The Submerged Negroes
Title
The Submerged Negroes
Creator
Boston Transcript Company
Hartford courant
Identifier
CS67
Date
1914 November 16
Description
Newspaper article questions President Wilson's sincerity on issues of race.
Source
Library of Congress
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Wilson Papers, Series 4, 152A Reel 231, Manuscript Division
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
African-Americans--segregation
Contributor
Althea Cupo
Maria Matlock
Language
English
Provenance
Digital copy acquired from federal archives by previous WWPL Archivist, Heidi Hackford.
Text
THE "SUBMERGED" NEGROES
The President's Attitude Towards His Dark-Skinned Fellow Citizens Contrasted with His Concern for Mexican Indians -- His Intellectual Sincerity Questioned.
[From the Hartford Courant Rep.]
It is odd, when you think of it, that President Wilson did not recall the negroes of this country when his heart began to be moved for the "submerged 85 percent" of the people of Mexico. In two States at least, Mississippi and South Carolina, the negroes are actually in the majority. The figures, according to the census of 1910, are 786,119 whites and 1,000,487 blacks for Mississippi, and 679,162 whites and 835,843 blacks for South Carolina.
In these two States it is not a question of "85 per cent," but of an actual majority. These colored majorities also consist wholly of American citizens by a good long descent in the matter of birth and habitat, and by full political rights as such citizens for forty-four years -- nearly half a century. There are other States where the negro population runs from three-quarters to 85 per cent of the whole population--in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. In these six States, then, the same condition which evoked President Wilson's profound and active sympathy in the case of Mexican Indians existed right here in the United States in the case of our American negroes. Mexico is a foreign country, too, in regard to which official sympathy and interference would fairly be supposed to be less direct and less intensive than in the case of our own people, similarly "submerged" here as there.
President Wilson was born in Virginia, but that was quite a long while ago. His name and fame were made in that part of this country where the negro population is not so abundant. A natural process of absorption might be supposed to have lifted his opinions above the narrower range of merely local conditions and local considerations. He has also made a study of constitutional government in this country. He has written a book about it. In this book he says (page 2) that "a constitutional government is one whose powers have been adapted to the interests of its people and to the maintenance of individual liberty." The interests of the people and the maintenance of individual liberty stand on an equal footing in this definition. The omission in the definition is in not saying that our constitutional government proceeds wholly from the people. It is, therefore, not supposable that the interests of the people can wholly override individual liberty under our method of constitutional government. The interests of the people require that that kind of individual liberty which runs into burglarizing and swindling should be limited, and that is the customary rule; but when the interests of the people restrict individual liberty in the exercise of political rights to the extent that a majority of the people is subjected to the control of a minority, our form of constitutional government simply tumbles down, for the obvious reason that its only sanction is derived from the will of the majority.
This is the situation in Mississippi and South Carolina, the restriction upon the negroes there having nothing to do with their character, but only with their color. It is also the situation in four other States to the extent of from 75 to 85 per cent of their population. President Wilson's heart was torn with anguish--and Mr. Bryan wept with him--because 85 per cent of the Mexican Indians did not exercise political rights which they have never possessed, and which precious few of them know anything about, whereas both men have been deaf, dumb and blind in regard to our own negroes, who are not allowed to exercise political rights which they do possess, constitutionally, and who are systematically working to fit themselves more and more for the proper and useful exercise of these rights.
It is easy to understand this difference when one looks at it from the point of view of our domestic politics; but from the point of view of intellectual sincerity it is odd.
