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PRICE, F.W., [?], Ca. Sept. 8 [or 3], 1916.
Says there has been considerable discussion in that section relative to the negro Judge (Robert H. Terrell) appointed by President Wilson to preside over the Municipal Court in Washington, D.C.
Asks for information relative to the appintee, the Court and the reason for his appointment. (Memo supplied by Department of Justice)
See 400 – Dist. of Col. –
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DREW, [?} P.W., Washington, D.C., October 3, 1916.
Extends invitation to the President to address the 54th Annual Convention of the Emancipation of Slaves, Cosmopolitan Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., October 22 - Nov. 6, [191?]. Also asks for contribution
See Inv [?]
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Mr. J. R. Tinnulty.
THE FREEDMAN
Devoted to Political Freedom and Development of the American Negro "BY THIS FREEDOM WE SHALL CONQUER"
Vol. I Saturday, October 7th, 1916 No. 1
ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL COLORED DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE (EASTERN DIVISION)
[text on left side of image] He Has Made a Good President of All American Citizens . . . We Will Reward Him With Another Term . . .
[image of Woodrow Wilson and Thomas R. Marshall]
[text on right side of image] Never before under any administration has the Negro benefited as much by the fortunes of prosperity as under the Wilson administration.
[left column of article] JEFFERSON-AND THE NEGRO
Let us consider the educational status of the American negro and the infiuence that has brought about his economic independence today. This is not politics: it is a chapter in the human history of the country.
In 1619, twenty African negroes, the first to set foot on this land, were brought here as chattel slaves. You undoubtedly are already familiar with the "rights and privileges" of your ancestors of that period. We will pass over that age of darkness and, with a bound that will make your eyes open up wide, glance at the page entitled, "To-day."
To-day there are 10,000,000 of your brethren exercising the rights of free men, enjoying the privileges of modern education and economic emancipation. After thirty years of effort we
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[right column of article] have over 25,000 Afro-American teachers throughout the United States devoting themselves to the education and development of the negro population. Four thousand of your number have been prepared for the ministry. And in every community of the South the profession of law and medicine is represented by one of your race.
Here is something to think about. What has brought about such an astonishing revolution in the history of the country yet so young?
Here is the answer: One hundred years ago to day, Thomas Jefferson, father of Democracy and one of the greatest if not the greatest statesmen of our country, conceived the idea of emancipating every slave in the United States and then, by industrial training, fitting them for political
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[left column of left page] and economic freedom. He set forth and astonishing – for that period – plan of education whereby schools would be established so that not a child would live more than an easy riding distance from them.
Jefferson, however, with his breadth of human understanding and sympathy that has made "Jeffersonian Democracy" go down through the ages, was before his time in this endeavor. The people were not ready for any such startling departure from the instituted scheme of things. And so, for the time, the plan remained in suspense.
The seed, however, had been sown and, in 1837, we find Richard Humphreys, a bug, public spirited man of the times, leaving what was then a princely sum of $10,000 for a foundation to be known as the Institute for Colored Youth.
When we consider that before the Civil War there was very little thought, generally, to the improvement of the condition of the colored population, you will realize what a surprising affect Mr. Humphreys' bequest had. But Jefferson, the Democrat, had succeeded in planting the tree and, already, it was beginning to bear fruit.
Of course, after the Civil War, Afro-American stock went soaring, so to speak. In 1868, we find General S.C. Armstrong, of Norwich, Conn., establishing the million-dollar Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Va. Out of this grew the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute where 1,500 students are now being trained by a corp of 151 instructors. Jeffersonianism at last!
DEMOCRATIC INITIATIVE AGAIN After many years of effort by both civic and political associations to secure through the Legislature the proper authority to establish and maintain a regiment to be composed of Colored men in the city of New York; and after repeated rebuffs at the hands of Charles E. Hughes who was then Governor Hughes. The democratic legislature showed its friendship at the first asking and passed the necessary bill. and a democratic Governor signed the bill giving authority for recruiting the regiment. The act of recruiting after the real work has been done is now going on under the Whitman administration, but the pioneers who fought for an finally got the measure made into law will not forget who were their real friends in the trying times of the birth of the 15th Infantry, N.G.N.Y. ––––––––––––––– The trouble with the Negro is not racial but political. If he would support the Democratic party with one half the zeal and consistency with which he has supported the Republican party, and for one-half the period of time, his status as an American citizen in the economic, industrial and political development of this country would be a hundred times higher; but he is getting there, and all the frenzied raving of the senile editors of the Weekly Patent Backs known as the Colored Press cannot stay his coming.
[right column of left page] A SUGGESTION TO THOSE WHO THINK
The colored voters in this campaign occupy a unique position. His one time friend, the Republican party, after having profited by his loyalty for fity years, seeks to hold his allegiance in the norht where his vote counts, and repudiate it in the south, through "Lily Whitism," where his vote does not count. The late Republican Convention gave him the "Silent Treatment." It may be possible that the leaders of the party think that the colored voter has reached its political maturity. If such be the case, the only thing for the race to do is to act accordingly and view political parties in the light of performances.
