http://dl.lib.brown.edu/repository2/repoman.php?verb=render&id=130270347...

In issue number 11 of the 1914 run of The Crisis (vol. 9, no. 1), there is a lengthy discussion of the war, and which side America should support. The default attitude of many opinion pieces seems to be pro-Allies; however, German supporters are quick to point out the widespread atrocities committed by American lynch mobs. The Crisis quotes an editorial in the Boston Traveler and Evening Herald which highlights the history of lynch mob brutality endemic to America at this time, saying:

"Here is a record of atrocities for which we venture to say no parallel can be found in any of the 'barbarous' nations now at war, and compared with which the atrocities charged against the German soldiers would appear for the most part as  trifling indiscretions incident to the heat of war. Before we throw any more stones at the Germans, let us be sure we are not living in a glass house." (16)

These points of view are summarized in an editorial piece on p. 28, titled "World War and the Colored Line". The author, after a brief summation of the war as "civilized nations ... fighting like mad dogs over the right to own and exploit these people", throws his support, and by extension the support of the Crisis , behind the Allied cause. His conclusion is not drawn from the inherent worthiness of the Allied nations, or any sense of patriotic duty. Rather, the author pragmatically positions the Allies as the lesser of two evils. He cites the colonial histories and ambitions of the warring nations, positioning England and France as nations slowly advancing towards freedom and equal rights, while Germany openly indulges in racist oppression and degredation. "To-day no white nation is fairer in its treatment of darker peoples than England. Not that England is yet fair ... but as compared with Germany, England is an angel of light" (29). The author argues that an Allied victory would "leave the plight of the colored races no worse than now," while a German victory would undo centuries of progress towards equal rights (29).

This type of argument, founded not in patriotism or idealism but in a Catch-22 type of pragmatism, is a clear demonstration of how different demographics viewed the war. For its primary participants -- young white European males -- the war was founded in nationalism, and motivated by a highly ideological discourse of national supremecy. As the war moves further and further away from this ideological center, the causes for supporting the war become increasingly practical. Black Americans, at almost the furthest remove from the central causes of the war, had to be won over with increasingly fraying pragmatic arguments, such as the one advanced by this editorial. As causes go, "Preserve the abusive status quo!" makes for a poor rallying cry, but its about all the motivation the Allies could muster for black Americans to involve themselves in a distant and largely unproductive war.