The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-04-24
The Southern Lady's
Letter
TO THE EDITORS OF THE
"NEUER DEUTSCHER
VERLAG":

r HAVE just received the "Illus-
4 trierte Arbeiter Zeitung" of Jan.
10, 1926. It contains a grave error.
On the first page l found a picture Of
a Negro being punished by whipping
in Delaware, America-with the re-
mark OF the editor that in America
this punishment was generally ap-
piled. On the contrary, since the lib
Grafton of the Negroes it has been
abolished generally, and is severely
punished itself.
In Delaware, however, an old law is
still in force, which applies to whites
and blacks, especially in the case of
domestic tyrants who beat their wives
lin which cases the use of the whip
is justified.
Foreigners seem to have great diff
Guilty in understanding the situation
Of the Negro in America, and this is
particularly true of the propaganda for
the new economies. With regard to
this latter among the American Ne
groes it would be extremely necessary
to have a thorough understanding of
the Negro as well as of American con-
ditions.
America harbors, from one hundred
and ten million to one hundred and
twenty million whites, about ten or
twelve million blacks. 1t is just as if
in Germany there were ten per cent
Negroes, hence about six or seven
millions.
Quite regardless of this, one must
consider that the Negro has never had
either a cultural nor national back
ground, and that he possesses little
understanding for thoughts of this
kind. He is extremely restricted in
big. questions and very easily misun-
derstands them. An example of this
is the Negro republic of Haiti. Not
withstanding all prejudices, it is a
fact that it devolyed upon an Amer
lean expedition, and with partial sue
cess, to bring about some sort of order
in Haiti. The Negro is also pecu-
liarly apt to retrograde into deeply
primitive conditions unless he is
watched. These are the problems in
America with regard to the American
Negro.
From scientific standpoint it may
be stated 1t has taken Nature prob
ably half a million years to push the
star of the white race forward and up
ward. The average among Negroes
can naturally not be equal to that
among whites. The American refuses
community with the Negro instinct
lively, and not because he hates them.
It is a terrible blunder, which can
very easily bring about the greatest
OF misfortunes, if the American Negro
were to be melted against the Amer
lean world. The new economics can
only be harmed by propaganda among
the Negroes. The new movement will
be pushed back for decades in Amer
lea. Personal and chiefly racial feel
ing will destroy all other thoughts.
Should the Negroes be melted to vio-
lence by doctrines hardly half under
stood by them, then they are doomed
to be wiped out. 1t is crime against
these people to lead them to their GER
tain destruction. Surely there is
enough work to do in other parts of
the world in which the new economy
is more urgently applicable. There
also success rests considerably upon
a real understanding of the masses,
but nowhere would the result be so
destructive and futile as in America
through a movement of melted Ne
groes. Josephine w. EIston,
Heidelberg, Europaischer Hof.