It is my belief that the Negro soldier returning from France will be a better citizen than when he left.  He will be benefited mentally and physically by his military training and experience.  He will have a broader vision.  He will appreciate American citizenship.  He will know, I believe, that freedom, for which he risked his life and all, is not license.  He will find his brothers at home who did not go overseas better for their war sacrifices.  Both the soldier and the civilian have proved their devoted loyalty.  Justice demands that they now be rewarded with an equal chance with the white man to climb as high in the industrial and professional world as their individual capacity warrants.

[Illustration:  Homecoming heroes of 8th Illinois (370th infantry).  Famous negro fighters marching in Michigan Boulevard.  Chicago]

CHAPTER XXXI.

The other fellow’s burden.

An Emancipation Day Appeal for Justice.

By W. Allison Sweeney.

Publisher’s Note:  At our request, Mr. Sweeney consented to the reproduction of this poem, which with the accompanying letter from the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, and the comment by the Chicago Daily News, appeared in that newspaper just prior to New Years Day, 1914.  We regard it as a powerful argument, affecting the Negro’s past condition and his interests.

“President Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation Sept. 22, 1862.  It went into effect at the beginning of January, 1863.  New Year’s day has thus become ‘Emancipation day’ to the colored people of the United States and to all members of the white race who realize the great significance of Lincoln’s act of striking off the shackles of an enslaved race.  Services on that day combine honor to Lincoln with appeals to the people of Lincoln’s nation to grant justice to the Negro.  A remarkable appeal of this sort is embodied in the poem here presented.

“W.  Allison Sweeney, author of “The Other Fellow’s Burden” is well known among his people as writer, editor and lecturer.  His poem, which sketches with powerful strokes the lamentable history of the colored race in America and tells of their worthy achievements in the face of discouragements, deserves a thoughtful reading by all persons.  Of this poem and its author Dr. Booker T. Washington writes as follows: 

“Tuskegee Institute, Ala., Dec. 24, 1913.—­To the Editor of the Chicago Daily News:  I have read with sincere interest and appreciation W. Allison Sweeney’s poem, ‘The Other Fellow’s Burden.’  All through Mr. Sweeney’s poem there is an invitation put in rather a delicate and persuasive way, but nevertheless it is there, for the white man to put himself in the negro’s place and then to lay his hand upon his heart and ask how he would like for the other fellow to treat him.  If every man who reads this poem will try sincerely to answer this question I believe that Mr. Sweeney’s poem will go a long way toward bringing about better and more helpful conditions.