A Sinister Development
The President's Attitude Towards the Negro Sharply Criticized by a Supporter of His Administration
[From the Springfield Republican]
The fact that an emotional negro may have lost control of his temper and his manners in addressing the President at a White House conference should not obscure the painful fact that Mr. Wilson has fully accepted the principle and the practice of the segregation of the white and black employees in certain administrative departments of the Government at Washington, notably in the Treasury and Postal buildings. Segregation in Treasury and Postoffice departments was never practiced in Washington until the Southern Democrats who now preside there came into office. In President Cleveland's time there were Southern Democrats holding the posts of Secretary of the Treasury and Postmaster General, but they did not venture to inflict their views concerning racial caste upon the American people. It has remained for the Wilson Administration to do this. The President, who a year ago took the question of segregation under advisement now unqualifiedly justifies the separation of Government employees on the basis of color. It is a distressing and sinister development.
The President holds that segregation under certain conditions is necessary to prevent racial friction between Government employees and that the reduction of friction means increased efficiency in the service. But something much deeper, much more fundamental is involved. If there are white employees who object to working within sight and sound of negro employees, they should be promptly confronted with the alternative of accepting such conditions of work or of leaving the service. For the so-called friction arises from a race prejudice which, in a large section of the republic, has been the underlying motive for a ceaseless assault upon the political and civic rights of the negroes under the constitution of the United States. The President declares that segregation is a human, not a political question. It is impossible to agree with him. The negro has for years been under a severe pressure, in many States, forcing him into a position of political inferiority, and the black race cannot avoid being further humiliated and discredited if the Federal Government pursues a segregation policy. What nations regard as their honor a race must deveop and crystalize in the dignity of its political status and in the respect with which it is treated in the world.
The negro race in this country is the political equal of the white race, under the Federal Constitution, and while the "Jim Crow" status and "grandfather" suffrage laws of various States have stood the test of judicial review, segregation in the Washington departments unquestionably violates the spirit of the Constitution, whatever shift for the Government the courst my find in its letter. That the nation-wide public sentiment outside of Washington itself sustains classification of this character in Government departments is not susceptible of proof. The Southern influence now dominating those departments is simply asserting its power by introducing the cruelest Southern customs into the Government of the whole people.
"Small, Mean and Petty"
The Democratic World Offers No Apology for the Descrimination and Declares that Wilson Cannot Escape the Responsibility
[From the New York World, Dem.]
The bad manners of the chairman of the delegation, however deplorable, are no justification of the policy of Jim-Crow government which certain members have established in their departments; and, as the President well knows, insolent conduct is not confined to the members of any particular race.
The President should have foreseen this unfortunate issue when Mr. McAdoo and Mr. Burleson were carrying their color-line theories into Democratic government. Mr. Wilson told the committee that here had been no discrimination in this comfort and surrounding of the negro clerks, but explained that he had informed officials that the segregation [illegible]
The President [illegible] political question, but he is wrong. Anything that is unjust, discriminating and un-American in government is certain to be a political question. Servants of the United States Government are servants of the United States Government, regardless of race or color. For several years a negro has been Collector of Internal Revenue in New York. He never found it necessary to segregate the white employees of his department to prevent "friction;" yet he would have had quite as much right to do so as Mr. McAdoo had to segregate the negro employees of the Treasury in Washington.
While the Democrats of the country have been trying to solve certain great problems of Government, a few Southern members of the cabinet have been allowed to exploit their petty local prejudice at the expense of the party's reputation for exact justice.
Whether the President thinks so or not, the segregation rule was promulgated as a deliberate discrimination against negro employees.
Worse still, it is a small, mean, petty discrimination, and Mr. Wilson ought to have set his heel upon this presumptuous Jim-Crow government the moment it was established. He ought to set his heel upon it now. It is a reproach to his Administration and to the great political principles which he represents.
A Theorist Gone Astray
The Negro the Latest Victim a Verbiage Obsesstion
[From the New York Tribune, Rep.]
The tears which the Evening Post and the World are shedding over Mr. Wilson's characteristic treatment of the negro race would be more convincing examples of their political independence if they had not swallowed far larger inconsistencies on the President's part. Truth to tell, the case of the negroes, deprived of their accustomed rights throught the whim of Mr. Wilson's cabinet, is but one more excellent illustration of the wide and deep ditch which lies between Mr. Wilson's words and his deeds.
