The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1931-03-05
Hoover Seeks Votes

President Hoover's reference to
the racial and economic status of
the Negro in his Lincoln Day address
in regarded by the politically minded
as bid for the Negro vote in 1882.
His address was generally ac-
cepted as the opening gun of his re-
election campaign.
Those who are not politically
minded are pinching themselves to
see whether this be true. Can it be
that the Hoover who has lodged hav-
ing his photo made with colored dele
cations, who sought in vain to place
Judge Parker on the U. S. supreme
bench, and whose official messages
since 1928 have carried no word of
hone or encouragement to Negroes,
is about to change his policy?
II seems so.
President Hoover was certainly
off the track when he said that Lin
coin would be pleased with the status
of the Negro today. If that were
true, then we have the wrong i'm
preston of Lincoln. If Lincoln was
the true. staunch believer in right
and justice that he is portrayed to
have been, then President Hoover
was dead wrong in that statement
IF Lincoln were living today and
kept his sense of honor and Justice.
he would not only be grieved by the
twist that President Hoover has Civ
en- TO the Negro in equal oppor-
tunity," but would champion cam
paign against the notification of the
Negroes political LEGAL and economic
rights, while President Hoover SUI
pinely acnuiesces in this un-Ameri-
can. un-democratic and un-Chrstian
policy.
As lorr as he continues segrepa-
ton in the departments under his
supervision; as long as he continues
the use of the damnable photograph
in civil service examinations: as
long as he nermits the Ku Klux Khan
to dictate the hiring and firing of
Negroes in the various govern
mental departments supposed to he
regulated bv civil service examina-
tions and certifications, as long as
he maintains Jim crow cafeterias,
etc, under his administration; as
lone as he permits the "lilv whites"
to dominate the party in the South
and sustans the notification of the
fourteenth amendment and continues
to disfranchise Negroes of their legal
and American right to the ballot
guaranteed them by the very consti-
. tuition he swore to uphold as long as
he continues to appoint commissions
to investigate and report on vital
problems wherein the Negro is vi
tally concerned but left off the COM
missions; as long as his farm loans
and land banks continue to ignore
the Negro applicant. just so long
NAV the president exnect to see a
falling away from the Republican
party by the Negro voter. Our politi-
CAL legal and economic rights are
as dear to us as they are to any
other American. And if the president
was sincere in his praise of the Ne
gro's courage and self-reliance, he
can certainly prove that statement
by his giving the Negro an even
break, equal opportunity" if you
please, with other Americans.
1t is appare that President Hoo
yer made this radio speech as a
gesture for the Negro vote in 1892
This can be easily termed his open
ing gun for his denomination and
reelection campaign. He sees the
hand writing on the wall.
A Lincoln back on earth on a
visit in 1881 would be surprised all
right. Nothing would astound him
more than the sight of an ex-Demo-
crat, lily-white Hoover in the White
House.