Let us, however, grant, say some, that the Negro helps himself; that is not sufficient. Anybody should help himself, anybody can; but what is the race worth as a constructive factor in American civilization? Is it finally to be an agency making for the upbuilding of the nation, or simply one of the forces that retard? What is its promise in American life?
In reply to this we recall first of all the work that has already been remarked along industrial lines. We have seen that the nation, especially in the South, depends upon Negro men and women as the stable labor supply in such occupations as farming, sawmilling, mining, cooking, and washing. Figures bearing this out have already been given. The tremendous new emphasis on farming and mining incident to the war is known to all. The Negro is now helping most vitally to feed the American people and to produce the materials for transportation and the making of munitions. Let any one ask, even the prejudiced observer, if he would like to see every Negro in the country out of it, and then he will decide whether economically the Negro is a liability for the country or an asset.
Again, consider the Negro soldier. In all our history there are no pages more heroic, more pathetic than those detailing the exploits of the black man. We remember the Negro, three thousand strong, fighting for the liberties of America when his own race was still held in bondage. We remember the deeds at Port Hudson, Fort Pillow, and Fort Wagner. We remember Santiago and San Juan Hill, not only how Negro men went gallantly to the charge, but how a black regiment faced pestilence and fever that the ranks of their white comrades might not be decimated. And then Carrizal. Once more, at an unexpected moment, the soul of the nation was thrilled by the bravery of the black troopers of the Tenth Cavalry. Once more, despite Brownsville, the tradition of Fort Wagner was preserved and passed on. It mattered not that "some one had blundered." "Theirs not to make reply; theirs but to do and die." So in the face of odds they fought by the cactus and lay dead beneath the Mexican stars.
And now, all around us, everywhere is the greatest of all wars. Once more has the Negro been summoned to the colors, and, because he is not fully protected in some places, because he has not the full power of suffrage, summoned out of all proportion to his numbers, summoned even when he could best serve at his regular work on the farms--not because the government intended unfairness, but because local registration officials have not been fair, because exemption boards have not been honest. And yet, even when physically disabled, even when he had the roughest work to do, he has still obeyed orders, not because he was not brave, not because he was not strong, but because he was true. Others might desert, but not the Negro; others might be spies or strikers, but not he--not he in time of peril. In peace or war, in victory or danger, he, the Negro, has ever been loyal to the Stars and Stripes.