We are far from implying an intellectual dishonesty on the President's part. We think he, as much as his adoring admirer, is utterly deceived by the fine words and neat phrases which fall from his pen. "The New Freedom" pops out of his mouth, and immediately it seems to him that all business is breathing more freely, that prosperity is around the corner - and that the negro clerks are much happier for being "segregated." "Watchful waiting" is another illustration. Once the mouth-filler crossed the threshold of Mr. Wilson's brain it seemed as if peace was as good as won for Mexico and that every peon already had his acres. And now look at the poor thing!
The negroes are only a few more victims of a theorist gone astray. Some time Mr. Wilson may learn that his theories are not the sum totatl of all wisdom antd that by listening to a critic without losing his temper may even improve them a little. He may also learn that the finest spun theory, supported by the prettiest casuistries, is not worth very much unless it is executed in a spirt of fair play and common sense.
Equal Rights vs. New Freedom
[From the Springfield Union, Rep.]
A second time President Wilson has lost his temper in dealing with a delegation demanding equal rights. In the first instance it was the woman suffragists who incurred the President's displeasure by asking for the same franchise rights as men. The second ruffling of the presidential poise occurred when a delegation of negroes called at the White House to protest against the policy of segregation introduced and carried on under the Democratic Administration. The spokesmen were perhaps a bit untactful in both instances, but of their honesty and earnestness there was not the slightest doubt. In both cases, however, they learned that the objects they sought were not to be gained by the President's help, and that he rather resented the manner in which they appealed to him for aid. Equal rights apparently has no place in the "new freedom" expounded by President Wilson.
Trotter Will Talk
[From the Hartford Courant, Rep.]
President Wilson and William Trotter of Boston could hardly be expected to talk harmoniously about the segregation of the negro and white employees in certain of the departments at Washington. In his usual peremptory way, the President declared that it was not a political question, but Dr. Wilson's dictum may not be the last word. Anyway, the President was able to take refuge in the determination not to talk further with Mr. Trotter. Mr. Trotter will do his talking outside the White House.
The President's Attitude Towards His Dark-Skinned Fellow Citizens Contrasted with His Concern for Mexican Indians -- His Intellectual Sincerity Questioned.
[From the Hartford Courant Rep.]
It is odd, when you think of it, that President Wilson did not recall the negroes of this country when his heart began to be moved for the "submerged 85 percent" of the people of Mexico. In two States at least, Mississippi and South Carolina, the negroes are actually in the majority. The figures, according to the census of 1910, are 786,119 whites and 1,000,487 blacks for Mississippi, and 679,162 whites and 835,843 blacks for South Carolina.
In these two States it is not a question of "85 per cent," but of an actual majority. These colored majorities also consist wholly of American citizens by a good long descent in the matter of birth and habitat, and by full political rights as such citizens for forty-four years -- nearly half a century. There are other States where the negro population runs from three-quarters to 85 per cent of the whole population--in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. In these six States, then, the same condition which evoked President Wilson's profound and active sympathy in the case of Mexican Indians existed right here in the United States in the case of our American negroes. Mexico is a foreign country, too, in regard to which official sympathy and interference would fairly be supposed to be less direct and less intensive than in the case of our own people, similarly "submerged" here as there.
President Wilson was born in Virginia, but that was quite a long while ago. His name and fame were made in that part of this country where the negro population is not so abundant. A natural process of absorption might be supposed to have lifted his opinions above the narrower range of merely local conditions and local considerations. He has also made a study of constitutional government in this country. He has written a book about it. In this book he says (page 2) that "a constitutional government is one whose powers have been adapted to the interests of its people and to the maintenance of individual liberty." The interests of the people and the maintenance of individual liberty stand on an equal footing in this definition. The omission in the definition is in not saying that our constitutional government proceeds wholly from the people. It is, therefore, not supposable that the interests of the people can wholly override individual liberty under our method of constitutional government. The interests of the people require that that kind of individual liberty which runs into burglarizing and swindling should be limited, and that is the customary rule; but when the interests of the people restrict individual liberty in the exercise of political rights to the extent that a majority of the people is subjected to the control of a minority, our form of constitutional government simply tumbles down, for the obvious reason that its only sanction is derived from the will of the majority.
