The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1943-01-20

irons might do at such a time as
this. Miss Janice Shelton was one
TONS industrial might, has made
a decent statement or one aprec-
liable move which would establish
or bolster the confidence of Ne
groes in the ability of business
men to run this country, under
the privilege of free enterprise,
once we have won the war and
the peace.
1t is a sad and deplorable fact.
but there Is not in this whole
Nation, at this time. a bakers
dozen of men of weight and
power whose word Negroes will
trust. They work in Steel - but
no steel name has come forth.
They work in manufacturing of
all kinds, but not one word of
promise has come from the Cham
Der of Commerce of the nUited
States or the National Associa-
tion of Manufacturers. Each of
these units has some fine men,
individually, but not one organi
cation, as such, has said an APP
preciable word.
Only in Railroads, where more
Negroes have been consistently
employed than in any other brac-
ket, is there promise. The leader
ship of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road, once the most powerful sin
gle industrial voice in the affairs
of Negroes, is coming alive and
the Association. of American Rail
roads, led strangely enough by
man from Tennessee, bids fair to
take up it's industry's challenge in
honorable fashion. The MELONS,
always a name whihc Negroes re-
spected and admired, could say a
strong word in this crisis; and
the PRESENT of U. S. Steel and
the hea of American Telephone
and Telegraps; and original,
strong and courageous men like
Ernest T. Weir. A word of prom
Use of fair play and equity from
such men would go miles toward
facilitating Negro morale
1t is going upward; but it is
doing SO because Negroes now
know that their best interests
seem to lie in producing an at
mosphere of democracy in which
to work out their personal and
racial problems. Negroes feel that
the Allies must win this war
speedily because they have lot
of work to do at HON and ought
now to be about it. 1t cannot be
done so long as either Hitler and
the Japanese, on the one hand, or
Rankin, of Mississippi and his
breed, on the other, continue to
disturb domestic and world peace.
There is absolutely no doubt in
the mind of a single Negro of
any weight in public life toay,
that the new generation of Ne
cores will look upon Mississippi
and the rest of it's lynching CO.
terie as being juts as harmful to
world democracy as Hitler and
the Japs. hey will despise people
who deny them an opportunity to
live by the honTest sweat of their
brows and to mploy their training
just as behemently as they now
hate the Axis. 1t is so obvious to
Negroes that they can scarcely see
how others miss it.
No talk about the Negroes
traditional loyalty" will suffice.
He wants to know who his friends
are. He will give every drop of
his blood to make Amrica victor
ious and to defend his Homeland;
but he also would like to know
the names and attitudes of those
who will be the Trustees of Peace
in his own Nation. In great
number of ways the old board has
utterly failed him.
The men of the National Asso-
citation of Negroes in American
Industry believe that the mana
gers of the worlds first industrial
centre should face that challenge
and move toward it's alienation
with the same genius which has
thrown our Nation in the lead of
the material and scientific world.
There are some men of Good
will" in American Industry with