The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1939-10-20
7. John Wood
Digesting
The News
Of the World

Some time ago in radio talk,
this writer advanced the theory
that the news from abroad deal
ing with the Negroes part in the
present war was about ninety-nine
per cent propaganda and one per
cent fact. Lately that theory has
been supported by the very news
papers whose columns heralded
the bravery and PATRIOTISM of the
Singalese soldier less than month
ago. For since that time very few
accounts have been found even in
the Negro press's rigid attempt
to "color the news, of the part the
black man is playing in the con-
flict between the opponents of
fascism and the very much mis-
represented democracy. However,
the efforts to use these initial ac-
counts to propagandize the obvious
folly of our governments policy of
''army jim crow" has had its de-
sired effect, for since then, two
Negro institutions of higher learn
ing have added to their curricula
an aviation training course. This
alone has been worth the reams
of propaganda released through
the Negro press, but so far as the
actual war is concerned the Negro
newspapers efforts to cover" the
conflict have been a complete flop.
This theory is also supported
by newspapers whose correspond
ents are supposed to keep black
readers supplied with up-to-the-
minute data from the actual scene
of battle. For, we venture to say
that it is humanity impossible for
war correspondents to sit back
in their London and Paris offices
and delete from the general ac-
counts, which are rigidly censored,
the Negro or black angle of a
battle. Especially does this seem
logical when the correspondents in
their first accounts, contend that
black and white soldiers are Shout
dering arms in unsegregated units.
Such inconsistency gives the news
a definite manufacturers LABEL
and leads one to believe the cor
respondents are doing a good job
of bungling in an effort to color
the war news.
One of our national contempor-
aries has informed its readers,
through a London correspondent
covering the war in Poland, that
England might attack Italy
through Ethiopia. We don't pro-
pose to understand international
politics, because the affairs of in
dividual nations are so intricately
entwined with nations as whole,
that only a professional student
of international affairs can offer
first hand information as to the
possibility of England further
straining relations with the Berlin
Rome axis by invading Italy
through Ethiopia. Not only do we
doubt the varacity of such re-
ports, but we also question the
authenticity of the source of in
formation.
Perhaps the most embarrassing
situation for any newspaper was
created back east a few weeks
ago when Colonel Hubert Fauntle-
roy Julian arrived in America only
a few days after New York paper
announced the Colonel as their
''war ace," working out of Paris.
The Colonel, in case you have for
gotten, is the same "one-man fly
ing corps" who jumped into the
national spotlight during the TIA
liam Ethiopian conflict by offering
his services to Halle Selassie. 1t
Is also to be remembered that bro
Their Julian was later found in
Italy consorting with Duce's bench
men after wrecking Selassie's only
plane. He is the same Colonel
known as the "Black Eagle" who
some years ago embarked on a
nonstop flight to the other side
of the world, which flight termin-
ated about two minutes after its
beginning when his plane descend
ed in Flushing Bay, only a stones
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