This is the situation in Mississippi and South Carolina, the restriction upon the negroes there having nothing to do with their character, but only with their color. It is also the situation in four other States to the extent of from 75 to 85 per cent of their population. President Wilson's heart was torn with anguish--and Mr. Bryan wept with him--because 85 per cent of the Mexican Indians did not exercise political rights which they have never possessed, and which precious few of them know anything about, whereas both men have been deaf, dumb and blind in regard to our own negroes, who are not allowed to exercise political rights which they do possess, constitutionally, and who are systematically working to fit themselves more and more for the proper and useful exercise of these rights.
It is easy to understand this difference when one looks at it from the point of view of our domestic politics; but from the point of view of intellectual sincerity it is odd.
A Sinister Development
The President's Attitude Towards the Negro Sharply Criticized by a Supporter of His Administration
[From the Springfield Republican]
The fact that an emotional negro may have lost control of his temper and his manners in addressing the President at a White House conference should not obscure the painful fact that Mr. Wilson has fully accepted the principle and the practice of the segregation of the white and black employees in certain administrative departments of the Government at Washington, notably in the Treasury and Postal buildings. Segregation in Treasury and Postoffice departments was never practiced in Washington until the Southern Democrats who now preside there came into office. In President Cleveland's time there were Southern Democrats holding the posts of Secretary of the Treasury and Postmaster General, but they did not venture to inflict their views concerning racial caste upon the American people. It has remained for the Wilson Administration to do this. The President, who a year ago took the question of segregation under advisement now unqualifiedly justifies the separation of Government employees on the basis of color. It is a distressing and sinister development.
The President holds that segregation under certain conditions is necessary to prevent racial friction between Government employees and that the reduction of friction means increased efficiency in the service. But something much deeper, much more fundamental is involved. If there are white employees who object to working within sight and sound of negro employees, they should be promptly confronted with the alternative of accepting such conditions of work or of leaving the service. For the so-called friction arises from a race prejudice which, in a large section of the republic, has been the underlying motive for a ceaseless assault upon the political and civic rights of the negroes under the constitution of the United States. The President declares that segregation is a human, not a political question. It is impossible to agree with him. The negro has for years been under a severe pressure, in many States, forcing him into a position of political inferiority, and the black race cannot avoid being further humiliated and discredited if the Federal Government pursues a segregation policy. What nations regard as their honor a race must deveop and crystalize in the dignity of its political status and in the respect with which it is treated in the world.
The negro race in this country is the political equal of the white race, under the Federal Constitution, and while the "Jim Crow" status and "grandfather" suffrage laws of various States have stood the test of judicial review, segregation in the Washington departments unquestionably violates the spirit of the Constitution, whatever shift for the Government the courst my find in its letter. That the nation-wide public sentiment outside of Washington itself sustains classification of this character in Government departments is not susceptible of proof. The Southern influence now dominating those departments is simply asserting its power by introducing the cruelest Southern customs into the Government of the whole people.
"Small, Mean and Petty"
The Democratic World Offers No Apology for the Descrimination and Declares that Wilson Cannot Escape the Responsibility
[From the New York World, Dem.]
The bad manners of the chairman of the delegation, however deplorable, are no justification of the policy of Jim-Crow government which certain members have established in their departments; and, as the President well knows, insolent conduct is not confined to the members of any particular race.
