Twin City Herald

VOICE OF THE LEGION

The most pressing problem of the day, with trouble brewing in Europe, and so many Americans taking part in the activities already going on, would naturally be a universal draft act. The American Legion has been urging the passage of such a bill for the past fifteen years.

It is designed to take the profit out of war, so there will be no particular rush by big interests to get someone else's son killed or maimed. Also under provisions of the proposed act, there would be no distinction between a rich man's boy and a poor man's son. This is all well and good, we are highly favorable to it, but there are some things that our group should think of, in the event such a bill should become a law.

We wonder if the Negro would be gradually shoved through the administration of such a law into lower and lower brackets, until survival would be a problem almost unsolvable to a people of extremely limited means, in such a time?

Under the crude working of the war laws of 1917 and 1918, Negroes were able to fight against successfully, a number of efforts to shove them in the background.

Take the riots at Spartanburg, S. C., when the 369th Infantry repelled efforts to convert them into a stevedore outfit. That fight was made by practically every other unit of the National Guard Division, (93).

The result was, that by the time the 92nd was mustered, persons in authority had discovered that such conversion was mighty touchy proposition, and would not attempt it seriously with an organization that large.

Other units not of the 92nd had several riots about the same thing, and the result was that most of the troops put in the field had the compromise title of Pioneer Infantry, which might be interpreted to mean in a simple sense, work when there is any work to be done, and fight when we need you.

Negroes in some sections of the country have seen these things, and have made an effort to strengthen their positions through the organization of National Guard Units. In the northwest nothing has been done to safeguard the interests of the young colored draftee. Nothing will very likely be done, for two reasons: first we have always taken an ostrichlike attitude toward any problem until it strikes us, then we all imitate the proverbial canary. Secondly, the actual percentage of men who had real combat experience is much smaller here than it is in many other sections of the country. Most of the heavy combat veterans are not native to Minnesota, having come here from other sections since the war, and naturally the home town boys are in the saddle. So with the coming of the universal draft act, we may laud it as a safeguard against our entry into war, should it fail of its purpose, it might in the hands of the right people be used as a cudgel against our group. PEERY.