Chapter X · PUBLIC OPINION IN RACE RELATIONS—Continued B. INSTRUMENTS OF OPINION MAKING

I. THE PRESS

We cannot escape the conclusion that the press is the most powerful institution in this country. It can make men, it can destroy men. It can conduct crusades; it can put an end to crusades. It can create propaganda; it can stifle propaganda. It can subvert the Government; it can practically uphold the Government. It is at once the most powerful agency for good in the United States and the most dangerous institution known under our system of Government. More than all this, despite theoretical laws which restrain abuses of the Press, so determined are the American people that its freedom shall not be abridged that they have written into the Constitution of the United States (Amend. I) the express provision that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom ... of the press," and in practice the Press is free to destroy men, institutions and races, or to make them live, the power being limited only by the conscience and sagacity of the men who compose this powerful Fourth Estate.

—Edmund Burke

Sound opinions depend always upon accurate statements of facts. Upon the objective information which the press is supposed to provide, the public depends to guide its thinking. If the information source is polluted, pollution may be expected in the opinions based upon it. When the public is deluded by distortions of fact, one-sided presentations, exaggerations, and interpretations of fact controlled by definite policies of whatever sort, a situation is created which will inevitably accomplish great damage.

Race relations are at all times dependent upon the public opinion of the community. Considering the great number of delicate issues involved, the careful handling of this kind of news is a question of great concern and has been the subject of much comment and criticism both by Negroes and whites. These criticisms are frequent and vehement. Negroes in Chicago almost without exception point to the Chicago press as the responsible agent for many of their present difficulties. Throughout the country it is pointed out by both whites and Negroes that the policies of newspapers on racial matters have made relations more difficult, at times fostering new antagonism and enmities and even precipitating riots by inflaming the public against Negroes. For example, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, in its report on the church and social work, makes this comment: "We observe also with regret and deep concern ... the continuing incitement to riot by certain public officials and periodicals, especially the partisan press with its misrepresentation and inflaming spirit."

Said the Survey magazine, May 15, 1920: "The custom of newspapers to ridicule the efforts of colored people is a gratuitous insult that they have to meet on every hand."

The New Republic observes editorially: "Race riots within a week of one another occurred in Washington and Chicago.... The press made a race question of individual crime, and the mob, led by marines and soldiers, took up the issue which the press had presented to them."

Negroes are loud in their condemnation of the press throughout the country. Says one Negro newspaper:

Whatever be the cause of the motive, there is apparently a well-organized plan to discredit the race in America and to bring estrangement between fellow-Americans. A short-sighted ... press is contributing to this estrangement by playing upon the passions of the undiscriminating, and thoughtlessly, by its glaring and sensational headlines, emphasizing rumors of alleged crimes by Negroes.

The Associated Negro Press accuses the Associated Press of fostering ill feeling and hatred between whites and Negroes. It says:

The Associated Press (white) ... always in its first paragraph ... attributes the source of trouble to our people "molesting white women." That, the Associated Press knows, is always fuel for the fire of the fury.... It arouses certain elements of whites to indignation by the thoughts of the ever "burly black brutes," and it stirs the people of our group to a state of fighting, mad by the folly of it.

The Philadelphia Tribune, a Negro paper, said: "Daily papers keep up mob sentiment. They continue to fan the riot flames into a destructive blaze."

The method of news handling now in practice in the Chicago Press, white and Negro, appears to contribute in effect to strained relations between the races. This condition prompts a more than casual inquiry into these methods.

A few examples will illustrate. On the night of July 20, 1920, following the demonstration of a group of Negro fanatics, the self-styled "Abyssinians," a prominent newspaper printed in large headlines: "Race Riot—Two Whites Slain." The paper was an extra and widely distributed. At Sixty-third and Halsted streets four Negro ministers returning from a church conference in Gary, Indiana, were set upon by a mob of whites who had merely read the report, and were beaten unmercifully.

On January 23, 1920, the following article appeared in the Chicago Herald-Examiner:

Students Defy Negro Teacher Pupils' Strike Starts at Altgeld School over Substitute; Parents Support Them

A revolt which threatened to require settlement by the Board of Education developed yesterday in the eighth grade of the Altgeld School, Seventy-first and Loomis streets. Two of the pupils have been suspended, others threaten a general walkout. Pickets are to be established about the school today, several students promised tonight to urge a general strike. The regular teacher was ill with influenza yesterday.

PUT NEGRO GIRL IN CHARGE

The only available substitute was a Negro girl, Effie Stewart, normal graduate and accredited eighth-grade instructor. She was taken to the schoolroom by Principal J. W. Brooks and given charge. As the principal left pandemonium broke loose. Disregarding the efforts of the teacher to restore calm, several of the boys arose and harangued the class to ignore the substitute. Half a dozen of the pupils left the room.

REFUSE TO OBEY HER

The teacher directed one of the pupils, Paul Brissono, to summon Principal Brooks to the room. Paul flatly refused. He walked out and reported the trouble to his parents at 1406 West Seventy-third Street. Genevieve Lindy, 6744 Laflin Street, next was told to go to the Principal's office for help. She declined and went home. Principal Brooks ordered both pupils suspended. He said the facts would be placed before the district superintendent, John A. Long. In the meantime many of the parents of eighth-grade pupils took a stand supporting their children.

The Commission sent investigators to check up the facts as a thorough test of a report which most whites believed and most Negroes did not believe. The Negro teacher in question, the school principal, the superintendent of schools, and some of the parents of white children in the school were interviewed. The following is the result of the Commission's investigation:

a) Every item noted by the press in this case was contradicted by the principal and teachers.

b) Principal Brooks stated that "the only part of the story that the newspapers gave straight was the color of the young lady teacher."

c) Superintendent of Schools Mortensen stated that there was no basis whatever for the story, and that no more trouble happened than often happened when mischievous boys took advantage of the absence of the regular teacher.

d) Miss Stewart, the colored substitute teacher involved, stated that she was assigned to the Altgeld School on Monday, to the Pullman School Tuesday, and back to the Altgeld Wednesday. On Monday she had charge of the eighth grade. About twenty-five minutes before recess five or six boys came to her stating that they had been appointed as monitors for that day and asked to be excused. This request was granted by Miss Stewart. Shortly afterward Miss Deneen, a white teacher, brought the boys back into the room, stating that they had been disorderly; she deprived them of their monitorship. One boy, Paul, mentioned in the article, resented this and was impudent to Miss Deneen. He was suspended by Miss Deneen to take effect the next day and to return only on condition that he made apologies for his conduct. He was present in the room on the same afternoon.

Miss Stewart first knew about the supposed strike when she read it in the morning paper. She stated that she had no trouble with any of the students during the entire day, and there was no occasion to call in the principal, Mr. Brooks. Miss Deneen also had some trouble with a girl in the same room. Miss Stewart had no trouble either with Paul or the girl mentioned in the case. Mr. Brooks at no time during that day was called into the room.

e) The parents of the children were incensed over the false publicity given them.

f) The suggestive effect of this report was immediate. At the Coleman School, according to the principal, the children were greatly excited over the account and looked upon it as a precedent which had not occurred to them. She thought that such publicity, even if true, could have no good effect upon the minds and conduct of the children.

The prominence given to the idea of "striking" also had its effect. Discussions of strikes for other causes followed in the Pullman School. Later, in February the students of the Crane Technical School threatened a strike because of the removal of a teacher from the junior staff to the high-school staff.

On June 18, 1918, a Negro organization expressed the views of Negroes on the Chicago Tribune's handling of a news article entitled: "Negro Benefit Carries Mammy to Pearly Gates." The occasion of the article was a musical recital given by Negro artists at the Auditorium and patronized by many cultured whites and Negroes. It was a benefit performance in aid of the families of Negro soldiers. The letter of protest to the editor of the Tribune read:

On Saturday, June 15, there appeared in your paper what purported to be an account of a meeting and concert at the Auditorium held for the benefit of Negro soldiers' families. Despite the fact that it was distinctly a patriotic affair, presenting on its program colored artists of unquestioned talent, and rendered in such a manner as to evoke the warmest praise from an appreciative and music loving audience, your reporter saw fit to tell of it by reciting what he knew or thought he knew about Negro "mammies."

The body of the article contains sixty-two lines. Thirteen of these are devoted to mention of the names of the colored artists, ten to a description of the crowd, which, by the way, was inaccurate, fourteen to another list of notables in attendance and twenty-five to an enraptured dissertation on "mammies." Not only is this reference grossly irrelevant, but to colored people it is positively distasteful as everyone should know by now.

The caption of the article "Negro Benefit Carries Mammy to Pearly Gates" could by no stretch of fancy be taken as the heading for an account of a musical concert.... There is no complaint against the limited appreciations of your reporter, neither do we protest against his fondness for the adolescent idol of his black mammy; but as a news item the account is ridiculously improper and out of place.

The patriotic endeavors of the colored people of this city have more than once been discouraged by just such thoughtlessness and incomprehension. You would do a great service to colored people and to our government in the prosecution of the war if in such accounts as appear you cause to be eliminated such personal reminiscences and irritating irrelevancies as are calculated to make patriotism difficult and racial relationship unsettled.

1. GENERAL SURVEY OF CHICAGO NEWSPAPERS

It was assumed by the Commission that so far as the ordinary reading public is concerned the study of the three Chicago white daily papers with the largest circulation and the three Negro weekly papers most widely read would provide an adequate basis for a test of news handling, and for measuring the effect on the public of accounts of racial happenings. The papers selected are listed in Table XXX.

TABLE XXX

Name of Paper Published Circulation[87]

Week Days Sundays

White

Chicago Tribune Every morning 439,262 713,966

Chicago Daily News Every afternoon except Sundays 404,726 ...

