Negro Question Up Again.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 7, 1912:
Plank Embodying Jane Addams's Views Before Platform Committee.
    CHICAGO, Aug. 6—Tho Committee on Resolutions of the National Progressive Party went into session late to-night to complete the draft of a platform to he adopted by the convention to-morrow. A sub-committee had worked all day hewing out the various planks to meet the wishes of Col. Roosevelt, as the first Presidential standard bearer of the new party.
    The sub-committee, it was said, worked hard to curtail the platform and to make the declaration of principles a model for brevity. There were so many subjects to be dealt with, however, and so much ground to be covered that the task was found a most difficult one.
    When the full committee met it seemed likely the negro question would again bob up. Hugh T. Halbert of Minnesota carried with him to the meeting a plank on the subject which read:
    The National Progressive Party recognizes that distinctions of race, or class, or sex, in political life, have no place in a Democracy. Especially does the party realize that a group of 10,000,000 people, who have in a generation changed from slavery to a free labor system, re-established family life, accumulated $1,000,000,000 of real property, and reduced their illiteracy from 80 to 30 per cent., deserve and must have justice,opportunity, and a voice in their own government.
    This plank was said to embody largely the views of Miss Jane Addams on the subject.
    Senator Poindexter of Washington had prepared a plank favoring the purchase by the National Government of Monticello, the home of Jefferson.
    There was every indication as the members of the committee assembled that the platform would not be finished until far into the night.
    The sub-committee draft of the platform was submitted to the full committee by William Allen White of Kansas, who was said to have written most of it. The draft was approved to-night by Col. Roosevelt, and the sub-committee hoped to put it through the committee without difficulty. There still was talk of possible friction, however, over some of the planks.
    The sub-committee was said to have reduced the platform to about 3,500 words.