mob. No chief
appeared. No captain called the hosts. No generalissimo marshalled the
black phalanx. No statesman sought entanglement in the meshes of the
negro labyrinth. But the Negro proposition for a test of Negro fitness,
like Topsy, "just growed." The young Negro possessed the clear eye to
see the situation. College trained, his vision was not blinded by
proximity to issues of the Civil War, nor by financial dependence, nor
by excessive spirituality. The elder Negro possessed the oratorical and
linguistic powers to state the case. Also college trained, of long
experience, possessing a widespread oratorical clientele, he spoke with
a voice that stirred and played upon the heartstrings of all America.
Never was such a proposition advanced where men, old and young, despised
and rejected, penniless and without credit, without acclaimed leadership
or champion, sought position of honor and recognition and equality
beside the best fighting forces of the world to help defeat the greatest
military machine that hell had ever invented.

Capital and labor, in previous years, had found the Negro wanting. State
governments had utilized him for the purpose of increasing taxes and
court fees. The national government always handled him in accordance
with political expediency, despite his unswerving loyalty. Capital,
labor, State government and national government had brought the Negro so
low that he was ready in 1914 for any form of relief.

The Negro was ready for change, for one reason, because he had lost the
honor of ministership to Haiti, Henry W. Furniss being succeeded by a
white man. He was ready for change because, as the continental war
proceeded, it became evident that though America might participate, her
black colonel, Charles Denton Young, a graduate of West Point, and a
distinguished soldier, might receive recognition as the leader of black
forces on foreign soil. He was ready for change because it appeared that
there had been agreement that no American Negro should participate in a
test of world equality upon the field of world honor and renown.

In the American Navy Department, in 1914, time had destroyed the wake of
Negro tradition, and the log had been deleted. The Negro has rendered
honorable service in the navy. He was with Perry on Lake Erie. During
the Civil War, Robert Smalls, a Negro, single-handed, stole the Union
cruiser "Planter" from Charleston harbor and brought her into a Union
port. Half the men w