Page:Chicago Race Riots (Sandburg, 1919).djvu/79



The race question is national and federal. No city or state can solve it alone. There must be cooperation between states. And there must be federal handling of it.

This is the view of Major Joel E. Spingarn, recently returned from service under fire in France and later service in the occupied zone in Germany with the 311th Infantry. Major Spingarn was for six years chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People.

"What is now happening in Chicago has happened in other large cities, north and south, east and west," said Major Spingarn. "With the initial or igniting occurrences out of consideration we have much the same developments in every case where there are race riots. Everything considered, the character of the Chicago population and the size of it, the total number of casualties is surprisingly low.

"The fact must now be emphasized that the race problem is not local, but is a national question. It should have federal attention, and there should be federal aid. We must fight as a national danger the race hatred that exists in the south. That particular form of race hatred, which was one fundamental cause of the civil war, should not be permitted to spread to other sections.

"The southern neglect of the negro is a national problem. All the conditions of life that tend to degrade the