The Detroit tribune. (Detroit, Mich.) 1935-1966, 1940-09-21
Wallace In Address To Negroes
Barked Up The Wrong Tree
By Emmett J. Scott
washington. y. {.

-. -
VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Henry Wallace
in address at the American Negro Exposition
in Chicago last week. speaking 10 an audience of
responsible Coored persons, said
-. We must do all We 10 get rid OF hatred
and discrimination and give human beings the on
portunty 10 which they entitled. There is no
better way to rearm democracy He inveigheG
against class. religious and racial determinations.
II Is ironical to note the Democratic Vice Pres-
Dental Candidate addressing these remarks TO the
victims OF racial hatred and discrimination Instead
he should have been turning his burning wrath upon
that element OF his New Deal-Democratic Party which
has brought so much Of misery and despair the
colored people OF the United States-the Political
ogarchies OF the South which constitute the maid
and controlling body OF the Democratic Party.
II is misplaced effort TO be asking colored peo-
pie Ito get rid Of hatred and discrimination" They
are not the authors OF visiting discrimination upon
others. They the victims OF coselyknt poti-
cal organization which by oppression, suppression
and exploitation is chiefly responsible for the truly
treatment colored citizens suffer in that Southern
region where democracy Is mockery, and where
liberty and freedom lip-services terms instead
u symbols OF law and order, equal opportunity ard
ivil liberty.
Democrats Responsible For discrimination
This observer. thon once has called at
,ention 10 the fact that this coored group in tho
South. where the New Deal-Democratc Party con-
trolls and suppresses the Negro by disfranchse-
ment laws which are disgrace in land which
boasts that democracy is its foundation stone suffers
from the kind OF class and racial discrimination to
which Mr. Wallace refers.
These coored citizens are excluded from the
political programs OF that section They are not tax
en- into any account except as pawns in the racke:
game OF general exploitation. They are the victims
OF landlords and landbarons whom simply to charac-
terize avarcious would be paying them su
preme compliment
Mr.. Wallace s Agricultural Projects. one by one.
have proved TO be farces insofar colored farmers
in the Southern Section are concerned
Also. sometime ago we called attention to the
fact that eO7 percent Of all Negro are in the
eleven Southern states The Government appropriate
ed s2270Oo0o0 for rental and benefit checks under
its cotton acreage reduction program alone. II has
been estimated that the farmers, both white and
Black received about out of every 1000 of these
compensation checks. The other 997 were devourcd
by landlords through multitude OF fraudulent sub
terfuges.
Farm Relief Farce To Negro
Farm relief under the guise OF Subsistence
farms" operated through the Governments Re-
settlement Administration, is also farce. Negro and
White farmers found themselves compelled to live
on approximately thirty cents day. vet are denied
by the Social Security Act any right TO old age PEN
sions unemployment. benefits or any other form ~
social insurance. Instead, farm Jobs provided
which pay the magnificent sum Of SO TO s21 month
or 10 to Is hour Is this reassurlng picture
10 the Southern farmer particularly the Negro
farmer--even n he were allowed 10 vote?
How has Mr. vice-Presidentai Candidate Wal
lace reacted TO these conditions in his own Agricn-
tural Department OF which, for nearly years, he
was the head?
II has been shown that under the Bankhead Act
coiored farmers as rule consistently excluded
from the benefit Of that legislation. Also they are
excluded from membership state and Farm
Tenant-Committees. They are consistently excluded
from local Acreage Allotment Committees. and from
every other Committee set up for administering the
many agencies under Mr. walace's Agricultural De-
partment
Oft and again Mr. wallace was requested 10
remedy the undemocratc practices here referred 10
and entreated 10 more dehnitey protest the interests
OF cnlnred fnrmers