Page:Chicago Race Riots (Sandburg, 1919).djvu/76



Sears, Roebuck & Co., where the volume of business is $200,000,000 a year, where they send out 8,000,000 copies a year of the most widely circulated book in the United States—the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogue—there sits in the administration office the president of the company, Julius Rosenwald.

In the midst of an array of wall photographs of Greek parthenons and Egyptian sphinxes there is a large photograph of Booker T. Washington, the negro race leader. Near at hand is a remarkable collection of books on the race question.

"If we say the negro must stay in slums and shall not invade white residence districts, then we shall have to make more stringent health laws to protect us from the evils that go with slums," said Mr. Rosenwald. "If we say the negro must continue to live in slums, we must prepare for a brighter crime rate.

"They came here because we asked them to come, because they were needed for industrial service. There is no solution for the problem apparent now. That is all the more reason both sides must be fair. It will do no good to see red.

"With immigration restricted, it will be necessary for business to seek another source of labor supply. This exists in the colored population. When they settle here and become workers in the community they have a right