Cayton's weekly. [volume], January 05, 1918, Image 2

About Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921

Image provided by: Washington State Library; Olympia, WA

                
POLITICAL POT PIE
Emmett 11. Holmes is the .first colored
person in the state of Washington to hold
a position of trust under a state adminis
tration, and, strange to say, a Democratic
administration is responsible for the politi
cal i novation.
Cayton's Weekly in the last gubernator
ial campaign took the various Republican
administrations to task for their direliction
in giving colored Republicans political
recognition and it bitterly fought all gu
bernatorial aspirants, who would not go on
record to politically recognize the colored
vote -in case of nomination and election, and
to that end it vigorously supported Roland
11. Hartley for the gubernatorial nomina
tion, but Henry Mcßride won out in the
primaries and this paper shed no crockadile
tears, when he lost out in the general elec
tion, simply because he did nothing for the
black man when he was governor and
would make no promise of doing anything
for him in case of re-election. No official
is greater than his party and if he or she
expects to be elected to office by his party
vote he or she must expect to do his or her
bit to build up the party machinery and,
in order to win, votes must be had, and
the vote cast by a black person swells the
whole number of votes just as much as the
vote cast by a white person. To hold all
factions and classes of voters insoluable all
factions and classes of voters must be re
warded when the spoils of party are being
passed around.
In the last gubernatorial campaign the
editor hereof called the attention of E. F.
Blame, one of Governor Lister's appointees
and one of his most trusted political lieu
tenants, to the governor's mistake in not
recognizing the colored vote and he prom
ised and verily did take it up with the
governor and was informed by him (the
governor), that he had repeatedly advocated
such a political move, but the heads of the
various departments absolutely rebelled
and on the subject he found himself not
only standing alone, but at absolute vari
ance with his respective appointees. It
had not been done and while Cayton's
Weekly did not openly support the Demo
cratic gubernatorial nominee, yet it had
nothing to say for the Republican and was
more or less neutral; Gov. Lister succeeded
himself and evidently the seeds he had pre
viously sown which were nurtured by E. F.
Blame, began to sprout, and though they
were a long time getting through the crust,
yet they finally came through and as a re
sult Emmett IT. Holmes is now filling an
important state position under Henry Drum,
warden of the state penitentiary. * In the
past Mr. Holmes has not been able to per
suade many of the colored voters of the
state to follow him into the local Demo
cratic camp, but it is suspected he will
not be near so lonely in the next state
campaign as he has been in the past. It
mattersnot how well educated or politically
influential a colored man may have been in
the past, an appeal to his Republican
friends for a position on account of past po
litical favors, moved said official to get busy
at once looking up a janitorship for him
and if none are to be had, then he is told
''there is nothing doing."
The auditor of this state has the naming
of nearly one hundred employees and yet
when a colored man, who in the past had
been one of his staunchest supporters, ap
pealed to him for a position, he could find
nothing at aall for him to do. There will
come a change some day.
If any colored man in the state can and
will fill a political position with credit to
himself and the class of voters with whom
he is racially identified, E. H. Holmes will
do so. if it can be done, and it can. He is
fearless in his advocacy of a square deal
for the black man the same as for the
white man, and fighting. for this principle,
Avhich was denied him by the Republicans
of Spokane county, caused him to work for
the success of the Democratic nominees. It
was in 1896 when Mr. Holmes first broke
from his Republican moorings and since
that time he has consistently opposed the
Republican nominees and he has made some
headway. The editor of Cayton's Weekly
has no sympathy for the Democratic party,
especially that wing of it from the South,
but unless the Republicans make greater ef
forts in the future to give recognition to
the colored voters, he will advocate the
colored voters supporting that man or men
who will agree to recognize them the same
as they do all other classes of voters, and
that to,o whether the nminee is allied with
the Republican, Democratic or Damphool
party.
All of this reminds the writer of a bit
of personal political experience, which is
as follows: In years past he was the fifth
wheel of a strong political organization in
this state, which made him the political as
sociate of the state's leading and most in
fluential politicians. Fortune favored him
in the publication of the Seattle Republi
can and he neither sought or wanted politi
cal preferment, but he was responsible for
the selection of members of the supreme
court and every other state office, even to
the senators and representatives in Con
gress, and on the whole he thought himself
some man among men, and, there were
others of a like mind. The sun, however,
does not shine in one man's door all the
day and he suffered heavy financial re
verses, and to such an extent that even the
necessities of life were quite a problem for
him to solve. Holding an important politi
cal position was an old time political friend
and with whom he had worked for years
building up a political machine, and he was
holding the place on account of this ma
chine. This public official was asked for a
position, and after taking the verbal appli
cation under advisement, he very deliber
ately replied: "I know of no man in the
state that I would favor more readily than
