XVI
FOR FEDERAL ACTION
The race question is national and federal. No city or state can solve it alone. There must be cooperation between states. And there must be federal handling of it.
This is the view of Major Joel E. Spingarn, recently returned from service under fire in France and later service in the occupied zone in Germany with the 311th Infantry. Major Spingarn was for six years chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People.
"What is now happening in Chicago has happened in other large cities, north and south, east and west," said Major Spingarn. "With the initial or igniting occurrences out of consideration we have much the same developments in every case where there are race riots. Everything considered, the character of the Chicago population and the size of it, the total number of casualties is surprisingly low.
"The fact must now be emphasized that the race problem is not local, but is a national question. It should have federal attention, and there should be federal aid. We must fight as a national danger the race hatred that exists in the south. That particular form of race hatred, which was one fundamental cause of the civil war, should not be permitted to spread to other sections.
"The southern neglect of the negro is a national problem. All the conditions of life that tend to degrade the negro in the south immediately come into evidence the moment there is a shift of negro population from south to north. Every circumstance of bad housing, bad sanitation, school neglect and economic inequality that exists in the southern states must be regarded as a national problem, this more especially in view of the shifts of population that are so easy now and which are sometimes an absolute necessity for the conduct of industry.
"There must be enlightenment of the intelligent whites of America on all phases of this problem. The intelligent white man who is not informed on the neglect and wrong training of the negro in the south is as dangerous to future peace and law and order as is the so-called bad negro. I have fought for my country two years as a major of infantry and I wish to give it as my mature judgment that no barbarities committed by the Prussians in Belgium will compare with the brutalities and atrocities committed on negroes in the south. In effect, you may say that the negroes who come north have issued from a system of life and industry far worse than anything ever seen under Prussianism in its worse manifestations.
"Every colored soldier that I have talked with in France, Germany or America has a grievance. If there should be a development of bolshevism in this country, it is plainly evident where these soldiers, at least those with whom I have talked, would take their stand.
"One of the most significant features in the Chicago situation is the stockyards labor union, and the apparent good will between the two races among the thousands of white and colored men in that organization. I am told that about 60 per cent of the stockyard workers are Poles, and that their leader, John Kirkulski, as well as the secretary and the 500 shop stewards of the organization, are taking a decisive stand against race prejudice, violence and anything else than peace and equality before the law.
"If this is true and it should be found that among the 70,000 men employed at the packing houses there has been no violence between white and colored union men, it may be that this is a high point in history. It is gratifying to hear that the employers at the stockyards recognized months ago that rivalries and bitterness between union white men and nonunion colored men would make a bad situation, and therefore they consented to the colored employment agencies recommending to all negroes applying for jobs that they should join the union. It is evident that without these stabilizing influences Chicago might have had a slaughter running into hundreds.
"A commission, consisting of men and women from both races, should be appointed to investigate and make recommendations. Such a commission, if it has the right people on it, takes the thought of people away from violence. That was our experience in the Atlanta riots."