Chicago Herald-Examiner Every morning 289,094 596,851

Negro

Chicago Defender Weekly 185,000 ...

Chicago Whip Weekly 65,000 ...

Chicago Searchlight Weekly 10,000 ...

For the two-year period 1916 and 1917 the Commission listed from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Daily News, and the Chicago Herald-Examiner 1,551 articles on racial matters. Of these articles 1,338 were news items, 108 were letters to the press, and 96 were editorials.

Table XXXI classifies these items according to subject:

TABLE XXXI

Subject Number of Articles

Riots and clashes 309

Crime and vice 297

Soldiers 199

Politics 99

Housing 89

Ridicule 63

Illegitimate contacts 61

Sports 56

Migration 45

Personal 39

Special columns 33

Education 18

Meetings 17

Art 8

Business 5

Total 1,338

These figures do not represent all articles appearing on racial issues during the two-year period. Many additional articles appeared in early editions and not in the editions examined.

Generally these articles indicated hastily acquired and partial information, giving high lights and picturing hysteria. Frequently they showed gross exaggeration. The less sensational articles, permitting a glimpse of the stabler side of Negro life, were less than seventy-five. The subjects receiving most frequent and extended treatment in these three papers were: crime, housing, politics, riots, and soldiers. In analyzing the articles themselves, under these specific headings, it appears that the appeal to the interests of the public is founded on definite assumptions in the public mind. It has come to be recognized by both whites and Negroes, but more especially by the latter, that crime is most often associated with the publication of Negro news in white newspapers.

Crime.—The University Commission on Southern Race Problems in a recommendation to the white college men of the South said:

Colored people feel very keenly about the way crime committed, or alleged to have been committed, by Negroes is played up in the newspapers. We never see the Negro's good qualities mentioned. As a rule, when a Negro's name appears in the newspapers he has done something to somebody, or somebody has done something to him. It may be true that the newspaper's attitude toward the Negro does not influence white public opinion as much as the Negro thinks, but it is bound to affect the point of view of those white people who do not know the Negro.

As between North and South this press handling of racial matter seems but a question of degree. For a public which depends upon newspapers for its information an inordinately one-sided picture is presented. This emphasis on individual crimes specifying Negroes in each offense tends to stamp the entire Negro group as criminal. The following headings in white newspapers will suggest the inference of the public as to whether or not Negroes are criminally inclined:

Negro Robbers Attack Woman near Her Home Tear Open Her Waist in Search for Money, but Fail to Find $6 Which She Had

Police Hunt for Negro Who Held up Woman Scour Englewood District for Short Black Man Who Threatened Girls with Revolver

Negro Slayer Escapes from Jail

Austin Woman Attacked in Own Home by Negro

Woman Shocked by Negro Thief Mrs. John W. Beckwith Surprises Black Burglar in Her Home

Rescue Negro from Mob That Threatened Lynching Morgan Park Police Save William Shaw Who Attacked Woman from Infuriated Crowd

Negro Attacks Woman. Her Screams Bring Help Mrs. Joseph Westhouse Dragged into Dark Passageway on South Side Street

Arrest Negro Suspect. Find Much in Pocket Earnest Wallace Identified by Three Men as Ku Klux Robbers Who Held Them Up

Masked Negro Robs as White Arthur Hood Learns to Disguise Voice in Prison; Uses Talent

Girls Flee from Negro Accused Wm. Brewere of Following Them

Negro Troop Runs Amuck. Three Men Are Wounded

Negro Stands with Knife over Sleeper in Park

Negro Camp Intruder Arrested after Fight

Coroner Clears Policeman for Killing Negro

Negro Shot Dead Trying to Escape after Crime

Negro Attacks Dancer in Room off Loop Stage Purpose Robbery

Sailors Charge Negro Insulters in Evanston

The frequent mention of Negroes in connection with crime by the white press has the following effects:

1. It plays upon the popular belief that Negroes are naturally criminal.

2. The constant recounting of crimes of Negroes, always naming the race of the offender, effects an association of Negroes with criminality.

3. It frequently involves reference to sex matters which provides a powerful stimulant to public interest.

4. It provides sensational and sometimes amusing material, and at the same time fixes the crimes upon a group with supposed criminal traits.

The beliefs handed down through tradition concerning the weak moral character of Negroes and their emotional nature are thus constantly and steadily held before the public. Police officers, judges, and other public officials are similarly affected, consciously or unconsciously, by these beliefs and by the constant mention of Negroes in relation to crime. Arrest on suspicion, conviction on scanty evidence, and severe punishments are the results. A vicious circle is thus created.

Crimes involving only Negroes as offenders and victims receive little newspaper attention. It might be supposed that they are uninteresting because there is no element of race conflict. As long as crimes are committed within the group, and this group is regarded as an isolated appendix of the community, there is little public interest in them, and consequently little news value. When, however, a member of the isolated group comes into conflict with the community group, whether in industry, housing, or any relation, it assumes a wider significance, and the information appears to become news of importance in the judgment of the press.

Instances of purely Negro crime, which in the community at large would have a strong appeal to public interest, take on news value only when the ludicrous or grotesque can be pictured. For the most part, this type of article is written by a reporter with some reputation for wit. He inserts the expected Negro dialect, whether with or without warrant, and proceeds to make an amusing story.

Negro soldiers.—News interest in articles on Negro soldiers appears to be founded largely on sentiment. During the war Negro soldiers, especially from Illinois, were given unstinted praise by the public and the newspapers. Illustrative headlines follow:

Chicago Soldiers Are Ready Col. Dennison Declared to Reporter That Regiment 1,038 Strong Ready for Call to War

Colored Men Served in the Colonial Army Washington Favored Their Enlistment, but for a Time There Was Opposition

To Train Colored Men for Officers

Colored Troops to Go South Baker Says the 8th Illinois Will Be Sent to Camp Logan

Dramatic Farewell to Colored Troops Cheers of Crowd Show Chicago Loyalty to Men of 8th Infantry

Color Line Worries Exemption Boards Negro District Officials Wonder How They Can Furnish 40 Per Cent All White

Tobacco for Negro Soldiers Texas Club Will Give Midnight Benefit to Aid Fund

Negro Stevedores to France Colored Workers Are Being Organized into Four United States Regiments

Army Ignores Color Line Negro Troops Ordered to Every Cantonment Where Available. War Department Not Affected by Protest, Latest Ruling Shows

8th Regiment Is Ordered to Houston Chicago Colored Infantry to Be Accorded Same Privilege as White Soldiers. Overrule City's Protest

Colored Soldiers Help Loan Col. Dennison's Men in the 8th Infantry Are Enthusiastic

8th Regiment Ready to Begin Bond Drive Spirit Shown by Officers Insures Good Response from Colored Soldiers

Organize Negro Labor Units U.S. Army Will Soon Have 24 Companies of Colored Volunteers

Politics.—In politics the listed articles were confined almost exclusively to suggestions of corruption, unfavorable criticism of Negro politicians, and treatment of Negro political support of Mayor Thompson as blind, careless, and venal loyalty.

The following headings on listed news items will indicate the character of emphasis:

Mayor's Rule Scored by Voters' League

Since Harding retired from Council, Moores has collapsed entirely. In combination with his colleague, Oscar De Priest, colored, he has become a partisan, willing to go to any length in behalf of the politicians fighting the Council.

M.L.V. Urges Defeat of Mayor's Clique. Second Ward, Negro Ward, No Recommendations

Hot on Trail of Vote Frauds Letter E. H. Green's (Negro) Communication to Dr. Leroy N. Bundy (Negro) May Reach Grand Jury Alderman De Priest (Negro) Involved All Interested in Rounding Up Colored Republican Voters Talk of Colonizing

Five in Hot Fight in Second Ward It is said, however, that W. R. Cowan (Negro) and L. B. Anderson (Negro) have best chance.

Colored Man in Sensation St. Louis Dentist Said to Have Revealed Election Fraud

East St. Louis Bribers Safe Attorney-General Brundage says they are immune under law. These men were accused in confession of Bundy (Negro).

Black and Tans Win Point Will Have Half the Delegation from Louisiana to Republican National Convention

De Priest Quits Election Race at G.O.P. Order Indicted Alderman Ducks Impending War in Second Ward

3,000 Negroes Cheer Attack on Roosevelt

New York Elects Its First Negro to the Legislature Ed. A. Johnson

Mayor Loses Big Wards In recognition of what the second ward did, the administration has made more Negro appointments than ever before in Chicago. Yesterday the City Hall forces were led by Alderman De Priest, Corporation Counsel Ettleman, Dr. A. J. Cary, and Edward Wright. Morris won by 4,050 over Bibb.

Import Negroes from the South to Swing Mid-West

Negro Leader Ejected from Hughes Quarters E. H. Green Told to Move On When Authorship of Letter Is Traced

Negro Vote Manipulation Alleged in East St. Louis

Housing.—The subject of the housing of the Negro is interesting because of its peculiar connection with: (a) segregation; (b) bombing; (c) neighborhood antagonisms; (d) alleged depreciation of property; (e) Hyde Park-Kenwood efforts to keep Negroes out of the district.

