The International Labor Defense League sponsored an anti-lynching conference that met in Baltimore, Maryland a few weeks ago. The executives rented the spacious Albert Auditorium for the occasion, bedecked the interior with sensational placards and bloody drawings and finally, settled down to business. Mr. Patterson was present and we are told that his report on the victoria Price testimony provided excitement for nearly an hour. Charlottesvillians are familiar with Mr. Patterson's style of oratory.
Then, the meeting clothed itself with the aspects of a testimonial dinner, witnesses were called and they reported cases of racial injustice and countrywide hatred which paved the way for the resolution committee and gave the speakers subject matter to dwell upon for the remainder of the evening. Large placards suggesting "unity" and drawings using "Jim Crowism" were frequently referred to by speakers who placed blame for all of these unfortunate occurrences on Jim Crowism.
This journal, in sincere interest of the Negro cause, has contended and will repeat, that the permanent unification of Negro and white labor is a proposition too vague for logical comprehension. Skilled white labor has always barred Negro labor, while in unskilled labor, ther are definite signs of hatred for the Negro. The who is who of the twenty odd lynching groups that have mobilized and committed murder during this year, gives intelligent reasoning very little grounds for believing that unskilled white labor will ever have brotherly inclinations for Negro workers.
At this conference of the International Labor Defense League, Jim Crowism was attacked and eternal hell predicted as long as it existed. No speaker mentioned the obvious benefits that its presence has afforded our race; the loyalty that it has forced on a people, who had been taught for centuries to pull apart, was forgotten.
The Anti-Lynching conference accomplished very little, we fear, and it wil go down in history as just another conference, its resolutions being as significant as last year's New Year's resolutions.