St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-11-03

nelQS and on the seven seas I
aren't going to feel good about it
at all when they come home to
find that most of the "big name"
Negro leaders who have been con-
sistently in the headlines of the
Negro newspapers shipped over
seas and elsewhere for soldier con-
sumption, have failed so woefully
to produce a sound economic pro-
gram for the Negro apart from
that of the general American
scheme that might act as bulwark
for the period of unemployment
that the experts are sure will take
place shortly after the government
starts retrieving contracts from
war plants and the manufacture
of war materials come to an end.
Leaders Hogged Headlines
The Negro leadership that has
hogged headlines with pronounce
ments," and viewpoints" and
fortnight statements" for the
last four years, hasn't persuaded
Negroes who are and have been
earning more money than ever be-
fore to invest in Negro fac
tories. 1t hasn't developed Negro
interest to the point where a big
chain store has been created to
provide jobs for Negroes. 1t hasn't
produced big-time Negro-fnanced
housing project with the resulting
provisions of work for hundreds of
job-needy Negroes. 1t hasn't
dreamed up the manufacturing con-
Germ that would produce work and
at the same time serve a widespread
need. 1t hasn't done anything to
develop an antipathy among the Ne
gro masses to throwing away their
hard-earned money for question
able pleasures. All it has produced,
the Negro CT will complain, is
confusion and lack.
The emphasis has been on civil
rights. In that respect, the word
age expounded by home front
Negro leaders has been of merit.
In this connection, much has been
achieved. Barriers have been
broken down that formerly existed
as a constant source of friction and
irritation to both races, divided by
color bars and socially conflicting
viewpoints. 1t is true that home
front Negro leadership will be able
to offer to the returning Negro CT
the unhampered right to eat in this
restaurant, stop at that hotel, be-
long to this union, and to that or
ganization. But it is not in a posi-
ton to offer him employment. In
stead, the idea is to place that re-
sponsibility-all of tin the lap
of the white man. And in placing
it in the lap of the white man, the
Negro war veteran is facing again
the dreary spectacle of constant
harangues over the failure of white
America to give Negroes their
economic rights"
Future Looks Gloomy
At the two-day conference on
'The Post War Industrial Outlook
for Negroes" recently held at
Howard University under the joint
auspices of the Division of Social
Science of the Howard University
Graduate School and the A. Philip
Randolph Fund, Thread of gloom
ran through the discussions" ac-
cording to Negro White House cor
respondent for the National Negro
Newspaper Publishers Association,
Harry McAlpin. Said McAlpin:
almost without exception, speak
er after speaker pointed out the
problems Negroes would face that
would be almost insurmountable
unless we have full employment.
There was fairly general agree
ment that a permanent FEPC will
be needed to help overcome these
obstacles"
The conference took up the con-
sideration of problems in the ship
building, aircraft, automobile, rail-
road and steel industries. Other
talks were held on Federal policies
prohibiting racial discrimination in
industry and the labor and fiscal
policies of the Federal government.
Lieut.. Col. John K. Collins, of the
Bureau of Placement of the War