During 1917 the Tribune carried six articles on Negro housing. One was the mention of the purchase of a $75,000 lot by Mme. C. J. Walker, a colored woman living in New York. Two related to the efforts of white residents to keep Negroes out of white residence districts; two were devoted to the effort of white residents to put Negroes out of white districts; and one to a meeting of realty men at which, it was alleged, angry Negroes "blasted harmony on a housing plan." The plan in question was a segregated Negro district to which Negroes objected. Trends of subjects treated in news items are given:

St. Louis Votes Today on Negro Segregation

Offers Her Home to Negroes Only West Side Woman Adopts Novel Revenge in Row with Neighbors Due to Spite Fence

Negroes May Buy House Adjoining Spite Fence Owner of Property Will Sell to Colored People Only in Plan for Revenge

Race Question Left to Blacks Negro Committee Given Power to Act in Morgan Park Feud

Committee Representing Both Sides to Suggest Solution at Next Meeting Com. L. T. Orr and Chas. R. Bixby, White, and G. H. Jackson, and G. R. Faulkner, Colored

Race Question Taken to Court Morgan Park Negro Alleges Conspiracy to Close His Building

Negro Suburb Planned after English Gardens Dunbar Park, Prepared by Frances Barry Byone

Oak Park Negro Home Set Afire. Sees White Man Shoots as Arson Suspect Stumbles over Hedge Screaming Second Attempt at Blaze

Negress Buys Long Island Lot among Homes of Rich Mme. C. J. Walker $75,000 Lot

Segregation of Negroes Sought by Realty Men Plan Legislation to Keep Colored People from White Areas

Angry Negroes Blast Harmony in Housing Plan Bolt Meeting at Realty Board with Threats to Fight

Negro Owner of Flat House to War Back Eugene F. Manns—Property in Morgan Park

Court Blocks Negro Invasion Injunction to Halt Move until Improvements Are Put In

Race Segregation Is Rent Booster's Aim Owners Hope to Prevent Encroachments of Either Colored or White Citizens

Try to Keep Negro Out of Black Belt Colored Organizations Do Not Want Newcomers to Go to Old District

Urge Race Segregation Law Members of Real Estate Board to Move to Save South Side

Take Up Housing of Negroes Two White and Two Colored Realty Dealers Consider the Problem

The migration.—The migration provided a subject of sufficient interest to stimulate a number of articles. Hordes of illiterate and impecunious Negroes were pouring into the city, according to some reports, at the rate of forty carloads a day; they brought smallpox and low living standards, imperiled health, and created a dangerous problem for the city. The combined estimates from day to day in the press would give a number of arrivals in Chicago, equal to or even more than the migration to the entire North. Thus the articles ran:

Committee to Deal with Negro Influx Body Formed to Solve Problems Due to Migration to Chicago from South

Work Out Plans for Migrating Negroes Influx from the South Cared For by the Urban League and Other Societies

Opposes Importing Negroes Illinois Defense Council Moves to Stop Influx from South

2,000 Southern Negroes Arrive in Last Two Days Stockyards Demand for Labor Cause of Influx

Rush of Negroes to City Starts Health Inquiry Philadelphia Warns of Peril, Health; Police Heads to Act

Negroes Arrive by Thousands—Peril to Health Big Influx of Laborers Offers Vital Housing Problem to City

Seek to Check Negro Arrivals from the South City Officials Would Halt Influx until Ready to Handle Problem

Negroes Leaving South; 308,749 in Few Months

Defense Board Warned against Negro Influx Investigators See Peril Such as Resulted in East St. Louis

Half a Million Darkies from Dixie Swarm to the North to Better Themselves

Negroes Incited by German Spies Federal Agents Confirm Reports of New Conspiracy in South; Accuse Germans for Exodus from South

North Does Not Welcome Influx of South's Negroes

Negro Influx Brings Disease Health Commissioner Orders Vaccination of Arrivals to Check Smallpox

Racial contacts.—Aside from the riots and clashes the most intensively featured articles were those dealing with intimate racial contacts. They dealt with intermarriage, positions of authority for Negroes, intermingling of the races in resorts, and love affairs—in fact, the usual taboo themes and "forbidden" interracial practices. Some of these subjects are thus indicated:

Wife Vanishes—Husband Seeks Negro

May Put Woman on Trial for Paying Negro's Fare San Diego Case First Instance of Man Not Being Taken under Mann Act

Little Marjorie Gay, but Aged Mammy Mourns Colored Woman Who Raised White Girl Says Officers Are Influencing Child

A Strange, True Story On Frank Jaubert, manager of New Orleans City Belt Railroad, who was accused of being a Negro. Reference to Marjorie Delbridge case.

Mammy Loses Fight to Keep Delbridge Girl Girl Declared Incorrigible, Delinquent and Ward of Juvenile Court

Dixie Woman to Give Mammy and Her Child New Home Together Mrs. Brock Also Had a Mammy

All Her Troubles near Happy End as New Home Looms with Mammy

Mammy Kidnaps Her Child Negress Seizes Delbridge Girl; Flees in Auto

Mammy Denies Kidnapping Ward Search for Marjorie Delbridge Leaves Disappearance a Mystery. Mrs. Brock Through

2. INTENSIVE STUDY OF CHICAGO NEWSPAPERS

A careful study of the three selected white daily papers was made covering 1918, the year preceding the riot, to note relative space, prominence, importance, and the type of articles on racial matters. During the year 534 articles appeared on racial matters distributed among the three papers as follows:

NEWS ITEMS ON RACIAL MATTERS—1918

No. Items

Chicago Daily Tribune 253

Chicago Herald-Examiner 157

Chicago Daily News 124

Total 534

TABLE XXXII

Classification of Articles According to Subject and Newspaper during 1918

Subject "Tribune" "Herald-Examiner" "News" Total

No. of Articles Amount of Space in Inches No. of Articles Amount of Space in Inches No. of Articles Amount of Space in Inches Articles Space

Crime and vice 70 231 58 181 21 122 149 534

Soldiers, war work 33 136 21 88 28 196 82 420

Politics 21 78 12 28 14 63 47 169

Riots 15 80 5 19 2 3 22 103

Lynchings 24 57 15 43 4 21 43 121

Editorials 6 34 8 67 6 28 20 129

Organizations and movements 13 25 8 22 4 27 25 75

Housing 12 28 5 14 1 3 18 46

Personal and miscellaneous 15 35 5 16 5 33 25 85

Industry, labor 11 28 1 1 2 18 14 47

Athletic, sports 8 12 3 4 3 7 14 24

Letters to editor and "Voice of People" 13 107 9 30 21 34 43 171

Migration 2 4 0 0 9 126 11 130

Propaganda 0 0 0 0 1 6 1 6

Race relations 0 0 1 1 1 8 2 9

Radicalism 0 0 1 1 3 9 4 10

Guide post 0 0 4 59 0 0 4 59

Intermarriage 0 0 1 7 0 0 1 7

Education 3 8 0 0 0 0 3 8

Segregation 4 15 0 0 0 0 4 15

Social service 1 8 0 0 0 0 1 8

Theatrical 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 1

Most of the published information concerning the Negro and issues involving him magnifies his crimes and mistakes beyond all reasonable proportions. The Chicago public is aware of the sentiment against morons created by the newspaper practice of calling persons who attack women or girls morons—an unscientific classification, of course, since all who attack women are not morons. Negroes frequently say that if each crime committed by a "red-headed" man were listed as a crime committed by a "red-headed" man, a sentiment would soon be created sufficiently hostile to provoke prejudice against all red-headed men.

In 1918 there were more than 90,000 Negroes in Chicago. Practically all of the more serious crimes in this group, especially those involving whites and Negroes, were given publicity. This simple notation of crimes may be a part of the routine of journalism. It does not, however, explain the obvious appeal to passion found in many of them or even the prominence given to articles of a certain type. Crimes, riots, intermarriage, lynchings, and radicalism were the subjects of articles which, in their repetition and accumulative significance, presented a disproportionately unfavorable aspect of the Negro population.

The Chicago Tribune published, in 1918, 145 articles which, because of their emphasis on crimes, clashes, political corruption, and efforts to "invade white neighborhoods" definitely placed Negroes in an unfavorable light. Of this number, twenty-three appeared on the first page of the first section and twenty on the first page of the second section. It also published eighty-four articles dealing with Negro soldiers, sports, industry, and personalities, which, aside from flippancy in treatment, did not place Negroes in an unfavorable light. Of this number, two were on the first page of the first section and three on the first page of the second section. The relative length of articles indicates another possible effect on the public. The unfavorable 145 articles contained 487 inches of printed matter, while the less colorful items contained 223 inches.

Front-page space amounting to eleven inches was given to favorable articles, and 158 inches to unfavorable. Of the articles concerning Negro soldiers appearing on the first page, four of the eleven inches concerned a report that two Negro soldiers had been killed following a dispute at Camp Merritt between a white sergeant and a Negro trooper.

The Herald-Examiner published ninety-seven unfavorable and thirty favorable articles. Of this number, thirty-one unfavorable and six favorable appeared on the front page.

The Chicago Daily News devoted thirty-three articles to unfavorable publicity and fifty-one to publicity of a favorable sort. Of these, eighteen unfavorable and eighteen favorable appeared on the first page.

Bombing publicity.—The bombing of the homes of Negroes is an expression of lawlessness which in an orderly community should not be tolerated. The primary function of the newspaper is to report the facts. Upon this basis the public may then pass its judgment. In the case of a bombing it might be supposed that an orderly community would wish to know the persons involved, the damage effected, the motive, the action of the police and the result of efforts to capture the perpetrators of the act. Ordinarily this is done in most cases of lawlessness and in bombings not involving racial issues.

