VOL. 87 NO. 48
President Harding and Social Equality
(From The Nation, New York.)
Find fault with the President after,
he has gone straight into Southern
temtory and come out plump for the
colored man's political and economic
rights, and the necessity of giving
him an education equal to the white
man's?
Why then cavil at any single phrase
of the President? Why not overlook
his one unfortunate utterance in or
der to bestow upon him unqualified
praise? Because that one reference
to social equality^'men of both
races may well stand uncompromis
ingly against every suggestion of so
cial equality"fell like a lash upon
every thoughtful colored man and off
set much of the good Mr. Harding
did. Even in far-off Buenos Aires it
called forth piotests the national Ar
gentine Socialist convention at once
interpreted Mr. Harding as meaning
that the condition of "the ten millions
of colored population in the great re
public will be eternally one of infe
riority and subordination," and em
phatically protested against it. True,
the phrase quoted sweetened the rest
of the dose for the South and saved
the President from endless coarse
abuse and fanatical denunciation as a
"nigger lover" and from the charge
of "insulting the South." Yet it
would have been far better had'he
mever uttered it, for by it he played
into the hands of all who justify any
discrimination against the colored
At least he should have defined just
what he meant by social equality. If
he had mind intermarriage only, he
should, in justice to himself and to
the colored man, have said so. Unfor
tunately the phrase covers a multi
tude of sins. It is the excuse for end
less aggression and wrongdoing by
the "superior race." In the final
analysis in the South social equality
invaiiably whittles down to the rela
tions of black men with white women,
and in order to prevent them multi
tudes of our white Americans in the
South honestly think themselves jus
tified in resorting to any measures
down to torture and burning. So cer
tain are they that this must not be
tolerated that they seek to prevent
any approach to it by even forbidding
colored people the use of public libra
ries, to say nothing of public car
riers. 