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756
[stamp: ACK'D APR1 1913 C.T.H.]
152
[stamp: THE WHITE HOUSE APR 1913 RECEIVED]
Washington, D.C. 612 F St. N. W. March 31, 1913.
To the President of the Uncted States.
Sir:
Heretofore, as indicated by your letters to me dated July 11, September 5 and November 27 1912, it has been my privilege to invite your attention to one of the largest unsolved problems pending before the American electorate, to wit: the negro question.
It has been transmitted from generation to generation as an unsettled questions and meets the threshold of your Administiation as a legacy from former Administrations that treated the matter inefficiently.
That the matter is of practical and increasing importance appears from the fact that there were in the Federal Service September 1,1912 22,440 members of this race drawing annual salaries aggregating 12,456,760 (See p.13 "The Republican Party and the Afro-American - A Look of Facts and Figures" by Cyrus Field Adams" issued by the Republican National Committee 1712).
Will your Administration leave this subject where it finds it? Or will genuine efforts be made, under your guidance, to affect permanent settlement thereof?
the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Federal Constitution, whereon the claims of the Afro-Americans are based, have never been tested as to their validity and it can only be by testing these Amendments that this problem can be solved.
If the corperation of your Administration could be obtained to achieve the end, outlined in H.J.R.41-62d Congress, I could indicate to you a practical manner of presenting such a test. 83434
759
[STAMP= ACK'D APR 16 1913 C.T.H.]
[STAMPE = THE WHITE HOUSE APR 16 1913 RECEIVED]
981 Blake Avenue, Brooklyn Borough, Now York City, April 14. 1913.
The Honorable Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States,
Sir:-
We beg leave to inform you, that in the City of New York, about Fifteen years ago, an organization of colored men was formed for the sole purpose of relieving the colored race from all troubles resulting from slavery, war and reconstruction. Practical experience at the South taught us that the method of the Republican party in playing upon the prejudices and fears of the colored race, during the past forty years, was the root of all trouble. It would have been both needless and impossible for Southern politicians to successfully appeal to whites to stand against negroes for the Preservation of waht is best in their State governments, if negroes had been allowed to reject the voice of distrust and suspicion and give confidence to honor¬ able whites who would then stand for them in the hour of trouble.
Presidents Garfield, Cleveland, Roosevelt and Taft were appealed to along this line, and now since light and opportunity are brought to our aid, we most humbly beg for encouragement from the National administration that our work for mutual confidence, both undustrial and political, may extend, under the sign of true democracy, to the humblest negro hut in the South; that we may strive as earnestly during four years to make friends of the races, as Republicans tried during forty years to make them enemies. Since there are to-day those at the head of the Nation whoe believe the teachings of Almighty God and hu83436 man justice to be vital elements in American Democracy, and since many of us for more than thirty years, have worked, hoped and prayed for the present great opportunity, we trust that if it should be the pleasure of the government to appoint negroes to office, that they will not be of that unworthy class of grafters who even demanded promise of office in the last campaign as pay for their votes, but some, at least, who shall support and give National character to our work.
Respectfully,
John B. Syphax President.
[83436]
760
Eiditors Refuse to Leave at End of Prima Donna's Great Recital.
Marcella Sembrich stiil retains those rare resources that have so long held her popularity at high tide, both before and during her reign as prima donna soprano at the Metropolitan Opera House.
She proved that conclusively in Carnegie Hall yesterday afternoon when she gave a song recital which signals the beginning of a country-wide concert tour to last all season.
[right margin: 83437]
And in the course of a 2-hour-long programme Mme. Sembrich made it plain—by her graciousness and her little personal peculiarities—just why she holds a place in the affections of the music-loving public that will be difficult for another soprano to fill.
Society was represented in the large