The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1937-01-29
Prominent Figure In Political Life
Discusses Participation OF Negro
People in National Elections Of IS

tain key states were considered
doubtful. The strategy Of both the
Republicans and the Democrats
was to play on the solid" Negro
vote in these states. as the bal
ance of power" and make every
effort to win it to their side. The
Pittsburgh Courier, one of the lar
gest Negro newspapers In the
country and supporter Of Roose-
welt, declared:
In many states the Negro
vote i going to be the deciding
factor in this election. Colored
people should be alert to this
fact and not be backward in
pressing their advantage, no
matter for which party they de-
eide to These voters are
likely to decide the election.
Mr.. Paul w. Ward, well-lknown
political commentator wrote from
Washington, d. c., in August:
1T is easy to underestimate
the grip which the Republican
machine bosses have upon the
100000 potential Negro voters
in the five key states. Only the
members of the upper crust of
the Negro community are to any
appreciable degree political free
agents. The rest do not vote;
they are voted. Like his white
brothers living in similar squat
or in tn industrial bowels and
backwashes of cities. the Negro
has been VIGOROUSLY venal, Ia,-
ting his vote at the disposal of
whichever machine at the NOM
ent can pay the highest price.
The c. o. p. viii have buying
power again this year-bigger
buying power. probably, than
ever before and all the factors
which should make the Negro
want to vote for Roosevelt must
be discounted in the light of this
fact"
Despite the fact that all those
things for which the Negro peo-
pie have striven since Reconstruc-
ton have not been fought for, nor
has the denial of their rights been
challenged by the Republican Par
ty, Republican Congressman John
H. Robinson had the effrontery to
declare on the floor of the Con-
gress in June:
One of the noblest emotions
that ever animated the human
heart is gratitude. Can there
be anything more iguoble than
ihgratitude have seen the
swine in the mountains on Ken
tuck yfill themselves day by day
on the choicest nuts that fell
from the oak, chestnut AID the
beech, but have never yet seen
one hog look up to see the
source of his bounty"
The political campaign conduct
ed by the Republican Party am
ong Negroes was intense, The
Chicago Defender was the out
standing spokesman of Republic
canism. On October 8, it began
the first of a series of Red-baiting
articles, attacking Roosevelt as a
Communist. This article was en-
titled: Which Way from the
Crossroads IA Contrast of Roo
sevelt with Russia"
1t carried quotations taken from
speeches or writings of Tugwell,
the so-called Communist brain
trust adviser Of Roosevelt, and of
Karl Marx, Stain, Orjonilxidze,
Voroshilov, and Manuilsky, which
intended to prove that Roosevelt
was Communist on the order of
these men. Obviously few Ne
groes took seriously this cry of
Communism
An elaborate piece of propagan-
da consisting of an eighty-page
pamphlet, published by the Color
ed Voters Division of the Republic
can National Committee, was adj
dressed to the American Colored
People"
The cover page carried pictures
of Lincoln, Landon and Knox The
picture of Frederick Douglass, the
great Negro abolitionist, was car
ried on an inside page. However,
on the very front page with the
pictures of Lincoln, Landon and
Knox was the following aelllnown
quotation of Frederick Douglass:
There is no path out of the
Republican Party that does not
lead directly into the Democra-
tic Party away from our
friends directly to our enemies"
Landon was transformed into a
modern Lincoln. The pamphlet
stated:
These two men stand out in
the history of Kansas: John
Brown who kept it free as a ter
ritory and Lincoln who, in adj
hitting it to the Union, kept it
a free state. Now a third, AL
fred M. Landon, stands upon the