Pan-Africana

While black Elks last week danced through Harlem, shouting, in purple clothes and fine fettle (see p. 29), other Negroes held a less riotous convention elsewhere in Harlem. These were the members of the fourth Pan-African Congress, who had gathered from the U. S., the West Indies, Germany, Japan, India, South America, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Nigeria, Liberia, South Africa, to discuss racial needs. Speeches were made, newspapers commented, resolutions were accepted and published. Speeches. Said Dr. Wilhelm Mensching of Petzen, Germany: "The fruits of love as outlined by Apostle Paul grow in the soul of the African." Said M. Dantes Bellegarde of Port-au-Prince, Haiti: "If this experiment of self-government [Haitian] fails, it is a blow to all the Negroes of the world." Said one F. E. Croly, U. S. student: "The fault is that the intelligent Negro does not feel that he is part of the common herd. The leadership of the Negro race is left too largely to ministers and bootleggers." Newspapers. Said the Amsterdam News: "The proceedings of the Pan-African Congress should be closely followed by all students of racial phenomena. . . . The Negro ... in all places is held down, in all places he is exploited, in all places his blood is made a lubricant for the chariot wheels of other races. . . ." Resolutions. Negroes need: a voice in their own government; modern education for all children; the development of Africa for Africans, not European profit; the treatment of civilized men as civilized, despite difference of race or color; the removal from Haiti of U. S. military or naval forces; the improvement of racial conditions in Africa and the West Indies.