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[left page]
[photograph]
HON. JOHN W. RUSSELL.
Nominated for Kansas Legislature by Democratic party
in 1914. Delivered stirring address before the
Afro-American Lyceum.

[right page]
Colored Men in Politics

If you would ask the average colored man why
he loves to dabble in politics he would tell you
that it was because he has a right to do so.

That is a poor excuse. We must have an object
in view.

Very few colored men change their poltics,
while the white change as often as party policies
are distasteful to their likes.

No matter what principles are enunciated by
the Republican party the Negro usually lines up
with the party in full strength, and for what purpose?
To some it might appear that it is for the
sake of holding a few minor offices, but this is
worse than no excuse, for under a Democratic administration
the colored man fills about as many
offices as under the Republicans.

The Proper Training.

If the colored people had had the proper training
in all the years since the ballot was put into
our hands we would have learned long ago how to
use that ballot in favor of a friend and against
an enemy and not for the Republican party.

This young herd which now dominates and controls
the destiny of the Republican party knows no
more about the Lincoln or Grant style of republicanism