nd the Germans evacuated Upper
Alsace. Before their terrific attack, with the British steadily pressing
beside them, General Von Stein admitted his defeat by the white and
black allies. Paris was saved and Foch discovered to the allied world.
How the hearts of black Americans thrilled as slowly the news filtered
through to them of what the black colonials had done to hold the field
for France! It was then that they took it into their hearts that if the
United States were ever called upon to participate in this struggle,
they would not be denied a place of glory equal to that which their
African brethren had achieved.

But there was no time for resolve. The cataclysm involved in the
threatened overthrow of English law and orderly procedure throughout the
world caused the American Negro to tremble. Always conservative, if
there be anything to conserve, the Negro appreciated that English law,
when properly interpreted, meant freedom and life and hope eternal to
him. He was unwilling to take any chances with a German substitute. The
overthrow of English law he looked upon as the impending crack of doom.
On came the Germans toward Calais and the Straits of Dover! On to
Zeebrugge! On to Ostend! To Ypres! In her supreme desperation, England
looked about the world for a force to stay the invader until she could
prepare to meet the full force of the attack. She cared not whether aid
be white or black, or brown or yellow. She called for help, or else
Ypres should fall. Black men of Africa, brown men of India, white and
red men of Canada, and yellow men of the Far East heard her call. And
while America lifted not a finger, the American Negro lifted up his
heart to God and prayed that Anglo-Saxon justice, rigid and cold, so
often denied him, should not perish in triumph of the Hun, who knew no
law save his own lust and super-arrogation.

Aboard the "Lusitania" there were no known men of color. But there were
Caucasian women and children aboard. At what moral disadvantage did
Germany put herself with the black millions of America when she
riotously celebrated the horrible death her submarines had meted out to
these weak and helpless mortals. The "Belgian Prince," first of the
vessels torpedoed without warning after President Wilson's manifesto on
the subject, had one lone black survivor to tell the tale of horror. He
told it to his black brethren and they chafed under the diplomatic
restraint, which relieved itself by polite letter