COLOUR LINE IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14146, 23 August 1909, Page 4

COLOUR LINE IN AMERICA.

American citizens of, African descent, mustering upwards of 12,000,000, are profoundly agitated because of the decision by the United States Inter-State Commerce Commission, which declares that negro passengers on Southern railways and tramcars have all the privileges and accommodation they can reasonably expect to enjoy in a country where the white man greatly outnumbers them. The negroes, represented by five bishops of the African Episcopal Church, alleged discrimination as. regards privileges and accommodation, which, they urged, should no longer exist in a country where the constitution proclaims all men born free and equal. For one thing, the negroes strongly objected to being trailed along in a somewhat inferior car called the "Jim Crow car," attached to the superior car designed for the exclusive occupation of the lordly whites. The Commission decided, however, that "equality of accommodation does not mean identity of accommodation," and so the Jim Crow car must continue. Moreover, the negroes complained that they were not given a square deal in the dining cars upon the railway trains. The Commission, in effect, decided that inasmuch as negroes are included in the "third call for dinner," by which time most of the whites have fed, the negroes have nothing to complain about. The Commission informed the dusky bishops that they are labouring under grievances which are more imaginary than real, and that if the letter of the law is not always observed, the spirit is interpreted generously. The Inter-State Commission was confronted with the impossible task of pleasing two big parties —the Southerners, who believe in "keeping the negroes in their place," and the Northerners, many of whom profess a dislike for the "Jim Crow law," and believe that the civil rights of their dusky brothers should be more generally upheld by the Courts.