Of the forty-five racial bombings which took place in Chicago between July 1, 1917, and June 18, 1920, fourteen were not mentioned in any of the six large dailies of the city.[88] Of the remaining thirty-one, seven were reported in one paper, ten in two papers, nine in three papers, while five appeared in four papers. Not one of the forty-five cases appeared in more than four papers. Although there might have been a total of 270 news reports of these bombings only seventy-four actually appeared. Of the forty-five bombings the Tribune and Herald-Examiner each reported twenty, the Post fourteen, the News eleven, the Journal eight, and the American one. In all cases the reports openly recognized that these bombings were not the result of individual grievances but involved organized effort and activity on the part of groups or communities in the practice of throwing racial bombs. It was generally referred to as a "race bomb" or "race war bombs." Typical headings were:

Journal, April 7, 1919:

Race Hatred Bomb Hurls Six Families from Bed

Journal, November 19, 1918:

Bomb Home of Aged Negro. Explosion Seen as Protest by Whites

Journal, March 6, 1920:

Attribute Bomb to South Side Race War

Journal, March 31, 1920:

Another Bomb in Race War. Owner Sells Building to Negroes Despite Objection of Neighbors

Herald-Examiner, May 25, 1920:

Negro Club Is Bombed. Some Blame Politics

Chicago Tribune, May 25, 1920:

New Race War Wrecks Porch of Negroes' Club. The Club Is Composed of 600 Colored Persons

Herald-Examiner, June 13, 1920:

Two Buildings Bombed. Race Prejudice Blamed

Herald-Examiner, December 28, 1919:

Race War Bomb Injures Woman

Herald-Examiner, September 24, 1918:

Police Said Bomb Was Intended to Intimidate Negroes Who Recently Moved into That Neighborhood

Herald-Examiner, April 7, 1919:

A Race War Is Generally Believed to Have Been behind a Bomb Explosion Early This Morning at 4212 Ellis Ave.

Herald-Examiner, April 4, 1920:

Racial Difference Responsible for Bomb

Journal, March 20, 1919:

Believe Bomb Throwing Continuation of a Feud Carried On by the Whites and Blacks in the District Where Negroes Have Been Allowed to Occupy Buildings Formerly Occupied by White People

In two instances a racial bombing was considered significant enough to occupy more than nine inches of one column. This space was given by the Tribune and the Herald-Examiner.

Jesse Binga, a Negro banker, was bombed five times. The article in the Daily News was five inches long. In the Herald-Examiner, April 20, 1919, there appeared an article, "Curious Boy Drops Bomb as It Explodes." The article covered eleven inches, of which eight inches were given to the story of a boy who picked up a bomb in the street and dropped it as a lady signaled him to drop it because it might be an explosive. At the end of this article were appended three inches containing a narrative of a racial bombing at 4722 Indiana Avenue where Wimes & Lassiter, Negro real-estate dealers, had an office.

The fifth bombing directed against Mr. Binga is treated humorously in spite of the serious damage done to his home.

The average length of racial bombing articles was about four and one-half inches. The explanations of motive offered were stereotyped in character and involved assumptions which it is not considered necessary here to analyze. It was explained that the person bombed was a Negro or that he had moved into a "distinctly white residential district," against which encroachment bombing had been instituted as an intimidating or expulsive measure. It was sometimes stated that the person was a real estate agent negotiating with Negroes concerning property in "restricted" districts. This sort of explanation was either stated in the headline or appended at the end in a brief sentence. The reports in the papers apparently undertook merely to notify the public that bombings had happened. The following are examples of press treatment of race bombings:

Herald-Examiner, May 25, 1918:

This building was occupied by Negro families.... The white residents objected to the Negroes.

Post, November 19, 1918:

Bomb Shatters Negro Home in "White District"

Tribune, March 19, 1919:

Binga Property Was Wrecked

Binga is an agent for buildings. He is colored, and has been leasing apartments formerly occupied by white tenants to colored.

Post, March 20, 1919:

Police are investigating whether the bombs were thrown by members of the Janitors' Union retaliating against Jesse Binga, colored real estate dealer who had been hiring non-union janitors, or whether intended as another warning to the colored people to keep out of residential districts that have been hitherto exclusively white.

Post, April 7, 1919:

Bomb Explodes in Flat Where Negro Moved In

Tribune, April 7, 1919:

Bomb Set Off in Negro Flats

White residents of the district had held indignation meetings because he had peopled his building with colored folks.

Herald-Examiner, April 20, 1919:

Office of Wimes & Lassiter, Negro Real Estate Dealers, Was the Target

Tribune, May 18, 1919:

Negro Family on Grand Boulevard Object of Bomb

Post, June 13, 1919:

Two Bomb Blasts on Fringe of Negro District

Post, January 6, 1920:

Bomb Damages Home of Negro on Grand Boulevard Ernest Clark moved in recently. He is a Negro. All his neighbors are white.

Daily News, February 2, 1920:

While a Bomb Was Exploded Another Battle in the South Side Race War over the Segregation of Blacks in Residential Districts

Daily News, February 10, 1920:

Building Recently Sold to Appomattox Club, a Negro Organization

Daily News, February 13, 1920:

Two Bombs Tossed ... against encroachment of Negroes in white residential districts.

Herald-Examiner, March 11, 1920:

South Side House Sold to Negroes Bombed

Journal, March 24, 1920:

Bomb Shakes Building. Deal for Sale Off

The prospective buyer was talking with —— when there came a loud noise. [Buyer was colored.]

A typical example of newspaper reports of the bombings of Negro homes appeared in the Herald-Examiner of April 4, 1920:

Bomb Blasts in Front of Negro Flat Building

A black powder bomb was exploded last night in front of the vestibule of a four-story flat building 423 E. 48th Place, occupied by Negroes. The building is owned by Robert B. Jackson, who lives on the second floor. He recently purchased it from Louis Cohen. The apartment is in the neighborhood peopled mainly by whites, and the police believe racial differences are responsible for the bomb. The explosion did slight damages. No one was hurt.

One of the typical shorter reports also appeared in the same paper May 25, 1918:

Bomb Explodes before Home of Negro Families

A bomb exploded in the front of 4529 Vincennes Avenue early this morning, wrecked the front porch of the structure and broke windows for a block around. The building is occupied by Negro families. White residents objected to the Negroes.

Similar language was used in all the articles.

Most of the articles carried a suggestion of a race war on the South Side. Many of the reports helped to contribute to popular anticipation of future trouble. For example, in the Post of January 6, 1920, page 1, column 3, a bombing was reported thus: "A bomb early today damaged the residence at 4404 Grand Boulevard which was said to have been a Negro 'sniping-post' during the race riot last summer."

The home at 4404 Grand Boulevard was owned and occupied by Mrs. Byron Clarke, and was not a sniping-post during the riot. It had been bombed four times, once while officers were guarding it. All papers used the expression, "No one was hurt." Property destruction was usually dismissed with statements like these: "All the glass was shattered"; "the front porch was demolished"; "about $—— damage was done"; or "the damages were slight." The Daily News was exceptional in using the word "outrage" three times.

Two reports gave accounts of arrests, and all others in which police activity was mentioned merely said, "The police are investigating." None of the articles gave the results of any such investigation, other than that the police generally attributed the "hurling of the bomb" to the occupants of a black touring-car. The articles contained no condemnation of the bombings as lawlessness or crime except in the case of a bombing at 3401 Indiana Avenue, where a child was killed May 1, 1919. The Chicago Tribune spoke of this death as an incident of that bombing.

One of the two arrests above referred to was that of a janitor who was not able to explain sufficiently his presence in or about a building which had just been bombed. He was taken into custody but was soon dismissed. The other arrest was that of the nephew of a prominent business man living in the neighborhood of the bombed property.

During the time from February, 1918, to February, 1919, prior to the Chicago riot, there were eleven bombings in the city. If each paper had reported each bombing there would have been sixty-six reports. Only seven reports actually appeared. During the six weeks immediately preceding the Chicago race riot, there were seven racial bombings. Of a possible forty-two reports, only four appeared, or two bombings in two papers. Thus violent and criminal expressions of hostility which might have been checked by arousing the public conscience silently continued. The resentment of Negroes increased, and the ignorance of the larger white public remained undisturbed. The articles were apparently written without much investigation. Upon the fifth bombing of Mr. Binga's home, the American, Herald-Examiner, and Chicago Daily News quoted Mr. Binga as saying, "This is the limit; I am going." Mr. Binga declares that he did not say this, that he did not even see a reporter, and that he had not moved.

During the nine months following the riot, publicity on bombings increased to several times the former amount. Beginning in March, 1920, the articles again showed slackened interest. The Tribune and Herald-Examiner, usually giving most frequent publicity to such matters, missed about every other one. The Post had no reports, the Journal two, the News four, and the American none. Seven bombings took place from March 1 to July 1.

The apparent indifference toward race bombings in the minds of editors, officials, and the public was indicated by the relative prominence given to a race bomb which threatened life and damaged property as compared with an "odor bomb" dropped in a moving-picture theater.

On the first page of the Tribune of February 11, 1921, under the caption "Crow Raid Opens Inquiry into Bombs," were seventeen inches of space reporting cases of "odor bombs" and emphasizing the determination of the state's attorney to make investigation. At the bottom of the adjoining column were four inches devoted to a dynamite race bomb which damaged a three-story apartment and involved menace to life. No reference was made to any effort by the state's attorney or the police to investigate. Similar prominence was given to the "odor bomb" in the Herald-Examiner.

An editorial in the Tribune, February 14, 1921, condemning bombing made no reference to the fifty-six race bombings of recent record, but did refer to other bombing aimed at white citizens. The editorial reads:

The Business of Bombing

Anthony D'Andrea, whose aldermanic campaign meeting Friday night was broken up by a bomb which injured seventeen persons, speaks with some indignation on the matter as indicating a bad moral slump in political methods. If it had been a union labor bomb, apparently, it would have been of no great importance.

"I'm a union man myself," he explains. "I wouldn't care if they threw a bomb at my house. That's all in the game."