The President should have foreseen this unfortunate issue when Mr. McAdoo and Mr. Burleson were carrying their color-line theories into Democratic government. Mr. Wilson told the committee that here had been no discrimination in this comfort and surrounding of the negro clerks, but explained that he had informed officials that the segregation [illegible]
The President [illegible] political question, but he is wrong. Anything that is unjust, discriminating and un-American in government is certain to be a political question. Servants of the United States Government are servants of the United States Government, regardless of race or color. For several years a negro has been Collector of Internal Revenue in New York. He never found it necessary to segregate the white employees of his department to prevent "friction;" yet he would have had quite as much right to do so as Mr. McAdoo had to segregate the negro employees of the Treasury in Washington.
While the Democrats of the country have been trying to solve certain great problems of Government, a few Southern members of the cabinet have been allowed to exploit their petty local prejudice at the expense of the party's reputation for exact justice.
Whether the President thinks so or not, the segregation rule was promulgated as a deliberate discrimination against negro employees.
Worse still, it is a small, mean, petty discrimination, and Mr. Wilson ought to have set his heel upon this presumptuous Jim-Crow government the moment it was established. He ought to set his heel upon it now. It is a reproach to his Administration and to the great political principles which he represents.
A Theorist Gone Astray
The Negro the Latest Victim a Verbiage Obsesstion
[From the New York Tribune, Rep.]
The tears which the Evening Post and the World are shedding over Mr. Wilson's characteristic treatment of the negro race would be more convincing examples of their political independence if they had not swallowed far larger inconsistencies on the President's part. Truth to tell, the case of the negroes, deprived of their accustomed rights throught the whim of Mr. Wilson's cabinet, is but one more excellent illustration of the wide and deep ditch which lies between Mr. Wilson's words and his deeds.
We are far from implying an intellectual dishonesty on the President's part. We think he, as much as his adoring admirer, is utterly deceived by the fine words and neat phrases which fall from his pen. "The New Freedom" pops out of his mouth, and immediately it seems to him that all business is breathing more freely, that prosperity is around the corner - and that the negro clerks are much happier for being "segregated." "Watchful waiting" is another illustration. Once the mouth-filler crossed the threshold of Mr. Wilson's brain it seemed as if peace was as good as won for Mexico and that every peon already had his acres. And now look at the poor thing!
The negroes are only a few more victims of a theorist gone astray. Some time Mr. Wilson may learn that his theories are not the sum totatl of all wisdom antd that by listening to a critic without losing his temper may even improve them a little. He may also learn that the finest spun theory, supported by the prettiest casuistries, is not worth very much unless it is executed in a spirt of fair play and common sense.
Equal Rights vs. New Freedom
[From the Springfield Union, Rep.]
A second time President Wilson has lost his temper in dealing with a delegation demanding equal rights. In the first instance it was the woman suffragists who incurred the President's displeasure by asking for the same franchise rights as men. The second ruffling of the presidential poise occurred when a delegation of negroes called at the White House to protest against the policy of segregation introduced and carried on under the Democratic Administration. The spokesmen were perhaps a bit untactful in both instances, but of their honesty and earnestness there was not the slightest doubt. In both cases, however, they learned that the objects they sought were not to be gained by the President's help, and that he rather resented the manner in which they appealed to him for aid. Equal rights apparently has no place in the "new freedom" expounded by President Wilson.
Trotter Will Talk
[From the Hartford Courant, Rep.]
President Wilson and William Trotter of Boston could hardly be expected to talk harmoniously about the segregation of the negro and white employees in certain of the departments at Washington. In his usual peremptory way, the President declared that it was not a political question, but Dr. Wilson's dictum may not be the last word. Anyway, the President was able to take refuge in the determination not to talk further with Mr. Trotter. Mr. Trotter will do his talking outside the White House.
Original Format
Newspaper article
Files
Collection
Citation
Boston Transcript Company and Hartford courant, “The Submerged Negroes,” 1914 November 16, CS67, Race and Segregation Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.