem as well as mine and oi every other man in the south"