History of the American Negro in the Great World War | Page 3

Technical Workers--Vast Range of Occupation--Negro
Makes Good Showing--Percentages of White and Colored--Figures for
General Service
Chapter XXVIII.
The Knockout Blow.
Woodrow Wilson, an Estimate--His Place in History--Last of Great
Trio--Washington, Lincoln, Wilson--Upholds Decency, Humanity,
Liberty--Recapitulation of Year 1918--Closing Incidents of War
Chapter XXIX.
Homecoming Heroes. New York Greets Her Own--Ecstatic Day for
Old 15th--Whites and Blacks do Honors--A Monster
Demonstration--Many Dignitaries Review Troops--Parade of Martial
Pomp--Cheers, Music, Flowers and Feasting--"Hayward's Scrapping
Babies"--Officers Share Glory--Then Came Henry Johnson--Similar
Scenes Elsewhere
Chapter XXX.
Reconstruction and the Negro. By Julius Rosenwald, President Sears,
Roebuck & Co, and Trustee of Tuskegee Institute--A Plea for Industrial
Opportunity for the Negro--Tribute to Negro as Soldier and
Civilian--Duty of Whites Pointed Out--Business Leader and
Philanthropist Sounds Keynote
Chapter XXXI.

The Other Fellow's Burden. An Emancipation Day Appeal for
Justice--By W. Allison Sweeney
Chapter XXXII.
An Interpolation. Held--By Distinguished Thinkers and Writers, That
the Negro Soldier Should be Given a Chance for Promotion as Well as
a Chance to Die. Why--White Officers over Negro Soldiers?
Chapter XXXIII.
The New Negro and the New America. The Old Order Changeth,
yielding place to new. Through the Arbitrament of war, behold a new
and better America! a new and girded negro! "The Watches of the night
have PASSED!" "The Watches Of the day BEGIN!"
FOREWORD
He was a red headed messenger boy and he handed me a letter in a
NILE GREEN ENVELOPE, and this is what I read:
Dear Mr. Sweeney:
When on the 25th of March the last instalment of the MSS of the
"History of the American Negro in the Great World War" was returned
to us from your hands, bearing the stamp of your approval as to its
historic accuracy; the wisdom and fairness of the reflections and
recommendations of the corps of compilers placed at your service,
giving you full authority to review the result of their labors, your
obligation to the publishers ceased.
The transaction between us, a purely business one, had in every
particular upon your part been complied with. From thenceforward, as
far as you were obligated to the publishers, this History; what it is;
what it stands for; how it will be rated by the reading masses--should
be, and concretely, by your own people you so worthily represent and
are today their most fearless and eloquent champion, is, as far as any
obligation you may have been under to us, not required of you to say.

Nevertheless, regardless of past business relations now at an end, have
you not an opinion directly of the finished work? A word to say; the
growth of which you have marked from its first instalment to its last?
-The Publishers-
* * * * *
HAVE I--
A word to say? And of this fine book?
THE BEST HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO IN THE
GREAT WORLD WAR, THAT AS YET HAS BEEN WRITTEN OR
WILL BE FOR YEARS TO COME?
* * * * *
DOES--
The rose in bud respond to the wooing breath of the mornings of June?
IS--
The whistle of robin red breast clearer and more exultant, as its
watchful gaze, bearing in its inscrutable depths the mystery of all the
centuries; the Omniscience of DIVINITY, discovers a cherry tree
bending to--
"The green grass"
from the weight of its blood red fruit?
* * * * *
DOES--
The nightingale respond to its mate; caroling its amatory challenge
from afar; across brake and dale and glen; beyond a

"Dim old forest" the earth bathed in the silver light of the harvest
moon!
* * * * *
EVEN SO--
And for the same reason which the wisest of us cannot explain, that the
rose, the robin and nightingale respond to the lure that invites, the
zephyrs that caress, I find myself moved to say not only a word--a few,
but many, of praise and commendation of this book; the finished work,
so graciously and so quickly submitted for my inspection by the
publishers.
THERE ARE--
Books and books; histories and histories, treatise after treatise; covering
every realm of speculative investigation; every field of fact and fancy;
of inspiration and deed, past and present, that in this 20th century of
haste and bustle, of miraculous mechanical equipment, are born daily
and die as quickly. But there are also books, that like some men marked
before their birth for a place amongst the "Seats of the MIGHTY"; an
association with the IMMORTALS, that
"Were not born to die."
This book seems of that glorious company.
* * * * *
IN THE--
Spiritualized humanity that broadened the vision and inspired the pens
of the devoted corps of writers, responding to my suggestions and
oversight in its preparation; the getting together of data and facts, is
reflected the incoming of a NEW AND BROADER CHARITY--a
stranger