On the latter point D'Andrea is right. It is "all in the game," but the game is one which gets out of control of the players. It is because bomb throwing has come to be accepted as "all in the game" of union labor warfare that it is now being extended to political warfare. The man, the gang, or the organization which sanctions or adopts bombing as a method of obtaining results in ordinary activities cannot expect to be able to restrict the use of such methods to one line of business.

Originally the bomb was a political weapon, as in the hands of the Russian nihilists. In late years it has grown popular with labor leaders of a certain class. Such bombings as the recent one at the Tyson apartments, ascribed by the police to labor troubles, and the repeated odor bomb outrages at movie theaters, are sufficient illustrations of its use by labor. The post-office bombing in 1918 and the numerous so-called race-bombs exploded on the South Side are illustrative of the widening use of bombs. In such progress D'Andrea should not be surprised that the bomb is being adopted by ward politicians. Properly applied, a good bomb can be expected to neutralize half a dozen or so precinct captains. Bomb throwing is becoming a business.

Friday night's bombing is a perfectly logical development. As a result several men may be cripples for life, if they do not die. It is time such logical developments are stopped. Among the scores of bomb outrages of the last few years, so far as we recall, there has not been a single case of punishment of the perpetrators. They are justified in believing that they are safe. As long as they retain that belief they will continue to extend the business of bombing. One thing will stop it. That is drastic punishment. Any person who throws a bomb is a potential murderer. Life in prison is none too severe a penalty. Good detectives can trap some of these men and good prosecution can send them to prison. It should be done and done now.

The Abyssinian affair.—The "Abyssinian affair" referred to earlier in this part of the report, was treated with remarkably good judgment by the press. It is to be believed that further clashes were avoided by the effective way in which the newspapers pointed out that the demonstration was the work of fanatics rather than a race riot. Two days later, however, the Chicago Tribune published an article ascribing the Abyssinian murders to "racial reds." The article ran:

"Abyssinian" Murders Bare Racial "Reds" Leaders Lay Unrest to Du Bois Creed

Shocked by the fantastic violence of Sunday night, when a United States sailor and a citizen were killed by pseudo-Abyssinian zealots, thoughtful colored leaders began a determined effort yesterday to stamp out anti-white exploitation and to bring about better understanding....

This type of exploitation, they say, is aimed at the more ignorant among the colored masses. It carries the same appeal as the glittering promises of the I.W.W. and the Communists to the illiterate and ignorant among the whites.

According to Negro leaders, this exploitation is based upon the theory of social equality. Its motive can be seen, they say, in recent utterances and writings of Negro intellectuals, in which a high pitch of "social equality" fervor is established as a panacea for the ills of the race. This theory, translated and exaggerated into ambiguous prophecies by the soap-box orator, is slowly being percolated through the masses of a race as yet generally unprepared by education to understand it.

Chief among the writers whose works have been of this intellectual caliber is Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois.... His latest volume, a "best seller" entitled Darkwater, has been widely circulated. It is a volume of almost super-intellectual caliber, and is bitter in tone.

In Darkwater, which is taken simply as a typical volume, are found the teachings, colored leaders say, which have been seized upon by those who, under the shadow of Dr. Du Bois' reputation among colored folk, would seek to incite and exploit.

The "colored leaders" quoted were F. L. Barnett, R. S. Abbott, and A. H. Roberts. They did not impute any such danger to Mr. Du Bois' books. Mr. Barnett, for example, mentioned the exploitation of the "Back to Africa" movement by Jonas and Redding, while Mr. Abbott and Mr. Roberts spoke of the lack of sympathy among Negroes for criminal types like Jonas and Redding. The article then stated the "Du Bois Creed," saying:

The agitators have used considerable skill in exploiting the Negroes by use of doctrines which they have taken from Dr. Du Bois, as expressed in Darkwater. Here are some of them:

"The world market most widely and desperately sought today is the market where labor is cheapest and most helpless and profit is most abundant. This labor is kept cheap and helpless because the white world despises 'darkies.'"

This is given as the underlying premise for the late war.

"But what of the darker world that watches?" the author continues. "Most men belong to this world. With Negro and Negroid, East Indian, Chinese, and Japanese they form two-thirds of the population of the world. A belief in humanity is a belief in colored men. If the uplift in mankind must be done by men, then the destinies of the world will rest ultimately in the hands of darker nations."

The article quoted from Darkwater a chapter, which, by cutting the text, left a suggestion of sex intimacy between a colored bank messenger and a white girl very different from the intention of the author. The entire article was calculated, through its suggestion and insinuation, to rouse racial antagonism. It is doubtful whether the "Abyssinian" leaders, who were ignorant fanatics little known within the Negro group, had read Du Bois' books. With all its wildness and fatuousness the movement was directed away from America and from whites. A photograph of Du Bois was published with the caption:

Karl Marx of Negroes Noted Colored Philosopher Whose Works Are Used by Agitators to Stir Race Hatred

Miscegenation.—Similarly dangerous treatment is apparent in an article which appeared in the Tribune of November 6, 1920, under the heading: "Miscegenation is O.K.'d in New Constitution."

The article called attention to a proposed provision in the new state constitution of Illinois against public discrimination on account of color, which was intended to put into the constitution rights already guaranteed by state laws. According to the article this law was tentatively agreed upon "during the newsy days surrounding the Republican National Convention and escaped the notice of the public generally." The article said:

Under the basic law, if adopted, a colored man and woman will be entitled to buy vacant seats of a grand opera box, otherwise occupied by whites. A Mongolian—if a citizen—and a mesochromic bride cannot be denied a vacant flat in the most "exclusive" apartment building.

A law prohibiting the Japanese, as in California, from owning land, will be illegal. Two colored people may take two of the four seats in the Blackstone restaurant beside the wives of two packers.

A member of the convention said yesterday that it is as broad and comprehensive as it can be made. He claimed that this sentence in the constitution will prevent the Legislature from prohibiting in any way the colored citizen from getting all the rights and privileges accorded to other citizens. According to this constitutional delegate and lawyer the new constitution, as now worded, will prevent segregation of the Negroes, Jim-Crow cars, or special schools for the colored.

A Negro lawyer said that the Morris section only recognizes openly the rights of equality which were settled by the Civil War and enunciated in an amendment to the federal Constitution.

The remainder of the article dealt in brief with fifteen other decisions of the Convention. These decisions were merely stated and not commented upon.

Newspaper handling of the "back of the Yards" fire.—At the close of the Chicago riot fire was set to a large number of houses back of the Stock Yards. Since these were the homes of white persons, principally Lithuanians, it was generally assumed that it was an act of retaliation by Negroes. Articles in the newspapers strengthened the belief. The Chicago Daily News article gave a full account of statements made by Fire Marshal O'Connor to the effect that Negroes were responsible. It stated that the police and militia were combing the South Side for a band of eight Negroes, alleged automobile fire bugs. These men, it was said, were stalled in an automobile at West Fifty-fifth and South Wood streets ten blocks south of the fire; when the police reached Fifty-fifth Street the Negroes had repaired their car and fled. John R. McCabe, Fire Department attorney, was reported as being positive that the fire was started by Negroes.

Investigation was made by the Commission to ascertain the facts concerning Negro responsibility for these incendiary fires. The state's attorney declared that no records had come to his office implicating Negroes, and that he had no information, except rumors which he seriously questioned. The records, he thought, were held at the Stock Yards police court. Inquiry at this police station disclosed the fact that no Negroes had been apprehended on this charge, and the belief was expressed that the act was committed by white men with blackened faces. The fire marshal's office had no record other than unsubstantiated rumors spread by persons living in the district. The matter had been dropped for lack of evidence.

Negro revolt.—On January 4, 1920, during the general crusade against "reds" the Herald-Examiner published a two-inch headline across the top of the first page saying:

Reds Plot Negro Revolt I.W.W. Bomb Plant Found on South Side

The article mentioned below alleged secret activities of Negroes and their plans to revolt against the government. The bomb plant and many of their secret plans were reported to have been discovered by the state's attorney's office. The article further stated: "In Chicago it was learned that the headquarters for Negro revolutionary propaganda are centered in these four organizations: The Free Thought Society, Universal Negro Improvement Association, Negro Protective League, and Soldiers and Sailors Club."

Each organization named was, as a matter of fact, open to the public, though patronized almost entirely by Negroes. The Negro Improvement Association was by no means secret in its plans; it published a newspaper in which they were set forth. The slogan of this organization was then and is now, "Back to Africa," and not "Down with the United States."

The Free Thought Society mentioned is the Chicago Free Thought Educational Society. The following is a declaration of its principles:

In order to achieve a better understanding of the phenomena of nature, for ourselves and for such of our fellow-men as shall care to become affiliated with us, we do hereby bind ourselves by the following declaration of principles.

First: That the attainment of truth shall be the fundamental purpose of the work of this society and all its members.

Second: That truth shall be recognized as that body of conclusions which may be logically drawn from the facts of nature as evidence by the five senses, or may be demonstrated mathematically.

Third: That we abstain from all dogma, insisting upon a fair and impartial investigation of all subjects and at all times.

Fourth: That we do recognize a universal kinship binding together in one common band all members of the human society regardless of race, color or sex.

Among its members are W. E. Mollison, F. D. Summers, and among its honorary members are F. Percy Ward, lecturer for the Chicago Rationalist Society, and Clarence S. Darrow. The Negro Protective League is an employment office and day nursery. The full name of the organization is the Negro Equal Rights and Protective Association.

