No sensible person imagines that he knows what to do about the race problem because he does not know a method of eradicating race instincts, and he would not want to eradicate them if he knew how. A person may know what will surely happen if the race instincts become inflamed and not have the slightest idea how to prevent contact from flaming into violent action.
We know that if it comes to violence the blacks will get the worst of it. We know that the situation as it exists now has many possibilities of danger. Both North and South have had enough violence. Both may have more. Communities may not be able to stop agitation or effectively to counteract it, but they can see that the processes of law are applied with severity.
Law strong enough to make the races live in peace will allow them to find their own ways of living in the same communities.
B. HANDLING OF NEGRO NEWS
Chicago Evening Post.—The Post is an afternoon paper. It does not carry a large amount of news on racial matters. The policy of this paper was thus expressed by the managing editor, Mr. Julian Mason:
We have always checked information very carefully because we have had a very close Negro sympathy for years and because we have had editorial writers who have had special contacts. For instance, during the race riots we were constantly in communication with a young Negro, Mr. Jackson, a Y.M.C.A. man, a fine man. We checked up with him every single day. We used to call up Mr. Barnett and some of the others.
We use the word "Negro" and the Negro dialect in what you call feature stories. I don't know why we should deprive American life of that flavor. We also use the word "darky" once in a while in a humorous sense, but not in news items.
The Associated Press.—Mr. Edgar T. Cutter, district manager, Western District, the Associated Press, said in his testimony before the Commission:
The Associated Press is a non-money-making, non-sectarian, non-political organization. It is made up of over 1,260 daily papers. It is a mutual organization, and it gets its news by an exchange among the members. Aside from that, in big cities like Chicago we have our own bureaus which collect news in certain events. In Chicago the Associated Press gets its news from the five daily papers that are members, and from the city news bureau. This city news bureau, by the way, is kept up by the Chicago papers and therefore is supervised by them and carries the same class of news. Now on a big story such as the race riots, the Associated Press got its news from all these sources, and it also sent a staff man who was experienced in general newspaper work to the South to investigate for himself so we should get the absolute facts. The Associated Press makes a practice of covering only news of general interest, and it has made its reputation on the covering of facts. It never handles editorials, nor does it ever make a comment on any news. If a piece of news is not of general interest, at least throughout the state, it doesn't attempt to handle it. It confines itself to news that is of general interest throughout the country, and therefore it covers these matters very briefly.
Question: Do you personally in your representative capacity handle any of the news from the southern states?