AMERICAN NEGROES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XL, Issue 9198, 8 January 1920, Page 8

AMERICAN NEGROES.

WAR'S AFTER-Kl'l-'ECTS

Anotiffi' nice riot, thi^ time iii Om!'Jia, accenurate.s ■ the tact that the United. States is still fax lioni finding. i\, solution 01 what is when ail Jt> .said and dcvi? t!u> most dirfiouk. though not immediately the most lhipoiuint, oi; her social problems. A good deal has beea said (writes "The Times" eoirespoiideaL) in previous aitulosoi the movement for the proper Amoricanisation of citizens of alien blood. '1 hmgs. like tka steel strike, which would not liavo coiuo about had it noc been ioi the iiitiammaijility of the foieign labourers in the mills, . hhou lhat the movoniyut is a pinch-needed one. Jb'or the ne^ro question Mieie is no such ultimate."cure as \rt \ibible. Tin. descen'iiujts .of the slaws of colonial dayd ?td tne iirst era ot mdepf ncU nee. are aiAoady as much Ameruunited ns= they cun be. One of the lcs-sons oi thu preset:.- situation is that the larther upwards they move in trie social .-chemc, the greater their discontent jmd the ■ greater the prejudice' agair.s-r iheva oi the whites with whom they compete. There are in the countr\ over lOjGi'l'.COO people oi black 01 mulatto blood".' In the old days the vast bulk of thy sK'gvoes, who thus number about , ten per liout'-'of the population, weio ?:tQ. be found in the Southern States. Alabacxir, for instance, had in 3910 . l^OL*^-: whiter and 900,000 bla<ks; Georgui 1,400,000 wliiteb, and J,150,----,000 oiaoiis; and Dilissi'appi onlj - ;780,0C<; wliitos to 1.000,000 blacks. lYlohtarcn, on the otheihaml, had DGO,----•000 vvhues to under L'ooo blacks-; .Son 1,:. Dakota 560,000 whites and only ■bOO blacks, and iNebiaska, ol which „ Omaha is; the chief cn>, 1.180,000 .white-'i to 75CK3 blacks. It'io the custom of the negro to live rin wt'?J-defined qnarteis oi the cities. Even in Washington one finds whole .street;-, given up to coloured people, tucke.i away in the midst oi the best .j-esideuthil" -quarter. A ft the negio .crowds North the. old coloured district becoir^.-s unable to hold him; he slops •out h:f.o adjoining streets. His pic'.seiice in them is rebcnted, and there •is. bad blood. This bad blood is otten | aggravated by the white workman's] ..jealousy' of his new competitor. A crime- against a-'white woman, or something ot that sort, and the iat is m

tho "£.«:>. TJiw vvur has also hardened the feeling of the negro against the white. He Was B'.vMt in large : numbers to France. Ho fo'j'ud in France no particular colour 'hi* drawn against him. He was xeceh'wl as an ally and not as an inicnor h irks him to return to the iucqurfhties ot the home he went to fight !«jr,-to the "Jim Crow" laws of tho iSoiUhurn >taU-s that provide for .him Karate railway carnages, and to the v.mouo schemes, like the "Grandi'ather jDlisuso," whereby som^'States confirv lift' suffrage, to those ' whose gnuidt.«rtmts were irce, in order to deprive '&im oi' tlio vote that was con-jßtitu"/-ciip^v given him afcer the Civil War lh irks 'him the more inasmuch as'l,l i.n 'told by his organs in the ' Press dii>t the American Higli Commaiic tried to g<'t the French to-treat him fi* ue «'ai treated at home. Proud of hi- aeiv-foiind sen.se of discipline, ho is nc-5 deal' to propaganda against alJowir.^ himsx-lf to be exploited by the «hito nice in times of crisis and then, when thf crisis i& over, to be put back into y position of recognised inferiority. i<'c mnuy years past Llicro haso b"en two theories about the education of the Amerca negro. One idea has been to uonceL'tratf* upon technical education,. to briafc him up to manual trades, and lo ettxwrugo him to become a small faruipc. Uhe other idea has been to treat !ii:n a«,a white man, to give him a. higfvr education. The latter policy has hut\ considerable success. ' There have b-K-n negroes high in the Federal servic--. There are good coloured doctors and lawyers j and there are many thonfiTßcis of* negroes, probably, rich enou^l' to own their own motors and that .j&ft oi thing. In N«w York, for inhtaci:*.', there is a most prosperous oolursxi couinuinity, living together in 'good f;tm>t& and good houses, with its own tiw«itres and all the other trappings ct civilisation. liv'; theit'is a reverse side of the .shield. Th<j intellectual negro seems-to take laoher kindly to Socialism and organic agitation. . Thus one finds, besides die National 1 Association for the Advai'/^iiient of the Coloured People, whicL han many white , members,' a MTimU-i ■ ol' purely coloured organisations Hk*i the League for Democracy, j ,-un o'gnniiation or coloured soldiers; ' siflan; ' .nth grievances against the' „ white -.ulcers they had in France; the-; Uiiiver-aJ NVgio' Improvement Associ-' atinu v/hos-e programme is to awaken «lass con^ciouanesb among the negroes here n~'-d in Africa," and to knit together all tho coloured races of the work.; the .National Association for the Urunni&atioji of J-abonr Unions ainoi;; Acgrocr-; lh«> Ilamitic League of tl;: World; the League of the Darker Pinole of the World, and so on.

Nearly, all such associations are extreme and run by young coloured Socialists, o'.'tuu aided and abetted by jirof'.v^-iouiil white extremists of the type that causes so much trouble nmur;y the alien proletariat. ..Some ot them jAiWish inflammatory organs like the ''iicsaenger." of New York, the "Cri'-us." of the , same city, or, the "Boston. Guardian," whose .editor,' W. *•'•.. Trottor, a. Harvard graduate, after a f.riiitl^s« visit to tho Peace' Conferonce, hucly i-ojd the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to look out i'or a. race rising if the whites did not mend their ways. Even the Industrial Work-;-r.< of the World have been get-tkig-,r.<jCiiiitf> among the negroes in the South/ ¥ '"fa vt .u^xieh made the- Ainerioa'n I/t'd'..'ration of L-aboui; decide, .this yeaj-; u.i tountenace, coloiire'<:l'.:''.i.iuioj.)s,

much *x> tho di^guHt of Southerners, j To ti'in iJio uhiie reply, as has been .seen from th r nev»s of recent uiouthshas ir-- o\U'n b'^'-n mob iorce. "Mob , , prott"*: >on is the only prot«'t-Li«n.of tJie! whko man's homo," cried the other! day tli" dm per of a former Senator of the Luirrd Suites, j)ublihliod in Miss'hsip;--:, in ih'.» course of an article] ealliiiii "-ii the "best and braves!" in ithc Stilt'. 1 co organise, "since there is no dc'ibi that hell will be to pay in I this ("". /.;!tr t y in ths near Jutnre."

But ",".oJ'gh haw been said" io sh-:;W' !io>v c:.'o.'iifiu merging often into iicpertij;t'Jiro and sometimes criTninal mi»behiivicir on the ouo side, and sometimes .'(..i:_'.h intok'jance on the other are os;Vfrabating a problem already difficult. The procous is dej)lored by tho vast irajority oi' sober whites and by many iho'iightfui negroes. Jl iy quite probull. 1' that liio better f-ense ol' the nauon -, Wl-prevent its feoit>£ va> far as som () i- -nf^ij to fear; bub for tho moment ;t h nor, the least troublcsomo /catur«> oJ a geueral situation teem-