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Ro os ebelt and Some Southern Leaders.
In the eyes of a certain class of Congress*
men from the South, Mr. Roosevelt is always
wrong.
Never, by any sort of chance, can he do
right. No matter what he does, they are
“agin it.”
If, in pursuance of what he honestly under
stood to be a satisfactory compromise reached
while he was in attendance upon the Charles
ton Expositon, he appoints Dr. Crum as collec
tor at the custom house, batteries of abuse
are kept bombarding him for years.
Southern leaders badger him about the ap
pointment of this compromise negro, just as
though Cleveland had not stuck black pin
heads all over the map of patronage —North
as well as South—and just as though McKin
ley had not given one of the highest places in
the civil service to a negro.
The people of Augusta, Ga., did not want
Judson Lyons, a negro^for postmaster; and,
therefore, they united against him, strove
mightily against him, and secured a compro
mise which put Judson into the higher posi
tion of register of the treasury.
Thus, for many years, the paper money
which you have been using would have been
illegal had it not carried on its face the signa
ture of a negro.
Then, again, there was the Booker Wash
ington incident.
According to the statement, made, appar
ently, by authority, the president was in his
work-room, his office, holding a business con
sultation with Washington when the hour for
luncheon arrived. According to this state
ment, a servant brought into the room the tray
bearing the president’s usual luncheon.
To avoid the interruption of the conference
of sending Washington away, and, at the same
time, t(5 avoid tlfe rudeness of eating alone in
the presence of an esteemed acquaintance, Mr.
Roosevelt invited Washington to take part in
this informal meal, served in the business office
of the Executive Mansion.
Owing to the peculiarly tangled and trag
ical relations of whites to blacks in the United
States, the president’s impulsive act was un
questionably a mistake. Doubtless he himself
soon realized that it was.
But did it ever really deserve the tremen
dous castigation given it by certain Southern
leaders?
Was the incident so tremendously impor
tant as partisan hatred claimed it to be?
Has it been followed by the disastrous
consequences claimed by such enemies to the
president as Senator Tillman?
I do not think so. And I’ll tell you why.
Too many other colored men had had social
recognition extended to them at the White
House by former presidents.
It had been a constant habit, ever since the
Civil War, to dine colored members of con
gress at the White House.
These dinners were known as State Din
ners, but who will say that when the Head of
the State —whether Czar, King, Emperor or
President —invites to his table certain white
men and certain colored men, and dines with
them while they dine with him and with one
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
another—this is not SOCIAL RECOGNI
TION?
What else can it be?
' To dine with the Head of the State, at his
invitation, is the highest honor, for the rea
son that no law requires it, and the act is one
of grace.
Now, it is the literal truth that negro mem-
of the House and Senate had been dined
in this manner by all the Presidents who pre
ceded Mr. Roosevelt whenever there was a
negro member of either house.
As to Booker Washington himself, every
fair-minded man will admit that his standing
is exceptional. As a negro, he is exceptional.
His “career has been exceptional. For many
years he has been the fashion among the peo
ple of tbe North. They pet him, lionize him,
enrich him, blow bugles for him. The ease
with which that ginger-cake mulatto can tap
a Northern sugar-maple and catch the juice,
is a fine art.
Does not Andrew Carnegie think lots of
Booker?
Evidently he does, for he invites him home
to dinner in that stately mansion of his in
New York.
Unless I have been utterly misinformed,
two of the distinguished people who were in
vited to meet Booker Washington at one of
these Andrew Carnegie dinners were Mr. and
Mrs. Grover Cleveland.
I do not vouch for this, but my information
comes mighty straight.
Then, again, do you not recall how Presi
dent McKinley went down on a visit to Tus
kegee, and how he and the Governor of Ala
bama took lunch with Booker?
The newspapers so reported at the time, and
no great rumpus was kicked up over it.
Then, again, you will remember that when
a New England State—Massachusetts, I be
lieve —sent out a traveling committee which
had a negro on it, Gov. O’Ferrell, of Virginia,
invited the whole push to take lunch with
him —and the negro was one of those that sat
down to meat with the Governor of the Old
Dominion.
The meal was informal; the ladies of the
Governor’s family were not present; and very
little was ever said in the newspapers con
cerning O’Ferrell’s “dining with a negro.”
Now, when you calmly think the matter
over you will no doubt come to the conclusion
that the Southern leaders to whom reference
has been made, exaggeratd the significance
and importance and the consequences of this
affair of the “Booker Washington lunch.”
Mr. Roosevelt has never, in any particular,
shown the faintest desire for “social equality.”
He has given convincing proof that he con
siders the white race the superior, dominant
race.
His view-point evidently is that the negro,
while inferior, is entitled to protection, encour
agement and opportunity.
And in breaking that negro battalion be
cause of the Brownsville affair, he has shown
how he can punish the criminal negro, and
dare Northern fanatics on the race question
to do their worst.
Why shouldn’t these Southern leaders
change their attitude to the President?
He seems proud of the fact that, on his
mother’s side, he is as much Southern as any
of us. Many of his characteristics are distinct
ly Southern. And he appears to be most
earnest in his desire to be held in confidence
and esteem by the people of the South.
Would it not be wise to meet him half
way?
When he is clearly wrong, condemn him.
When he is clearly right, endorse him.
This pig-headed denunciation of everything
that he does is folly.
No man is always right; and no man is
always wrong.
Mr. Roosevelt is very human, and that’s
one reason why I like him. Am not certain
that I would get on well with a saint.
Let us treat the President with justice and
discriminate.
Indiscriminate condemnation can be no
nearer the truth than indiscriminate approval.
M H
Random Notes. <
By ]. D. Watson.
A resolution has been introduced in the
Texas legislature calling for an investigation
of Senator Bailey’s conduct toward the
Waters-Pierce Oil Company, one of the Stan
dard’s subsidiary companies.
If the resolution is passed, there may be
some interesting facts brought out within the
next few weeks.
Mr. Bailey was nominated before his con
nection with the Oil Trust was known, but he
has not been elected yet.
The only way in which Mr. Bailey can
acquit himself of the charges and restore tlxe
confidence of the people in him, is to aid the
investigating committee in getting all of the
facts in the case, and let the facts show him
guilty or innocent..
If he opposes the investigation, tries to
cover up facts or resort to technicalities, he
might as well plead guilty at once and be
done with it, for most people will believe him
guilty. Unless Mr. Bailey faces the investi
gation like a man, and proven himself inno
cent, he is dead politically, for all time.
The State of Missouri has started another
crusade against the trusts that promises to
accomplish more than seems likely at first
glance.
Suits have been filed to dissolve the alleged
merger of the Wabash, Missouri Pacific and
Iron Mountain railroad companies, and the Pa
cific Express Co. The courts are also asked to
revoke the charters of several other corpora
tions.
The mere filing of the suits would not mean
much if the State did not have an attorney
general who would push the suits which Mis
souri has.
Some time ago, when Mr. Hadley, Missou
ri’s Attorney-General, went to New York to
make H. H. Rogers testify in a certain inves
tigation, Rogers laughed at Hadley, expressed
contempt for the State of Missouri and for
Missouri’s laws.
It was not long, however, before Rogers was
singing a different tune, and begging Hadley
for mercy. Hadley put Rogers through what
common criminals call the “third" degree,” and
made him furnish the information wanted.
With a man of that caliber after the cor-
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