The St. Paul echo. [volume] (St. Paul ;) 1925-1927, 1926-10-23
James Weldon Johnson, Secretary
OF Association, Den0unces Vann,
Editor, For Malicious FalsJying
National Association Official Claims Investigation by Pittsburgh
Paper Was Not Made; Explains Principle of Garland
Fund; ]. E. Spngarn Reports

Chicago, a prominent New York at
torney, and other people of national
reputation. 49,.
Erroneous Figures Quoted.
There are so many obsurd state
ments in Mr.. Vann's tissue of lies
that l cannot even discuss them all.
When he says in his article that the
N. A. A. C. P. is "only name" and
in his editorial refers to its "expen-
sive and palatial offices on Fifth Av-
enue," there is at least contradic-
tion in the facts as presented by Mr..
Vann himself.
Mr.. Vann's quoting Dame Ru-
NOR" as to salaries received by ex-
ecutives of the N. A. A. C. P, and
quoting erroneous figures at th..t, is
indicative of the spirit of his entire
article. The N. A. A. C. P. is inves-
tigated and endorsed by the National
Information Bureau, national clear
ing house with headquarters in New
York, whose verdict is certainly more
authoritative than the verdict of Mr..
Vann.
Defense Fund Explained.
AS to Mr.. Vann's exclamation
against the amount of money donat-
ed by the Garland Fund to the N. A.
A. C. P, one reason why the N. A.
A. c. P. received $26,552.80, which
is the total amount received for the
Legal Defense Fund from the Gar
land Fund, is that when the Negroes
of this country were appalled, at the
crisis confronting the Sweet family
and their friends, the Garland Fund,
realizing that this was one of the
crucial cases involving the protection
of minority rights, stepped in with
an initial offer of $1,000 outright and
in addition offered one dollar for ev-
cry two dollars raised by the N. A. A.
C. P. for the Legal Defense Fund.
The total amount thus given for
Legal Defense by the Garland Fund
was determined by colored people
themselves and their white friends.
who raised money to meet the Gar
land Funds offer.
Deliberate Misstatement.
AS for the statement that the
Sweet defense was used as an excuse
for gathering funds: The N. A. A. C.
P. publicly in it's initial press release
of October 20, 1925, and repeatedly
thereafter, in releases sent to the
Courier in Pittsburgh as well as to
the other colored papers Of the coun-
try, explicitly announced that in un-
dertaking a Legal Defense Fund it
had in mind not alone the Sweet de-
fense but other cases involving the
rights of the Negro.
This every colored editor in the
country, including Mr.. Vann, knows.
Far from concealing its purpose the
N. A. A. C. P. proclaimed it, and here
again Mr.. Vann is guilty of deliber--
ate misstatement.
Expenses Accounted For.
On December Is, 1925, press re-
lease sent out to colored editors, in
cluding Mr.. Vann, detailed expendi-
lures on the first Sweet trial in De-
troit and, this was accounted for in
the Annual Report of 1925. The ex-
penditures of the second Sweet trial
in Detroit incurred during 1926 nat
urally belong in the accounting of
the current year and will be duly
made at the end of the year.
All expenditures in the Sweet trial
have been authorized both by the
Board of Directors and the Chair
man of the Legal Committee who
serves without compensation and
there are vouchers in this Office COW
ering every penny expended. These
vouchers will be scrupulously exam
ined and audited, as are all expense
vouchers of the N. A. A. C. p, by a
firm of public accountants and their
reports will be published in the An
nual Report of the N. A. A. C. P. as
is our invariable custom.
There is remaining of the Legal
Defense Fund the sum of $39,000.07
held in trust specifically for legal de-
fense and which cannot be touched
for any other purpose. The triumph
ant success of the Association in its
conduct of its most signal legal vic
tory for the Negro's constitutional
rights, Mr.. Vann calls "the Sweet
scandal" In the very same issue of
his newspaper in which he seeks to
cripple the N. A. A. C. p. by his un-
Continued on page ~