Evening star., 1936-08-05

eral Constitution, but 1t served to i'm
press the Negroes with the idea that
their status had been improved under
the first Democratic State administra-
ton in more than 40 years.
OF all the devices inaugurated by
Guffey and Earle, the most effective
was a policy they initiated to the ef-
feet that Negroes should be appointed
to Office in proportion to their ratio
of the whole population.
This raises question which South
ern Democratic leaders must face. The
Northern Democratic leaders, who now
dominate the party, are committed to
policy that Negroes shall hold Office
in proportion to their numbers. A
collateral policy, Of course, Is that
Negroes shall be urged and stimulated
to vote.
South Long Fearful.
This policy is pursued by the North
ern Democratic leaders within their
States. Can they pursue this policy
in their States without also pursuing
it in Congress? How will the South
ern Democrats feel about that? For
10 years Southern Democrats have
feared legislation by the Federal Con-
gress which would stimulate Negroes
in the South to go to the polls and
protect them there. Fear that Re-
publican Congress might do this is
a main reason that has kept the
South Democratic, kept 1t continuously
hostile to the Republican party.
The Negro in politics becomes a
problem only in proportion to the
density of Negro population in ratio
to white. In the South there are
many communities. including one
State as whole, in which Negroes
are majority of the population. In
such communities, If Negroes were
stimulated to vote, and if they we're
given Offices in proportion to their
numbers, the local government would
be in the hands of Negroes. Without
going into the merits of an old and
unhappy question, it may be accepted
as a pragmatic fact that the whites
Of the South will resist this condition.
Throughout the South, as whole,
the number of Negroes who vote now
is negligible. They are not prevented
from voting. Nowhere today, I think,
is there any law which attempts to
deny the Negro his constitutional
rights. 1t is rather that the Negro
is not encouraged to vote. Not to
solicit the Negro to vote, indeed TO
discourage his voting, is first prin-
ciple and universal practice of the
Democratic party in the South. This
attitude of Southern Democrats is
now negatived by the new attitude of
the Northern leaders who dominate
the party in the Nation as whole
Filled With Dynamite.
The situation contains many kinds
of political and social dynamite. One
wonders if the Negroes IS a race will
be wise to accept the solicitation of
the Northern Democratic leaders, TO
change their party affiliation and to
do 1t as self-conscious mass action.
True, the Negro has been self-con-
sciously Republican for 10 years. True,
Republican leaders have long or
Sul1lACO lAAlll dIlO SOlIClJcU IliIIl, JllSL as
the Northern Democratic leaders are
now doing. But that Republican af-
filiation since the Civil War has had
logical and sentimental basis. The
mere act of change as a body, of
shifting their affiliation by a de-
liberate mass action, would call at
tention to the Negro in politics in a
way that might not. in the long run,
be to the advantage of the Negroes
or of the country. Political action
taken consciously as a body BY any
group is always a disturbing phenom-
enon.
The Northern Democratic leaders
may be sowing seed which the Nation
may later harvest in grief It is we'll
known that the New Deal stirs up
class consciousness in the economic
sense; President Roosevelt's own
speeches are permeated with such ap-
peals. However unfortunate appeals
to economic class consciousness may
be, an appeal to race consciousness
has possibilities even more Somber.