The Soldiers and Sailors Club is a community house located on the South Side and a branch of the local War Camp Community Service. It served during war time as a recreational and social center for returning soldiers, and in 1920 became the South Side Branch of Community Service, Incorporated. At the time of the article it was under the general supervision of the Chicago Community Service, of which Eugene T. Lies, formerly of the United Charities, was director.

Newspaper handling of the Waukegan riot.—Considerable excitement was occasioned by reports in all the Chicago daily papers of a race riot in Waukegan, about thirty-six miles north of Chicago. The first news reports gave the following versions:

THE BEGINNING OF THE RIOT

Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1920:

A group of Negro boys in Sheridan Road stood about stoning passing automobiles for several hours, finally shattering a windshield on the car of Lieut. H. B. Blazier and injuring Mrs. Blazier.

A throng of sailors and marines were passing when Mrs. Blazier was injured and they immediately chased the Negro boys. The chase led to the Sherman House, a rooming place for Negroes, and when the persons living there defended the boys and sought to drive off the sailors, there was a prospect of serious trouble.

Chicago Daily News, June 1, 1920:

According to the police a thirteen-year-old colored boy and his little sister had been in ambush near Sheridan Road throwing stones at passing automobiles. One of the stones struck the windshield of a car driven by a coal dealer, Chas. Bairscow, according to Assistant Chief of Police Thomas Tyrrell, and injured a woman occupant of the car. Another shattered the windshield of the car of Lieut. A. F. Blasier a naval officer. Mrs. Blasier was cut by flying glass. When he drove into the city Lieut. Blasier told several sailors of the affair and the news quickly spread. The town was alive with marines and sailors on "shore leave." They concentrated in the town square and upon a signal made an attack on the Sherman House, a hostelry occupied by Negroes.

CLASHES

Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1920:

For hours there were individual instances of attacks by both whites and Negroes in various parts of the town.

Chicago Daily News, June 1, 1920:

A general man hunt ensued. One group stormed the postoffice and tried to break open the doors, as it was thought a Negro was hiding there. Another made an attack on the house of Ike Franklin, colored. Ike had fled. Another group chased a Negro across the Genesee bridge in the center of the town. It had nearly captured him when the blue-jacket guards arrived in trucks. Under command of Provost Marshall Lieut. A. C. Fisher the town was quickly cleared. The police arrested the following six marines: Thomas Levinger, Charles Thrawle, John Smith, Burney Poston, Herman Blockhouse and Harold Denning.

RACE RIOTS AND THE POLICE

Chicago Daily News, June 1, 1920:

Acting Chief Tyrrell, after a cursory investigation, said that, as far as he could learn, Policeman Frank Bence, on whose beat the trouble started, was not in the vicinity at the outbreak. He said that if this proved true the man would be dismissed. The policeman said he was making a tour of alleys at the time of the stone throwing and knew nothing of it.

Inquiry by the Commission brought out the following facts: The first newspaper accounts of the riot indicated that Lieutenant Blazier and his wife were driving in one automobile, and that Mr. Bairscow was driving in another automobile. The story was that Mrs. Blazier was injured by glass from the windshield broken by stones, and that a woman occupant of the Bairscow car was similarly injured. Lieutenant Blazier and Mr. Bairscow were driving in the same car, the windshield of which was broken, instead of separate cars. There was no woman in the car and Lieutenant Blazier has no wife.

The story was telephoned into the Tribune by a member of the staff of the Waukegan Sun. This was the source of the report of the woman being injured.

The stoning occurred one block away from the Sherman House, occupied by Negroes.

Negro housing in Chicago.—The housing situation has frequently occasioned alarm on the part of whites and bitterness of feeling toward Negroes. Many newspaper articles, by their play upon racial fears, have increased the tension between the two groups. An example of this type of article is given:

White Tenants Fear Negroes Will Buy Block. Fire Chief's Residence One of Those in Danger

Twenty-six houses on the old Chicago university campus in East Thirty-fourth Street, between Cottage Grove Avenue and Rhodes Avenue, are about to be sold to colored people, according to the tenants....

"I'm going to offer the houses to the present occupants at prices ranging from $6,000 to $7,000 on easy terms," Mr. O'Brien said. "Of course if they don't accept I'm going to do the best I can. I can't predict how things will turn out until the tenants have given me their reply. They'll be around tomorrow.

"Among the residents of the block are Fire Chief Thomas O'Connor, Dr. William E. Hall, and Dr. M. J. Moth.

"The tenants are all worried. Colored people have learned of this sale and for days have been walking up and down and pointing out houses, discussing, apparently, what they intended doing and where they planned to live. Unless every one of the twenty-six buys his house it will not remain a white neighborhood. And I don't believe we can get everyone to buy" [Chicago Tribune, February, 1920].

Inquiry by the Commission disclosed a situation similar to that underlying many discussions of "exclusive areas." The article was written by a member of the Tribune staff. It was learned at Mr. O'Brien's office that he had come to that office inquiring about the matter. A member of the O'Brien firm stated to him that he did not think the matter had any racial significance because the firm intended to sell the houses to present tenants, all of whom happened to be white.

Labeling fights as "riots."—Attention might be called to the suggestion in articles which treat trivial disputes and street fights as race riots. On August 4, 1920, the Evening Post published an article headed: "Negroes Held to Grand Jury after Riot in Street Car."

The article related a dispute over a car seat ending in a fight in which one man was stabbed. The entire article is given:

Six Negroes were arraigned in the South Chicago court today, charged with having started a "near" race riot in a Cottage Grove Avenue car last night. They were: Isaac Nelson, 3256 South Park Avenue; Henry Broadnax, 3235 Calumet Avenue; Samuel Bound, 3127 Cottage Grove Avenue; Albert McMurry, 3027 Cottage Grove Avenue; Abe Mitchell, 3703 South La Salle Street and Walter McConnor, 538 West 45th Street.

McConnor, who was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, is said to have taken a seat which Herbert Douglas, 1637 East 78th Street, offered to a woman passenger.

In the scuffle which ensued, Douglas received a stab from a knife in the hands, it is alleged, of McConnor, and was taken to the South Chicago hospital. The Negroes were held on bonds of $400 to $3,500, pending jury trials.

In May, 1920, the Tribune gave eight inches to an article with the headline: "Race Riot and Labor Riot in New England." The item reported a fight between a Negro waiter and a Harvard student in one of the college dining-halls. To show how trivial the incident was the article said in part:

The trouble began when Mayer (a colored waiter) made a slighting remark to Wilson (a white student) and, grabbing him by the hair struck him in the face. Wilson, in an attempt to defend himself, grabbed a water pitcher, and as he raised it, Mayer drew a revolver and pointed it at Wilson. Immediately the student body was in an uproar and rallied to the defense of Wilson.... The police are searching for Mayer.

The Daily News referred to a "riot" precipitated by a colored chef's remarks. The incident referred to loud talking in the kitchen of a Greek restaurant and the chef's swearing at a cook which was overheard by a woman in the dining-room. She objected, and the police were called. Another such article appeared in the Tribune under the heading: "Women in Riot. White versus Negro in Reformatory." The article told of state troops, local police, and a chaplain having been mobilized to stop a "race riot." The casualties given were one policeman bitten by a girl and several state troopers kicked and scratched.

An instance of undiscriminating news handling appeared in the Chicago Tribune of July 24, 1917. During the race riot in East St. Louis, while the front pages of all the papers were filled with descriptions of the horrors, an article appeared in the fourth column of the first page, along with the East St. Louis riot news. It occupied fourteen inches and bore the heading: "Whites Were Firing at Blacks near Scene of Murder. Four Negroes Jailed after Slaying of Aged Man." Of the fourteen inches, six were given to an account of the murder in Chicago of a saloon-keeper by a Negro in which mobs of Negroes were said to have flourished guns; four inches were given to a totally irrelevant report that two young white girls were chased through Washington Park by a Negro; three inches more to a further account of the first murder, and one inch to a report that a Negro was shot by a policeman.

On the second page was an eleven-inch article with the large headline: "Lawyer Warns Negroes Here to Arm Themselves." Underneath was a five-inch report concerning a Negro held for trial on a girl's story of an attack. Nine inches were given in another article to a warning by Chicago labor leaders that "the influx of blacks" to replace the strikers in the plants was bringing a riot peril to Chicago. Under this article was an account of the freeing of a policeman for killing a Negro; and beneath this an article from Orange, Texas, with the headline: "Negro Shot Down Trying to Escape after Crime." Also on the same page nine inches were devoted to a condemnation of black politics in East St. Louis, and three inches to a minor clash in which a Negro was reported to have drawn a knife when attacked by six white youths. Two inches were given to the account of a clash between Negroes and whites in New York City and seventy-two inches to accounts of the East St. Louis riot.

The emphasis was on the work of the mob and the fact that Negroes were replacing strikers in East St. Louis, and that this was responsible for the riot. Some of the reports of Chicago incidents proved to be inaccurate. It developed that Charles A. Maronde, a saloon-keeper, who was supposed to have been killed by Negroes, his death precipitating a clash between Negroes and white persons, actually died of heart failure. There was no connection and no apparent reason for inserting the incident of the white girls being chased through the park by a Negro. This report was hearsay and was joined to the article in this manner: "About the time the Negroes were being fired upon, two young white girls were being chased by a Negro through Washington Park."

The item concerning the Negro held for trial on the charge of a white that he had attacked her, turned out to be the imaginings of a young girl, which involved a forty-three-year-old Negro, whose character had never before been questioned, and who, as the facts developed, was entirely innocent. Linked up in this article was an account of disciplining in the county jail; 150 prisoners had been locked in their cells and placed on bread and water because they were found shooting craps in the "bull pen."

