Chapter X: PUBLIC OPINION IN RACE RELATIONS--Continued (2)

_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....

In cases of lynchings and such things from the South, the
Associated Press often has used twenty-five or fifty words and
just let it pass with the mere fact. Where we have covered
crime in full, big cases, very often it has been upon the
demand of the members of the organizations.

News concerning Negroes is handled just the same as any news
of any nationality. We use the words, "Negro" and "colored."
And it is always the desire of the Associated Press and the
attempt of the Associated Press not only not to injure any
person but to show the proper respect to all religions, races,
and all classes of society. It makes no difference whether
we would capitalize the word "Negro" or not. Our copy goes to
the newspaper and, as Mr. Lawson says, they follow their own
ideas in that....

In all of our services we attempt to suppress news that we
think might stir up race relations involving Japanese, Mexicans,
Negroes, or any others, and we follow the lead of newspapers.

_Question_: What is the extent to which news from these members
of the Associated Press is verified when it comes from regions
or localities where there may be prejudice?

_Mr. Cutter_: Wherever there is any question of the news or
wherever there are two sides, as in the labor question, we send
a staff man out from headquarters who makes his reputation
and that of the Associated Press upon covering both sides of
the story equally. He knows very readily that if he doesn't
cover that with thorough fairness, he is going to hear from
it later from one side or the other.

_Chicago American._--Mr. William H. Curley, managing editor of the _Chicago American_, gave the following information:

Of course as to accuracy, we check that up the same as we do
any item. We find out where the item came from; if it is a
police item we find out who is responsible for it and send
reporters immediately to cover it and rely upon them for
accuracy regarding the report.

_Question_: Let me ask whether you do that with the same care
and precision that you do in the case of a white man that is
involved.

_Mr. Curley_: Absolutely.

_Question_: That is no insinuation against the newspapers,
but, for instance, it is said that in the courts, if a man is
a colored man he doesn't have the same thoughtful care that
a man has if he is a white man.

_Mr. Curley_: A good many items, of course, come from the City
Press that supplies all the newspapers. If it is a matter that
is trivial, of course a newspaper won't send a special reporter
but relies upon the City Press for accuracy. In a crime story
we eliminate the word "Negro" unless there is some reason for
it. We don't use any of the terms, "darky," "nigger," "coon,"
"shine," "wench," or "negress."

_Question_: Do you get news unsolicited regarding Negroes any
more than other persons?

_Mr. Curley_: We don't take any news that comes in over the
telephone without checking it.

_Question_: Regarding items coming from the South, is there
any particular care or checking used to see whether they are
true stories, trustworthy or not?

_Mr. Curley_: You have to take that as it comes because that
is your news service. In other words, they are supposed to
use their care down there the same as we do here. We have to
rely on that.

_Chicago Daily News._--

_Mr. Lawson_: Sources of information are the same as in the case
of other news, and in addition matter originally in Negroes' own
publications, bulletins of welfare organizations, etc. Generally
speaking, it may be said that more news on this subject comes
from outside sources such as telephone tips and correspondence
than from members of the staff. Perhaps 10 per cent comes from
the Associated Press. This is an arbitrary estimate. The same
methods are used to determine the accuracy of news concerning
the Negroes that are used under other circumstances. The _Daily
News_ does not publish any news except after determining its
accuracy to the best of its ability. No special reporter may
be said to be assigned to news of Negroes, but owing to his
special study of the conditions in Chicago, however, Carl
Sandburg is on occasion called into consultation or assigned
a topic for investigation. I may say that years ago the Negro
poet Dunbar was a reporter on the _News_.

Negro news is received from the Associated Press in the same
manner as other news. It is not often re-written, and then
only when the subject-matter is local to Chicago. Headlines
are written to conform to the text of the article. The _Daily
News_ is in touch with very reliable and well-informed Negroes
in whom, because of long experience, it has confidence. It
obtains information from them and seeks their viewpoint on
serious matters. We regard items describing constructive work
by the 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.

_Chicago Tribune._--The following is taken from the replies in the questionnaire returned by Mr. Joseph M. Patterson, editor of the _Chicago Tribune_:

The sources of Negro news are the same as sources of other
news. Some comes from the staff; some from the City News
Bureau. Some of the local news concerning Negroes comes from
reporters. No news of any consequence is received by telephone
or correspondence. The Associated Press treats it on the same
basis as other news. To insure accuracy the usual methods of
inquiry are employed. However, most of this news comes from
responsible news bureaus. Articles are re-written but only
for condensation. During the threatened race riot the aid of
leading Negro newspapers was sought to check information on
serious matters. Each item is judged on its merits.

4. THE NEGRO PRESS

Among the considerations which have been urged by Negroes as making necessary the establishment of the Negro press are:

1. The indifference of white newspapers to the Negro group, their emphasis on the unfortunately spectacular, and the consequent loss of items of interest among Negroes throughout the country.

2. The importance of developing the morale of the Negro group, creating a solidarity of interest and purpose for measures of defense, correcting the impressions created by general opinion, and centering the attention of Negroes upon themselves and their destiny. There has never been sufficient capital for the adequate development of the Negro press. The purpose, however, has been served of collecting items of interest from all sections of the country, although they lack the facilities of so efficient an agency as the Associated Press.

For a time practically all of the northern Negro newspapers fell under the condemnation of the United States Attorney-General's office.[91] They were accused of radicalism and incitation to violence. Frequent criticisms of the Negro press declare it dangerous to the interests of cordial race relations. Ex-President Taft in the _Philadelphia Ledger_ said: "The editors of the colored press should be reasoned with to cease publishing articles, however true, having inciting effect."

Commenting on criticisms of this kind, Isaac Fisher, editor of the _Fisk University News_, said:

Since the Washington and Chicago riots, the colored newspapers
have been bitterly arraigned in some quarters for being
responsible for race hatred. But the singular part of the
indictment is that these papers are not accused of "falsifying"
the record, but of stating the grounds of the Negro's
resentment; and there is growing up a school of thought which
argues that the colored papers should refrain from publishing as
news any facts, even though true, which serve to increase the
bitterness of the colored people against the white people. The
comments made by those who charge the Negro press with being
the cause of race antagonism are unanimous in interpreting as
"incendiary" all statements of facts whose bare recital makes
the Negro discontented with present conditions.

It should also be noted that the charge of inciting to race
hatred is laid against the Negro press specifically for the
period which has followed the end of the late war; whereas the
charge of inciting white people to wrath against the Negro is
an old one which has been repeated again and again during the
past thirty years.

But, while the Negro press is not as old as the white press
and cannot possibly be charged with having "been on the job"
quite so long, it is true, nevertheless, that some of its
members have cast all prudence to the winds since the signing
of the armistice, and have entered a mad race with the most
"yellow" of yellow white journals in vitriolic race attacks,
in this case upon all white people, in the attempt to meet
the "yellow" white press more than half way.