Evening star., 1934-05-06

Abraham Lincoln, but I'm Democrat.
Miss Lorine, gimme that dress you're
wearin' when you git through with it,"
Down in Mississippi a Negro farmer
telephoned the White House and asked
to speak to the President. He got the
President, and told him about his farm
that he was about to lose The Presi-
dent told him not to worry, that he
would start an investigation to see what
could be done. 1t made a good pub
licity story, but the white people laughed
and were pleased. They were touched
on their sentimental side.
There Is a sentimental side to many
Negroes, too, in spite of the under
Standable bitterness of their articulate
poets and writer's and the Communist
agitators in the South will have to work
awfully fast if they are going to upset
the influence upon the Negroes of the
knowledge that there is in the White
House man to whom they can turn
for help. They must be helped, these
great masses of people, white or black,
if they are to find their way into a
new world. And they think they are
being helped now: Toward jobs, educa-
ton, -suficiency. There is hope in
the air.
ONE other Federal experiment has
touched the South in a most vul-
nerable spot: The adult classes under
the Federal Emergency Relief Admins
tration. hope they have them for the
Negroes, too; but the one I saw was
for the illiterate whites. These classes
have started all over the country, first
as work relief project for unemployed
teachers. But they are much more than
that: For countless thwarted people
they are the white dove flying, with
the green leaf in his mouth. 1t is said
that they will be closed out soon, but
they must not be closed yet. There is
too much to be done.
;, If they close now Mrs. jenkins,
little worn widow, will never learn frac-
tionS. Fractions are to her hope of
heaven. She wants to learn fractions
so she can get out of the hated mill and
rise in the social scale to glamour and
the brilliance of working for a 5and-10-
cent store. She is dull and slow, but
she works so hard, coming to the class
after she has done her houSework and
her days work in the mill, turning SO
trustingly to the teacher. She's just
crazy about words, too. She likes to
read aloud, rolling the words over, mis-
pronouncing them. trying again and
again. And she wants to learn to speak
correct"
'I haven't saw them today" declares
another woman.
you've what?" asks the teacher pa
tiently.
II haven't saw them-I said I haven't
saw them. Oh, declare, just forgot.
I know. I ought to say haven't seen.
But can't seem to remember"
T haven't forgotten single time,"
breaks in Mrs. Jenkins proudly, mot
since you told us about that. Now I
always say have seen, but where I
work the girls laugh at me and say
I'm getting stuck up. But don't care.
I sure do want to learn to speak cor
rect"
Minnie Peters was bored with the
class, inclined to be little superior be-
cause she had been to school more than
they. It Is true she did not know what
was the quotient in division, nor any
thing else very much. But there was a
tall boy who literally did not know his
letters. He had been earning his living
for years, and now he wanted to learn
to read. He was so slow, so fearfully
slow. So Minnie took him in hand, and
thew snend hours everv evening strI1p-