Each voter is now left to choose his political affiliation, not upon sentiment, but upon reaons that will stand the text of patriotism. He should view the political records of the candidates with a scrutinizing discrimination. He should comare the records of the legislative branch of the government under the present and former administration. He should, before deciding his party allegiance in this campaign, carefully stufy the following laws passed by the present Democratic Congress and signed by President Wilson:
"The Rural Credits Bill," as it affects the Negro farmer.
"The Child Labor Bill," as it affects the Negro children of the south.
"The Workman's Compensation Act," as it affects the twenty-five thousand colored government emloyees.
"The Eight-Hour Law," as it affects the 200,000 colored railroad employees.
"The Federal Reserve Act," as it affects the colored business man.
The colored voter should also find out for himself whether or not the present Democratic Congress has placed upon the statue of the United States any discriminatory laws –laws aimed at the civil and political libertied of the colored people.
The foregoing has to do with the material progress of the race. Unless, Mr. Colored Voter, you are fully advised upon these matters, you are not qualified to vote in the November election. Settle these questions for yourself. ––––––––––––––––––––
MORE WILSON INITIATIVE
And while we are on the subject of Wilson initiative, we might quote a few figures that will be found on the records of the Treasury Department, should any of your friends, "the enemy," care to doubt out loud.
In the Treasury Department, from March 4, 1913 (to December 31, 1915, there were 333 permanent appointments of colored employees made. Added to this number are 202 temporary jobs given to the members of the colored race. Then, too, figures show us that President Wilson saw fit to promote 452 negroes on the Government payroll.
If this does not show an active interest in the welfare of the colored man, surely, what could show it. Figures tell no lies. Its an easy matter to say such and such is so. But records cannot deceive.
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[left column of right page] AN ODIOUS COMPARISON
President Wilson as a Democratic governor of New Jersey gave the negro more political recognition than did Mr. Charles Evans Hughes as a Republican governor of the State of New York.
Moreover, President Wilson added to and promoted those he found in positions, while Mr. Hughes discharged those he found holding jobs.
The Republican National Committee desperate in its effort to control the negro vote in support of its National Ticket, appear to have but small regard for facts, for in their campaign text-book they give credit to a statement which is entirely at variance with truth. They say in effect in their text-book: That the Democratic Administration has wiped out our Colored representatives in the Consular service, while the fact is, that the records of the State Department show the following Colored men, represented in the foreign service of the Government at the present time, all of whom with the exception of the representative to the Republic of Liberia are Republicans who have been retained in the Consular Service had a number of them promoted for the ability they have shown in representing this country in the various countries to whic they have been accredited. The list is as follows:
James L. Curtis, New York, Minister Resident, Consul-General to Liberia.
Richard C. Bundy, Ohio, Secretary of Legation at Monrovia, Liberia.
James G. Carter, Georgia, Consul at Tananarivo, Madagascar.
William H. Hunt, New York, Consul at St. Etienne.
Lemuel W. Livingston, Florida, Consul at Cape Haitien.
Christopher H. Payne, West Virginia, Consul at St. Thomas.
Herbert R. Jerby, Tennessee, Consul at Dakar, Senegal,
So that any one familiar with these facts can plainly see that Colored Republicans have small cause Administration, and the only valid complaint which could be logically made, should come from Colored Democrats who feel that these places which are being so acceptably filled by their Colored Republican brethren could undoubtedly be as creditably filled by worthy Colored Democrats.
The editors of our Colored "Weekly Patent Backs," have religiously refrained from giving to their readers a truthful resume of the present Administration's treatment of the Colored republican office-holders.
In the spirit of fairness we assume that this is a result either of a wilful desire to suppress the truth or of a real lack of information on the part of the editors.
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[right column of right page] A SIMPLE TRUTH
The policy of the National Republican party towards the Negro since his enfranchisement is an unbroken record of hypocrisy and injustice. Its platforms ever since the days of Abraham Lincoln, with the exception of the one adopted at the Chicago convention in June of the present year, are replete with declarations that it believe in the principles of political and civil rights of the colored race, and of promises of full protection to it in the enjoyment of those rights, but it is a matter of common knowledge to every casual reader of the history of the Republican party that it has not made a single bona fide effort to give to the race that protection to which it so vehemently claims it is entitled, notwithstanding it has had absolute control of the national government for a period of approximately fifty years excepting the brief terms of Grover Cleveland.
During all of this time the Republican party has adroitly attempted and with flattering success, to poison the minds of the Negro against the Democratic party and make his status as an American citizen a national issue. Why have the Republicans undertaken this political job? Events have clearly shown that it was not undertaken out of any considration for him but solely in order to retain control of the national government and to fatten their purse at the expense of alienating the friendship of the Democratic party from the race, thus assuring its solid political support for themselves.
