The monitor., 1928-11-02
AS THE NEGRO GOES TO POLLS

Before my next release sees the
light of print, the die will have been
cast. AS the American people go to
the polls next Tuesday, the Negro
goes along with them. If the repub-
licans succeed in sidetracking prohi-
bition, as they are endeavoring to do,
there is left no great issue before the
American people. The through train
of state must change crews at this
constitutional juncture. Whichever
of the expectant crews may take
charge, the train will be efficiently
managed and the white passengers
well looked after. / said four years
ago that it amused me to see Negroes
lashing themselves into fury as to
which white man is to be president.
l wish to repeat the same admonition
today. The experience of the past
four years but adds to the ridiculous
ness of the excitement. A sensible
man looking down upon the wrangle
and tangles, the accusations and
counter accusations between oppos-
ing Negro political camps, could but
indulge the remark: What fools
these black mortals be-"
For the first time since reconstruc-
ton, the Negro goes to the polls next
Tuesday emancipated from his eman-
cipators. He has thrown off the
thralldom which has held him like a
wise to the fortunes of the G. o. P.
The old Negro may indeed feel bound
by ties of eternal gratitude to the
party of Lincoln and Sumner, but the
young Negro does not. There is d
limit beyond which gratitude ceases
to be a virtue. The American col
onies stung into revolt by injustice
and tyranny, quickly forgot the deep
debt of gratitude which the strug-
Cling daughter of the wilderness
owed to her generous and genial
mother across the sea. No manly
people can ever pledge its love and
loyalty in perpetuity under change of
time and circumstances. The present
election is held in 1928, and not in
1872. The Negro who places his
back to the future and his face to
the past will continue to vote the re-
publican ticket to the end of time.
The fleshpots of Egypt are always
more enticing to the timid and timor-
Gus than the dangers and vicissitudes
of the untried desert. have just
scanned in widely circulated and in
fluential Negro paper, paid adver-
tisement in two parallel columns, of
the goodness of the republica nparty
and the badness of its democratic ri
val But these contrasted lists of
good and evil refer to the things that
are past and gone There is not one
absolute or relative word about fu-
ture prospect and promise. So far as
the Negro is concerned, the republic
can party is like the potato, the best
part is under ground.
If the Negro, as race, supports
the G. 0. p. in the present election
and in the next ten elections to come,
there is no apparent likelihood that
his political lot would be greatly i'm
proved thereby. The Negro acquired
an initial momentum for the party of
freedom and equality in the early
days which it is admittedly difficult
to reverse. Those past middle age,
the over-optimistic who somehow be-
lieve that the spirit of Abraham Lin
coin will be reincarnated in the G.. 0.
p, the timid and hesitant, who rather
endure the ills they have than risk
those they know not of, those of the
slavish Uncle Tom type of tempera-
ment, the cunning and crafty who
hope to gather in the crumbs of IA
WI WHICH ldli 1tOli liit Willie iItd5-
ter's table, will adhere to the repub-
lican standard, though the dry land
turn to sea. On the other hand, the
forward looking, the progressive, the
radical, the new Negro, the intelli-
gentia, will revolt against the repub-
lican recreancy, and will risk what
ever expediency which may promise
change. 1t must be conceded that
the democratic party does not hold
out promising prospect; but pro-
test against false friend often in
cidentally results in benefit to an
avowed enemy. If the Negro, north
or south, expects to make any further
political progress, he must by some
means overcome the hostility of the
democratic party which effectively
blocks his advancement whichever
patty is in national ascendancy. 1t
is abundantly demonstrated that this
cannot he done nv alipnipO the race