Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-03-24
Plain Talk!
By Dan Gardner
THE NEGRO PROBLEM AND
THE MORAL ISSUE

Actually the Negro Problem in
America is a moral issue. Its solu-
ton primarily depends upon what
the majority thinks and feels about
any minority. 1t is not political in
that legislation by law-making
bodies can establish rules and regu-
lations requiring people to do that
which they do not want to do in
regard to their fellow citizens. The
Negro Problem is not physical in
that guns and bayonets and the
threat of prisons can generate
enough fear to bring about the
desired relationships among the
various elements of our population.
The Negro Problem is one of the
heart and head and must be at
tackled from standpoint of morals
and education if any success is to
be attained.
William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell
Phillips, Frederick Douglass,
Elijah Lovejoy and others among
the abolitionists fought for the
freedom Of the slave on the strict
moral fact that God created all
men in His own image and likeness
and did not intend that they should
enslave one another. On this line
they waged their battle which cul-
minated in the victory of the North
in the Civil War. The South won
its version of the moral argument
in defeating Reconstruction
Mental Burden Heavy
Today the physical shackles of
slavery have long been removed
from the ankles of the Negro, but
the spiritual and mental slavery he
endured and which still chains him
is in some measures, more heavy
than actual chains. This mental
burden is kept in place by Rankin
and Bilbo of Mississippi; Cotton
Ed Smith of South Carolina, Tom
Connally of Texas, Andrew May
of Kentucky, George of Georgia,
and Henry L. Stimson of New
York. Their version of the moral
aspects of the Negro Problem is
that the Negro is an inferior being
and must always remain as such.
They support white supremacy,
what white supremacy stands for,
even If the argument brings about
the eventual doom of white su-
premacy and allows a war purport-
eddy being fought for democracy to
dlsslpate into a war of the color
line.
Great masses of people need
more education in how to live with
one another instead of more laws.
American people with their tradi-
tional view on rugged individuality.
freedom of movement, freedom of
enterprise, and freedom of thought,
are more susceptible to the doc
trlnes Of racial oppression than any
other branch of the white race. The
British are noted for systematic
racial exploitation. The moral re-
sponsibility to observe the law,
which should be the foundation of
good citizenship in any country,
seems not to have been assumed BY
the average white American, par
ticularly when any law or laws
relate to the rights and privileges
Of Negro Americans.
Shown in Army Attitude
This attitude, veering away as
it does from our professed stand
ards of law and order, was shown
in the refusal Of the nation to obey
national prohibition laws. It is also
shown today in the refusal of arnv
officers to apply the rules and reg
ulations Of the army to all men in
the service alike without reference
to color, religion or national origin.
1t is further shown in the attitude
OF storekeepers, restaurateurs and
others who are willing to accept the
penalty Of civil rights laws rather
than to serve Negro customers; in
the defiance by the railroads Of the
Presidents Fair Employment Prac-
tice Committee, and among the
labor unions which consistently dis
criminate and segregate their Ne
gro members, despite the equality
Of payment in union dues.