Flippant treatment and ridicule of Negroes.—The "human-interest" newspaper story is undoubtedly one of the most effective means of gaining public attention. But it presents a single incident from which the reader is likely to apply characteristics vividly set forth concerning an individual to the group of which the individual is a member. It therefore leads to unfair judgments of the group when the characteristics are not representative of the group, even if they are representative of the individuals. It may be written with genuine humor and with the best of intentions, or perhaps only with thoughtlessness of the effect. But that does not obviate the sense of injury when the group involved feels itself misrepresented and held up to ridicule.

Newspaper flippancy concerning Negroes has found a sensitive spot among members of the race. Often there are suggestions and exaggerated descriptions that can be characterized as nothing else than ridicule. Negroes especially resent misrepresentation of Negro weddings, since no accounts are given by white newspapers of more representative weddings.

A Negro Wedding

"Yassah, I'se tuh git hitched up. I'se heighty-six and Emily's sixty-nine, but we done got license.

"Yassah, I am de man you is huntin'. Yes, suh, I'se agwine to git hitched with Emily Holland. De carryings-on are agwine to come off tomorrow night. Emily done got lonely like and I'se getting no 'count.

"I was in the wah wid de march to de sea, and I got fo' minie balls. One ob em took two ob my toes. I'se a-carrying de otha ball in my frame. Uncle Sam done provided fo me now wid a pension. It am enuf fo me an' Emily. It ain't too much, cause in de days ob de wah I done lay in trenches and fit all night in cold water."

bullet in his laigs

"I knowed how to bust bad coons in de army and I was p'moted to sahgent in Co. E, 60th Reg., U.S.A. Now comes the achings of bullets in my laigs and chest and I feel like I cain't walk no mo. Den it am de time when I wants a wife to look at me. Emily say she ain't ready fo to take on no mo 'sponsibility. Den I argufies with her.

"'How comes this heah 'sponsibility talk'? I say.

"'Taint no how come 'bout it,' she says, 'You is a ol' man.'

"'So is you a ol' woman,' I says."

is you or is you ain't?

"Den we jaw aroun' about it for a long time. Yestiddy I say, 'Emily you all hab done been widout a husband fo' nigh onto 22 yeah.' She don't say nothin'. I talks 'bout it some mo', then I says, 'Emily, is you gwine to be my wife or is you ain't?' She says 'Yes' and den we get de license. Now we hab done got de ministah and it am all ready. I'se feelin' kinda sprightly like tonight and unless my misery comes on me thar sho'ly am agwine to be some 'spicious carryings-ons in dis abode tomorrow night" [Chicago Tribune, January 11, 1916].

During the war Negroes were as seriously engaged in battle and as freely sacrificing their lives as other soldiers. When deeds of heroism were cabled back to the United States, Negroes at home expected serious reports of the activities of the sons, husbands, and brothers whom they had given up to fight for their country. Exception was taken by them to newspaper treatment of a serious feat as merely ludicrous. For example:

Black Yank Bags Hun; Major Wears Captain's Monocle

Paris, Sept. 7 (Delayed). During the recent American advance out of Château Thierry, a Red Cross captain was looking about for suitable hospital sites, when he met an American Negro soldier marching along toward Château Thierry, following close behind a German major. The Negro had transferred his pack from his own back to the back of the German officer, and had also transferred the German major's monocle to his own eye. Thus equipped the black warrior was parading triumphantly down the road. As he passed the Red Cross captain he called out, "I say, look here what dis Niggah done got" [Chicago Evening Post].

The following is a news report, with dialect, which was supposed to have been cabled from Paris:

Negro Stevedore Coming Back "By Way of New Ohleens"

August 17 (Delayed). George Washington Henry Clay Smith, Negro stevedore at one of the American base ports, expressed the feeling of a large part of the expeditionary force about ocean travel. "When dis heah wah is ovah," he said, "you-all will nevah see me goin' back across dat ole ocean. Ahm not goin' back to United States that away. Ahm goin' back by way of New Ohleens" [Chicago Evening Post, September 9, 1918].

"Crap shooting" is ordinarily regarded as the peculiar pastime and passion of Negroes. Popular expectation is fed by newspaper stories of these games, made even more humorous by dialect, and the frequent implications of levity in religious matters. Such stories would probably be enjoyed by Negroes if they did not have the effect of picturing this trait as an exclusively Negro form of gambling.

Or again, the newspaper plays up a supposed superstition of the Negro in such an article as appeared in the Chicago Tribune of January 1, 1920, under the heading "Negroes Driven to Jail in Big Black Hearse." Pseudo-serious newspaper reference was made to Negro street sweepers as the "official chamber maids" of the city in an article in the Chicago Herald of March 31, 1916, headed:

Black Birds as White Wings Negroes Supplant Sons of Italy as City's Official Chambermaids

Or again, a Negro saves a white man from a mob and is called a "darky" in the report of the incident:

Darky Pastor Saves White Autoist from Negro Mob

Newport News, Va., Oct. 27.—The attempt here today of a mob of Negroes to lynch Isadore Cohen after his automobile had run over a Negro child was frustrated by R. H. Green, a Negro preacher, who fought off the white man's assailants long enough to let him escape in the car. Cohen is held without bond [Chicago Tribune, October 28, 1920].

A Chicago colored boy is pictured at the Salvation Army Camp at Glen Ellyn. Under the picture is the title "Rastus." He has been given a piece of watermelon to complete the picture.

Joy Supreme

"Come here, you Rastus, and git yo' pitcher took t' show how glad you are."

Rastus was glad and Rastus came hither, but he was so glad about going to the Salvation Army Camp yesterday with several hundred boys and girls from the poorer districts that he failed to register the smile his mammy demanded.

The annual camp of the Salvation Army at Glen Ellyn opened in the afternoon. In the morning the first group of children left over the Northwestern Railroad. Practically every nationality was represented [Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1920].

Another picture is given in another issue of a little Negro boy at the Juvenile Detention Home. It is headed "Losted," and carries the suggestion of loose family life:

Little Pickaninny Who Waits Father and Mother to Claim Him

Who's lost a little colored boy about four years old? He's at the Juvenile Detention Home. He says his mother is "Mis' Brown" and his father "Mistuh Parsons."

He's got an inexpensive lavalliere for identification, a dime with a hole in it. He keeps the dime on his neck by means of a piece of string that runs through the hole [Chicago Tribune].

3. NEWSPAPER POLICY REGARDING NEGRO NEWS

The policy of a newspaper in handling racial news can be better determined by studying its articles and editorials than by asking the editors. In fact, when the editor of the Tribune was asked concerning this matter he referred the Commission to the columns of his paper. It would be difficult to find a definite policy on the race question stated and consistently followed out by any newspaper in all items affecting race issues. Ordinarily when misleading emphasis, misinterpretation, and distortions of fact occur, they are due to the ignorance concerning Negroes which is fairly general among white persons, rather than to any inclination to injure a disadvantaged group of people. Reporters and editors frequently use, doubtless unwittingly, terms unnecessarily irritating to Negroes. Individual notions of relations between whites and Negroes determine the character, color, and emphasis of articles and editorials.

A conference of editors of the white press was held to discuss these matters with the Commission. The white press was represented by Edgar T. Cutter, district superintendent of the Associated Press, W. A. Curley, managing editor of the Chicago American, Victor F. Lawson, editor of the Chicago Daily News, and Julian Mason, managing editor of the Chicago Evening Post. A brief questionnaire was filled out and returned by Joseph M. Patterson, editor of the Chicago Tribune.

A. EDITORIAL POLICY

Chicago American.—The Chicago American had recently adopted a policy of eliminating the racial designation, "Negro" or "colored," unless some special circumstance made the mention of race of particular news value. Said Mr. Curley:

There was a meeting at which newspaper men were gathered together with some representatives of the colored race down in a clubhouse on Grand Boulevard, the Appomattox Club, and we were informed then that there was a feeling among the Negroes that the newspapers emphasized in crime stories particularly the fact that a man was a Negro. Our publisher and I discussed it, and we decided that there was no more reason to emphasize that it was a Negro bandit than that it was an Irish or Jew bandit.

Our general policy has been that we must treat the Negro with the same consideration and tolerance as we give any other nationality. When he had those troubles here before [the riot of July, 1919] we had some editorials to that effect.

Since the date of the meeting mentioned, the American has consistently maintained this policy. Its editorials prior to that time had shown a spirit of tolerance and fairness. During the riot especially it published editorials designed to aid in the restoration of order.[89] It published perhaps the strongest of local newspaper editorials condemning the bombing of Negro homes.

Chicago Daily News.—The Chicago Daily News in its reference to Negroes used the expression "colored." Although it had sometimes published articles which were not representative, it had often given space and prominence to news concerning Negroes which presented them in a more favorable light. This was clearly manifested during the world-war. Its interest in a serious treatment of Negro affairs was shown in two special series of articles, the first by Junius B. Wood, the second by Carl Sandburg, both published later as booklets. These articles were well received and gave a necessary balance to the more usual publication of stories involving Negroes only in crimes. In a special column of the Daily News, "The Human Side of Things," many articles have been published relating to efforts for social welfare among Negroes.

Concerning the use of the racial designation in reporting crimes, Mr. Lawson explained that he considered it appropriate to mention race, as, for example, in giving an account of a lynching or the bombing of a Negro home. The racial designation, he believed, gave significance to the article. This consideration, he believed, balanced references in other cases. He said:

The newspaper point of view is to use the national, or professional, or racial distinction, the word giving the distinction, wherever it interprets the news that is being printed. There are some places where the character of the thing that is being told naturally suggests the name Negro, or the word Presbyterian, or Jew or Gentile or German or English, or Irish, and the newspaper never stops to suppress that. On the contrary it puts it in as interpreting fully the character of the news that is being told.

