The monitor., 1928-08-17
NEGRO RACE TICKET
possibility ELKS'
ANNUAL CONVENTION
Word of Colored Fraternal Order
Political Plan Carried To Hoov-
er-Perry Howard
Leader
SIMMONS ADVISES HOOVER
Argument Advanced That the Time
Is Now Opportune for
Effective Political
Protest


paign today when it became known
here that in all probability NEGRO
race ticket" for president and vice
president of the United States will
be chosen next week in Chicago by a
convention representing nearly half
million colored men and women.
The delegates to the convention
are expected to number more than
three thousand. The convention they
represent is the Independent Order
of Elks," one of two great fraternal
orders among colored people.
The grand attorney of the Inde-
pendent Order of Elks, now contem-
plating this entry into national poll
tics by the Negroes as a race, is Per-
ry Howard.
Howard is republican national COM
mitteeman from Mississippi. He has
been an assistant attorney general
of the United States. He is under
suspension from that post because of
having been indicted on charges of
selling federal offices.
His Indictment has been widely at
tackled in the Negro press on the
ground of discrimination" White
men, it is said who are equally guilty
Iof selling federal offices, have re-
manned "unmolested," while Howard,
being a Negro, has been "persecut-
ed" Therefore, Howard as grand
lattorney" of the Independent Order
of Elks, will be portrayed to the con-
vention at Chicago as race mar
tyr"
Protest Urged
The argument is made that now is
the time for "a protest vote" The
Negro nominee of the Chicago con-
vention for the presidency of the
United States, it is reported here,
may be Louis Anderson of Chicago,
said to be a member of the local
board of aldermen.
A full report on the prospect, along
with an estimate of it's seriousness,
has been conveyed to Herbert Hoov-
er at Palo Alto personally by Roscoe
Simmons, an outstanding republican
politician of the Negro race since the
days of Mark Hanna. He is chair
man of the colored speakers bureau
in republican headquarters at Chi
cago.
Simmons was joined in his talk
with Hoover at Palo Alto by Robert
committee of Tennessee, dominant
Negro character in all Memphis and
Tennessee politics. Church is a men,
Der of the colored executive commit
tee of the Hoover national campaign,
but by an awkward chance, he is also
chairman of the executive committee
of the Independent Order of Elks,
which at present seems determined in
it's Chicago convention to bolt away
from all political party affiliations
with the whites.
$4,000 Vote
The total number of Negro voters
who not merely exist but who ac-
tually voted-in the close and doubt
full states of New York, New Jersey,
Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and
Oklahoma-is responsibly estimated
this year to exceed $4,000. In each
of these states the colored ballot is
conceivably decisive factor.
In these circumstances, unprece-
dented efforts are being made by
both republicans and democrats to
gain or regain possession of that fac
tor and to prevent the formation of
special Independent "Negro race
party" A new NEGRO national
democratic league" has been organ
lied which has penetrated even into
Arkansas, where at Little Rock not
long ago local branch of 2J0 Ne
groes was formed to support Cover