The Republican party has taught the Negro to believe that the Democratic party is constantly seeking to cut of his political and civil rights and to destroy him as a factor in American politics; a more infamours doctrine was never sponsored by a more infamous set of political tricksters and hypocrites on the face of the earth. No such efforts were made under Cleveland's administration and no such efforts have been attempted under the present administration, notwithstanding the House and Senate are overwhelmingly democratic and Wilson a democratic president.
If the Democratic party desired to enact such laws no power on earth could have prevented it from doing so.
On the other hand, instead of trying to discourage the Negro as a citizen uder the Wilson administration, Howard University, a distinctly Negro institution, received seventy-two thousand dollars more that it received under any former administration in one appropriation.
You say, and truthfully, that the Democratic party in the south has disenfranchised and jimcrowed the Negro. Why? The answer to this question brings us down to the remedy.
The Republican party taught us to jimcrow the Democratic party and we refused to have anything with it. So thoroughly did we learn the lessons that we refused and still refuse to vote for our best friend and neighbor if he happens to be a Democrat, but will vote for a thief if he calls himself a Republican.
Our remedy, if we would save the race from complete political annihilation, is to make friends of our Democratic enemies. If we do
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[left column] more for the Democratic party, the Democratic party will do more for us. We should lose our political identity within the ranks of the two dominant parties and permit no man to suggest our color as a means of determining our political convictions. When the reason for the laws of disfranchisement fail, the law ceases to be of value and will not be enforced. It must be remembered, however, that we cannot win the confidence and respect of the Democratic party by staying out of it any more than a preacher can win the respect and confidence of his congregation by staying away from his church.
THE COLORED LABORER His interest in labor legislation cannot be separated from that of the white laborer. It is impossible to lift one to a higher level without corresponding benefits accruing to both, etc. etc. Therefore, Negroes would prove untrue to their own interests if the failed to unite with the whites to make a common cause in the great effort being made by Organized Labor in this campaign to give due and proper support to an administration which has done more to deserve their earnest support than any other administration within the past fifty years. Will they have the moral courage to come out like men and do their duty?
THE PULLMAN EMPLOYEES
There are said to be employed in the service of the Pullman Car Company 9,000 colored men. Of all the laborers employed by the Public Service Corporations in the United States, these men have the distinction of having the greatest responsibility and receiving the poorest pay. It has been a noteworthy fact that every paltry raise in their pay has been the result of continual prodding of that great corporation at the hands of democratic investigators who have held them up time and again to public ridicule for the unfair treatment of their colored employees; the acid test of their appreciation for the great "Eight-Hour Law", inaugurated by President Wilson, will be watched with some interest by the friends of that great labor principle. Will they prove equal to the occasion, or still leave it to the whites to give battle for these great issues, which they share in common when labor wins its battle?
WHY NOT HELP THE RACE TO RISE
The trouble with the Negro is not racial but political. If he would support the Democratic party, and for one-half the period of time, his with which he has supported the Republican party, and for one-half the period of time, his status as an American citizen in the economic, industrial and political development of this country would be a hundred times higher.
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DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATION OF MUTUAL BENEFIT TO ALL RACES
Lay aside for the moment the matter of race sympathy. Let us consider the working man as an individual without regard to his race, color or religion. After all, we're all working along from day to day with the same general scheme of existence. It may be well at times for us to consider certain local conditions but the question of "making a living" presents itself to one and all alike.
Now, then, for legislation that benefits all classes alike. The Workingmen's Compensation Act, discussed to death during former Republican Administrations and pigeon-holed as often as discussed, was passed by the present Democratic Congress and immediately signed by President Wilson.
This means that no longer need the laboring man, injured while at work by some defective tool, machine or condition over this he had no control, despair of redress because of the chicanery of lawyers and slow process of the courts. No, on the other hand, the Government immediately takes up his case and he gets a square deal without being made the victim of crooked legal machinations.
The reader need not be told what the Eight-Hour Law, passed during the term of President Wilson, will mean to the colored employee of the railroad. Neither need we go into the benefits accruing to you under the Child Labor Bill. These you are already familiar with.
But don't forget – and remember also that pettifogging corner "orators" are trying to cloud the issue – that all this beneficial legislation is due to Wilson – that's all.
MR. HUGHES' INDIFFERENCE TO THE COLORED MAN.
Let us look over Mr. Hughes' two terms as Governor of the State of New York. What do we find? Utter indifference to the colored man and his lot.
No, Mr. Hughes, coming out of the obscurity of a theological seminary, already had become blinded by the blare of the election night red lights and with temporary success at his side his mind soared to higher things. The colored man was good enough to go to the polls and do his little share toward getting him into the Capitol, but now, why bother? He had arrived! He could afford to ignore for the present the men who toiled in order that he might enjoy a seat among the mighty.
And so, dear reader, you may hunt through the records in vain for any indication of Mr. Hughes' magnanimity toward you while he was Governor of New York.
TIME TO QUIT
We must have friends in the Courts, in Congress, and in all public institutions no matter which political party succeeds.
The Democratic party contains men of high principled, integrity and justice. It is of us to make them our friends, and quite foolish to continue to make them our political enemies.