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-

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