yourself, but I have nothing to give you ex
cept a position I will not offer you." And
our reply was: "If you offer me that I
will spit in your face," to which he re
plied: "And I would not have any respect
for you if you did not." Despite hundreds
of places at his and his friends' .disposal a
janitor's job was by ineuendo offered, and
if it worked all was well; if not, then the
other places were all taken. Yes, it's dis
couraging, if one will be discouraged, but
Horace Roscoe Cayton is made of sterner
stuff and will die fighting.
Is it humane to brand Felix Crane an
"ex- Washington convict" and then drive
him out of the state and especially to Ok
lahoma, where the authorities of the law
will await his coming, almost with drawn
guns, and at the slightest provocation shoot
him down, on the grounds that he is a
dangerous criminal? The laws of this state
sent Crane to prison to not only punish
him for his sins of commission, but to like
wise reform him. He has been paroled for
the express purpose of seeing to what ex
tent his punishment has reformed him. If
he be driven from the state by what means
will the paroling officials find that out?
Crane, according to the prison records, was
a model prisoner and was a trusty during
the entire time he was.technically confined.
Yes, he was even given his commitment
papers and he conveyed himself to Walla
Walla to report to the pen for service, all
of which adds still more to his record as
being a model convict. If all this be true,
why will not the state of Washington give
him an opportunity to make good Perhaps
he has thoroughly reformed and in future
will be as much an ideal citizen as he was
an ideal prisoner. George Vandeveer, the
attorney, who defended Crane, told the
court that the evidence on which he was
convicted, would have never convicted a
white man. Why drive Crane out of the
state and allow Charley Wappenstein to
not tonly live at home, but to act as a peace
officer? Crane's crime was no more hem
ious than Wappenstein's. Crane can live
down his past a thousand times easier in
Washington than he can in some other
state and why not give him a fighting
chance. The colored population of Seattle
number about 3,000 while the white popula
tion number about 350,000 and certainly so
few colored persons could not be a menace
to the city even if fCrane should want to
returne to his wallerings. The law would
soon apprehend him and return him to
prison.
This "move on" order issued to Felix
Crane reminds us of the orders so often
given by the police department of large
cities to undesirable persons: "leave town
immediately or suffer the consequences."
It's a crime aerainst the country to drive a
criminal out of one town to go to another,
where said criminal is unknown, thus mak
ing the other fellow vicitms unawares: If
a person is a criminal and the same can be
proven, then the thing to do is to send said
criminal to prison, from the. place where
his or her last crime was committed. If you
say to the criminal, "you are to be deported
to some country set aside for criminals"
then the "move on" order is alright, but to
drive a citizen from town to town on the
theory that he or she is an undesirable is
not only making a worse criminal of the
unfortunate, if such be possible, but you
make it possible for said criminal to ply
the dark lantern "profesh" on persons and
communities that know not the criminal
nature of the new comer. Crime should be
suppressed, not encouraged and the prac
tice of driving criminals out of town is
nothing short of encouraging the commis
sion of crime. The legislature of the vari
ous states should pass a law making it a
statutory | offense for an officer to order
even a criminal out of town simply because
a sufficient amount of incriminating evi
dence is not at hand to send the criminal to
the penitentiary.
Edwin J. Brown, he of much dental and
Socialistic political fame, announces he has
at last found the elixir of life in "Wilson
ian Democracy" aand celebrates his new
found conversion in genuine Democratic
style by branding the colored man as the
root of all evil. While a Socialist Dr.
Brown was a splendid fellow and was for
"all men up,' but he no sooner becomes a
Democrat than he is for all men up except
a "damn nigger." Repeatedly has the edi
tor hereof supported Dr. Brown for offices
he has run for, though he seemed to be an
uncompromising Socialist, and had no re
morse for so doing but as a Democrat we
will forget him as his recent published
utterances put him in the genuine damphool
Democratic corner. Just what federal po
sition Edwin J. Brown has up his sleeve to
ask President Wilson to pull down for him
has not been as yet disclosed but it is cer
tain, from his recent denunciation of the
colored folks of Seattle, that he is getting
himself right to ask for something. And
thus do men like Tillman, Vardeman and
Dr. Brown sacrifice all their humane spirit
for all manner of man to appease their
selfish ambitions.
Much casting about for a mayorality can
didate for Seattle is being done by some of
the would-be leading citizens with little or
no results save disappointments. An at
tempt was made to draft Harold Preston,
but he claimed legal exemptions and then
John Powell was drafted and he too, plead
legal exemptions, which leaves the situation
completely in the air. At this writing it
looks very much like Gill and Hanson will
be the nominees, in which case Gill will suc
ceed himself. If, however, Gill and Han
son are the nominees the editor of this sheet
like thousands of other voters in the city,
would be sorely tempted to refrain from
voting at all for a mayor. Ugly as the
situation.now looms up, if the real men and
women of the city would get squarely be
hind Claude C. Ramsay he could save the
situation, because the nominees then would
be Ramsay and Gill and Ramsay would beat
him so badly that Gill would not know he
"also ran." Griffith might have had some