You have constantly insisted that “there is no race problem, only an economic problem,” but you will soon be in a fair way to find out otherwise. Some day you will, perhaps, have learned enough to cease being “suckers” for perpetual candidates who dickered with the Democrats up to within a month of “flopping” to your party only because they “couldn’t make it” elsewhere; some day, perhaps, you will know enough to put Socialism’s cause in the hands of those who will refrain from using your party’s organ for purposes of personal pique, spite and venom. When that day dawns Socialism will have a chance to be heard by Negroes on its merits. And even now, if you should send anyone up here (black or white) to put the cause of Karl Marx, freed from admixture of rancor and hatred of the Negro’s own defensive racial propaganda, you may find that it will have as good a chance of gaining adherents as any other political creed. But until you change your tactics or make your exponents change theirs your case among us will be hopeless indeed. —May, 1920. _“Patronize Your Own.”_ The doctrine of “Race First,” although utilized largely by the Negro business men of Harlem, has never received any large general support from them. If we remember rightly, it was the direct product of the out-door and indoor lecturers who flourished in Harlem between 1914 and 1916. Not all who were radical shared this sentiment. For instance, we remember the debate between Mr. Hubert Harrison, then president of the Liberty League, and Mr. Chandler Owen, at Palace Casino in December, 1918, in which the “radical” Owen fiercely maintained “that the doctrine of race first was an indefensible doctrine”; Mr. Harrison maintaining that it was the source of salvation for the race. Both these gentlemen have run true to form ever since. But to return to our thesis. The secondary principle of “patronize your own,” flowing as it does from the main doctrine of “race first,” is subject to the risk of being exploited dishonestly—particularly by business men. And business men in Harlem have shown themselves capable of doing this all the time. They seem to forget that “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a part of the honest application of this doctrine. Many of these men seem to want other black people to pay them for being black. They seem to think that a dirty place and imperfect service and 3 cents more a pound should be rewarded with racial patronage regardless of these demerits.