The monitor., 1928-09-14
BALANCE OF POWER
HELD By NEGROES In
The BORDER STATES
Politicians Are Busy Trying to Hold
Trend of Negro Voters to Demo-
Gratis in Doubtful States
They Promise More
(From the New York Telegram)

(From the New York Telegram)
Washington, D. C-Negro voters
can turn the national election in
doubtful border states. Hence the
politicians are scurrying about try
ing to devise ways and means to
make the colored vote safe for Hoov-
er or Smith, as the case may be.
Republicans have reason to fear
revolt at the polls in some Northern
cities, where Negroes in the past have
voted with almost automatic regular
ity for the G. o. P. candidates. These
changed conditions are said to be due
to younger radicals of the race, who
are preaching to their followers that
the republican party has long ex-
plotted them by taking their votes
without doing anything in return to
Justify the boasts of "Lincoln's
party"
Quick to take advantage of this
discomfort, democrats are going out
for the first time with an almost
nationwide organization to catch
these racial ballots.
Three Fronts in Fight
According to the campaign strate-
gists on both sides, there are three
fronts in this battle: Industrial CEN
ters of the North such as New York,
Chicago and Indianapolis; border
states, including Missouri and its St.
Louis colored belt, and, of less i'm
portance because of so-called dis
enfrachising laws, certain Southern
states, such as North Carolina, where
election returns may conceivably be
close.
The republican and democratic
problem in the Industrial areas of the
North is both political and economic.
To meet racial discomfort this year,
they find they must pledge not only
adequate political representation, but
also protection for the welfare of the
Negro workers who are becoming
"class conscious"
Unfortunately for the politicians,
however, they find cnat the very
propaganda required to capture the
Negro vote is the kind that will lose
white votes in the doubtful border
and Southern states.
In the North, republicans are try
ing to sell thc'1 ticket On the basis
of being the traditional party of the
Negro, committed to championing his
equality of rights. But with Hoover
trying to crash the border States and
lead the G. o. p. into the solid South
for the first time, republicans find
their worst obstacle the democratic
warning to beware of the "Negro's
party"
This situation is becoming no less
embarrassing to the democrats In
the North they want the valuable
Negro voters to forget that the party
in congress is dominated by Southern
whites. In the South they want the
whites to forget the democratic ap-
peal being made to colored voters
above the Mason-Dixon line.
Working for Smith in Harlem
Smiths aides are working Harlem,
the New York City belt. Organiza-
tions include Colored Democracy, led
by F. @. Morton, Negro municipal
employe, and the Smith-for-P President
Colored League, under the National
Democratic Committee, said to be ac-
tive in many states.
In Chicago, republicans hope to
hold the colored vote by allowing a
Negro to succeed the late Martin B.
Madden in congress. Direct potiti-
cal representation by Negro con-
gresham is generally recognized by
politicians to be the most effective
manner of keeping the colored vote
in line" provided this end can not
be achieved "less extensively"
Not to be outdone in this, the dem
ocrats have broken precedent by
backing Negro for the congressional
seat from the Twelfth Missouri dis
trict in st. Louis. This young man
is Joseph L. McLemore, formerly an
employe at the national capitol. He
is running against Representative L.
G. Dyer, author of the anti-lynching
bill and popularity known as "the
Negro's best friend in Washington"
Shanghai-According to unofficial