The Enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 192?-1930, 1927-09-23
EDITORIALS

We are a grateful and remember
ing people or at least we have been
in the past. 1t would be calamity
il we became so inocculated with
the poisonous baccilli of race hatred
that we will overlook those of the
white race who have stood on the
front line trenches for US. 1t is our
solemn duty to stand by these friends
of ours while they are alive and it is
Just as incumbent upon US to join
in the paying Of final respects when
these true friends of ours cross the
Great Divide. Wednesday night
Thomas r. Horner, prominent Seat
tie attorney and humanitarian, pas
sed away. He was true friend of
z our people. He was unafraid and
spoke out in laundering tones when
less courageous individuals slumped
in their seats and shrugged their
shoulders. Mr.. Horner was our
friend and champion of human lib
erty. The writer of this column of
ten sought his aid to put an end to
segregation and discrimination in
public places in Seattle. Mr.. Horner
never failed us. Now that he is dead
we should be among the first to send
floral tributes and weep beside his
grave We have few such friends
among the white people and as
Shakespeare would say: "The friend
thou hast End his adoption tried
grapple him to thy soul with hoops
of steel"
Recent upheavals and factional
fights over fat official plums and fl
nancial control of fraternal organiza-
tions suggest a third term limitation
idea.
Race lodges have grown because
they supply an outlet for the natural
instinct of the group to "govern
something" not allowed free play in
municipal, state and national gov
ernments.
There is of course the side issue
of taking care of the sick and bury
ing the dead and the verv natural
love of high hats and uniform, but
any insurance company can furnish
as much health and death protection
as the average lodge furnishes for
half the cost.
They do. however, furnish basis
for tremendous organization POSSIBLE
tiles. and their leaders are already
sensing needs for new programs. The
race needs agencies which will de-
velop high efficiency in self govern
ment. Unfortunately our lodges are
tending more and more towards au-
tocracv and the spirit of democracy
is giving wsv to a corrupting system
Of cheaD politics.
This is bad for the lodges as well
as the thousands of Young men and
women they should inspire.
It would add stimulating touch
and Quicken the aspirations of every
member If the official terms of the
heads of our lodges were limited to a
three or four year.
Some idea Of the possibilities of
our. lodges might be CLEANED from tn e
fact that in some of them the money
and energy expended exceeds that NJ
the whole Liberian government. TO-
n00 Elks. for instance, meetinr in
New York represent an expenditure
of more than a million dollars. The
clothes they buy for This occasion
alone represent an outlay of more
than s250.000 and their bv-nroduct
expenditures each year would CAN'T
alize a national bank or finance a
large department store.
Some day our lodges will turn their
energies towards more substantial
program. for besides churches. they
are the biggest things the race has
developed.
The popular conception of the Ne
gro, also embodied on the stage and
screen as well as in American liter
allure. is happy-go-luckv individual
who laughs and grins. with or with
out the slightest nrovocation. The
old time Negro minstrels were pat
termed on this idea and it was only
of recent wears, with the arrival of
the blues. that vein of comic melan-
cholia was injected into the bolster
Gus gaiety demanded of blackface
comedians. Still. the conception
of hapnv childlike race given to
IRRESPONSIBLE gleefulness and irradiat-
ing chuckles of delight over the mere
fact of living. is carefully preserved
as representing what some dramatic
critics style the true Negro. The
black man was presumed to be happy
because he laughed.
Recently there rose a London uni
versitv professor with the declara-
tion that the really happy man never
laughs. II is only the discontented
man who really laughs. which leads
Prof Avelng to infer that laughter
ike tears is uely. being made up of
contortions and grimsces which mask
. hard or selfish mind If the pro
fessor had taken the Negro into ron-
siderrtion. he probably would have
added that laughter might also be the
mask for other emotions involving
mental suffering. Laughter is de-
fined as an antidote to sympathy, a
device TO Danish core. This may nc
count for its cultivation among Ne