CHAPTER 20.
The Negro and the World War.
No book written in the year 1918 would be complete without a word about this awful conflagration which is now sweeping over the earth.
One sometimes thinks that the end is near and that the world is being destroyed.
We know that everything that has been invented to advance civilization is now being used to destroy it. Our one consolation is that however imperfect we may have been as a nation, we know that our cause is just and because of this we believe that in the end we will and must win. The right has always been more powerful than the wrong, even more powerful than might and it will prove true in this case.
I am being constantly asked by white men in both the North and South, “How does the Negro regard this war and what about his willingness to share in its responsibilities.” I have only one answer for such questions: “The Negro now knows but one word ‘Loyalty.’ He is no alien, he owes no allegiance to any other country, there is no hyphen to his name, he is all American, he is willing to fight and die, that the world might be made safe for democracy.” He only asks that he may share in this democracy.
Already there are practically 200,000 Negroes who have been called to the colors and thousands of others are expected to be called. I hear of but few if any slackers among them, while thousands of slackers of other races are being rounded up by the police in various cities throughout the country.
The 200,000 Negro soldiers who are now at the front and in the camps have gone with as brave hearts as any American citizen. They say, “Silver and gold, have I but little, but I give my life to Uncle Sam, it is all that I can do.”
The Negro is not only furnishing men to the National Army, but he is doing his part to support the boys at the front. He has bought Liberty Bonds to the fullest extent. Many of his business organizations, societies and lodges have bought large blocks of these bonds.
On Sunday morning, June 14th, Dr. Cortland L. Myers of Tremont Temple, Boston, in his sermon told of an incident of an old colored woman who had worked hard and saved up three hundred dollars in order that she might not at the end be buried in the paupers’ field, but when she read that the United States wanted money, took all she had and carried it to the bank to the agent. When the agent gave her the Liberty Bond and told her that she would get four per cent on her money, she was utterly surprised and said, “Lord, Boss, I thought I was giving this money to Uncle Sam.” This woman had only three hundred dollars, but she gave all.