Concerning news items unnecessarily provoking race antagonism, as, for example, reports of speeches by a candidate for governor of Illinois on "White Supremacy," he thought that most of the papers as well as his own "played it down."

The statements of Mr. Lawson on other questions of policy are quoted:

Mr. Lawson: We regard items describing constructive work by Negroes or items indicating their advancement as better news than articles indicating degradation or criminality on their part. The Daily News endeavors to appeal to all readers alike. Instructions in news handling comprehend the employment of fairness, conservatism, and candor; special instructions based on these principles are issued to cover special cases. The terms "darky," "nigger," "coon," "shine," "wench," and "negress" are not employed by members of the staff in writing news articles and are rarely admitted to any class of matter. The style of the Daily News for many years has been to speak of the Negro as a colored man and the Negroes as colored people. When "Negro" is used it is rarely capitalized.

Commissioner: Is it objectionable?

Mr. Lawson: No, simply the style of the paper; typographic styles of paper vary. Some papers capitalize more than others. Some papers always spell the word "Bible" with a capital B. We don't. It simply follows the style of the paper. Dialects are very seldom employed in the news stories. They are not used to ridicule any race or nationality. The Daily News recognizes the importance and delicacy of the race problems in Chicago in its news columns as elsewhere in the paper. It aims to assist constructive movements, eliminate sensationalism, and quiet prejudice, while at the same time presenting truthfully such facts as may be of interest and proper to the reading public as a whole. I think, perhaps, I ought to emphasize that last thought to this extent: the newspaper impulse is to print the news, that is the controlling, dominating purpose of the newspaper mind, to print the news. But circumstances will at times suggest some particular expression of that impulse. Many times, as Mr. Curley told you, we don't print the news, we suppress it in the public interest.

Chairman: But that is a difficult self-control.

Mr. Lawson: Yes, I think so. To err is human, to print the news is the natural impulse of newspaper people, but we do recognize—I know all newspapers recognize—a very definite responsibility that, in so far as it lies within a reasonable discretion and a reasonable ability to act, they must consider always the general public interest in any grave matter. I think Mr. —— struck a very important interpretative status when he said he didn't like to have the designation of the race in any respect used as an expression of ridicule. Of course, that goes without saying. No newspaper that is wise, let alone a newspaper that is fair, will deliberately inflict derision on any class of its readers. It is a foolish thing to do aside from anything else, and anything that would seem to suggest a deliberate intent to bring the Negro race into derision, every man in the room would resent and properly. But I think, as I said before, that at times a purpose of derision is imagined when there hasn't been any. I think that is true and I don't think that it is surprising. If I were a member of a race that was fighting its way all the time toward a square deal and a fair show, I presume I'd be supersensitive about some things.

Herald-Examiner.—The Herald-Examiner's principal handling of the race issue has been through the presentation of news items. The term of designation employed is "Negro." On several occasions the Herald-Examiner has made commendable effort to show in its columns that a friendly spirit exists between the two races. Most notable of these efforts was the picture of whites and Negroes fraternizing in an effort to restore order immediately after the "Abyssinian affair," in which two white persons were killed and several Negroes, including a Negro policeman, were injured. Some of its editorials on the Negro question were headed:

Negro Education Education the Best Solvent for the Negro Problem (Based on the Report of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States)

Disloyalty and Lynching East St. Louis Massacres Have Not Been Properly Published. A Gulf Separates Governor Lowden's Denunciation of the Riot and the Treatment Accorded Slayers

The Black Man Stood Pat On the Loyalty of Negroes

No "Patriotic" Mobs A Condemnation of Mob Violence in Illinois

On the other hand, some of the most emphasized misrepresentations of Negroes have appeared in the Herald-Examiner, as, for example, the story of the "Negro revolt,"[90] and various riot articles.

Chicago Tribune.—The Chicago Tribune stated its policy of handling Negro news to be one of "fair dealing and recognition of the difficulties." The managing editor stated that the Tribune used dialect in cases of kindly human-interest stories, refrained from the use of terms like "darky," "coon," "Negroes," etc., and employed the term Negro, capitalizing the N. The last practice was begun at the instance of Negro leaders. During the threatened race riot the Tribune sought the aid of leading Negro newspapers in Chicago. There were no definite instructions regarding the handling of Negro news matter. The difficulties in race relations recognized by the editors of the Tribune are to be found in the following editorials:

White and Black in Chicago

It is possible for whites and Negroes to live in peace in Chicago. They have done so for years, in normal conditions and in normal times. They have managed to live without much prejudice. There has been good feeling. The Negro has had political equality. There has been an attempt to give him a fair representation in public affairs and not to resent his presence there.

We admit frankly that if political equality had meant the election of Negro mayors, judges, and a majority of Negroes in the city council the whites would not have tolerated it. We do not believe that the whites of Chicago would be any different from the whites of the South in this respect....

We have been able to extend the essentials of citizenship to the Negroes freely because the whites are dominant in numbers. All the essentials are in the possession of the Negro. He is not Jim-Crowed by law. A line is drawn by usage. The law in fact forbids what actually is done. It is a futile law because it encounters instinct.

Legally a Negro has right to service anywhere the public generally is served. He does not get it. Wisely he does not ask for it. There has been an illegal, non-legal, or extra-legal adjustment founded upon common sense which has worked in the past, and it will work in the future.

The fact is that so long as this city is dominated by whites, whether because of their numbers without force or by their force if they were in the minority, there will be limitations placed upon the black people. They will be limitations which will not work an injustice to the black people, who have a right to their own development.

There is no objection to economic equality. There is a decided objection to the exploitation of black labor. During the war many Negroes were brought from the South. Thousands of them went into the Stock Yards. The war shut off the supply of common labor. The South supplied the want.

Thus the population of blacks doubled in war times. Concerns which brought the Negro here to exploit him damaged the community by throwing a race question upon it. Concerns which needed the Negro and put him upon an equal basis with the whites, without importing cheap labor to take the jobs of whites, were legitimately supplying their need for labor.

The race issue in California grew out of the fact that the Japanese were cutting under the price of white labor. That will produce race troubles as quickly as anything.

Concerns may have been derelict in not considering the housing problem. The imported Negroes could not live in the streets or vacant lots. They had to get under roofs, and in getting under roof they suddenly established new contact with white neighborhoods.

In this change there was bound to be trouble unless precautions were taken. In the present case there is no evidence of precaution and some of provocation. It is possible for that question to adjust itself. Such realty movements cannot take place without friction, but the friction need not lead to riots. The city is steadily shifting in residential character. Some of the people affected by the shifts do not like it, but in normal times the readjustment is not disturbing to the community. A spread of factories may change the character of a section. A spread of Negroes may do the same thing.

A writer once summed up the Negro question by saying, "The North has the principles and the South has the Negroes." We are coming to have the Negroes, and we want to keep the principles so far as they are applicable.

Industrial radicalism, expressed in the I.W.W. propaganda among the Negroes, will not help us to keep them. Thuggery will not help us to keep them. A rebellion by the Negroes against facts which exist and will persist will not help us to keep them, but we are confident that the situation in Chicago is susceptible of being handled in the fashion it always has been handled.

Unsettling the Race Problem

... Regardless of what may be considered the justice of the claims of the races, the fact undeniably is that white and black will not mix in quantity. For this reason—the reason reached by the jury—the remedy seems obvious: there must be a plane upon which the races can live socially distinct but industrially co-operative.

We are not disposed to think that the mass of the Negroes want social equality in the full sense of the term. The Tribune has had many intelligently composed letters from Negroes disclaiming any such desire. We believe the Negroes want an opportunity to develop their own society. If this is true there ought not be widespread objection to social segregation, directed by themselves and upon the theory of wholesome living conditions.

But against what we think is an inherent disregard for exact social equality there is appearing a very insidious propaganda among the Negroes. Whether it is being circulated as a radical irritant calculated to disturb political conditions or merely is the parlor philosophy of eager sociological transcendentalists, there is no means of determining.

The propaganda urging agitation for social equality may have every support under the law and under what ought to be human justice, but while fortified by what ought to be, it flies in the face of what is....

The blacks form less than 10 per cent of the population of the United States. They have less than one-tenth of a ghost of a show if the relations between white and black become bitterly hostile. The average black man and the average white man get along fairly well. Unless something happens to arouse their race prejudices and instincts they live by tolerance which may not be a solution of race difficulties, but it is a method of life and it is practical.

There is plenty of evidence just now that something is raising the race question. There is evidence, it is said, to support the story that agents had played on the imagination and ignorance of Negroes in Arkansas inciting them to arise against the whites and take their lands. Agitators have tried to excite the blacks. Some misguided sentimentalists have tried to organize whites and blacks for the compulsory recognition of social equality—a propaganda which is even more vicious than the red propaganda. There are numerous elements and factors of disorder, and the consequences already have been bad....

The position of the Negro is not a preferred one in American society. The Negro is at an economic disadvantage. He is needed in the South and has been brought into the North to meet labor emergencies, but he does not have an open field of work. These disadvantages cannot be removed by discussing them. They exist in race instincts and, along with the other disadvantages which the Negro meets, arise from causes not at the control of the reasoning faculties.

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?

Mr. Cutter: Only as it passes through here. Each district passes on its own news, but we verify it if it ever appears to be incorrect. But any item that reflects upon any person or upon any organization, even if we get it from our own newspapers, is first checked up to its source, if that is at all possible, and then if there is a matter of controversy and only one side has been stated, we always try to get a statement from the other side, from some head official. In case of Negro news, we have many times had as our representatives leading Negroes. Negro organizations have come into our office and we have solicited news from them....