Shadow and Light Part 19

Richmond, Va., Oct. 19.--The Dispatch says:

"With many qualities that are good--with some, possibly, that are great--Mr. Roosevelt is a negrophilist. While Governor of New York he invited a Negro (who, on account of race prejudice, could not obtain accommodation at any hotel) to be his guest at the Executive Mansion, and, it is said, gave him the best room in the house.

"Night before last the President had Prof. Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton to dine with him at the White House. That was a deliberate act, taken under no alleged pressure of necessity, as in the Albany case, and may be taken as outlining his policy toward the Negro as a factor in Was.h.i.+ngton society. We say 'Was.h.i.+ngton society,' rather than 'American society,'

because the former, on account of its political atmosphere, is much more 'advanced' in such matters than that of any other American city of which we know anything. The President, having invited Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton to his table, residents of Was.h.i.+ngton of less conspicuous standing may be expected to do likewise. And if they invite him they may invite lesser lights--colored lights.

"When Mr. Cleveland was President he received Fred Dougla.s.s at some of his public entertainments--'functions,' so-called--but we do not remember that Fred was singled out for the distinguished honor of dining with the President, as Booker Was.h.i.+ngton has been.

"We do not like Mr. Roosevelt's negrophilism at all, and are sorry to see him seeking opportunities to indulge in it. He is reported to have rejoiced that Negro children were going to school with his children at Oyster Bay. But then, it may be said, too, that he has more reasons than the average white man to be fond of Negroes, since it was a Negro regiment that saved the Rough Riders from decimation at San Juan Hill.

And but for San Juan Hill it is quite unlikely that Mr. Roosevelt would be President today.

"Booker Was.h.i.+ngton is said to have been very influential with the President in having Judge Jones put upon the Federal bench in Alabama, and we are now fully prepared to believe that statement.

"With our long-matured views on the subject of social intercourse between blacks and whites, the least we can say now is that we deplore the President's taste, and we distrust his wisdom."

Birmingham, Ala., Oct. 19.--The Enterprise says:

"It remained for Mr. Roosevelt to establish a precedent humiliating to the South and a disgrace to the nation. Judge Jones owes a duty to the South, to his friends and to common decency to promptly resign and hurl the appointment back into the very teeth of the white man who would invite a n.i.g.g.e.r to eat with his family."

Augusta, Ga., Oct. 19.--The Augusta Chronicle says, in its leading editorial, today:

"The news from Was.h.i.+ngton that President Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton, of Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, was a guest at the White House at a dinner with President and Mrs. Roosevelt and family, and that after dinner there was the usual social hour over cigars, is a distinct shock to the favorable sentiment that was crystallizing in the South for the new President.

"While encouraging the people in the hope that the Negro is to be largely eliminated from office in the South, President Roosevelt throws the fat in the fire by giving countenance to the Negro's claims for social equality by having one to dine in the White House.

"President Roosevelt has made a mistake, one that will not only efface the good impression he had begun to create in the South, but one that will actively antagonize Southern people and meet the disapproval of good Anglo-Saxon sentiment in all lat.i.tudes.

"The South does not relish the Negro in office, but that is a small matter compared with its unalterable opposition to social equality between the races. President Roosevelt has flown in the face of public sentiment and precipitated an issue that has long since been fought out, and which should have been left in the list of settled questions."

Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 19.--The Evening Banner says:

"Whatever justification may be attempted of the President's action in this instance, it goes without saying that it will tend to chill the favor with which he is regarded in the South, and will embarra.s.s him in his reputed purpose to build up his party in this section."

Louisville, Ky., Oct. 19.--The Times of yesterday afternoon says:

"The President has eliminated the color line from his private and official residences and with public office is hiring white Democrats to whitewash it down South."

Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 19.--Governor Candler says:

"No self-respecting white man can ally himself with the President after what has occurred. The step has done the Republican party no earthly good, and it will materially injure its chances in the South. The effect of the Jones appointment is largely neutralized. Still, I guess it's like the old woman when she kissed the cow. As a matter of fact, Northern people do not understand the Negro. They see the best types and judge of the remainder by them."

LIGHT.

Philadelphia, Oct. 19.--The Ledger this morning says:

"Because President Roosevelt saw fit, in his good judgment, to invite Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton to dinner, strong words of disapproval are heard in the South. Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton is a colored man who enjoys the universal respect of all people in this country, black and white, on account of attainments, character and deeds. As the President invited him to be his private guest, and did not attempt to enforce the companions.h.i.+p of a colored man upon any one to whom the a.s.sociation could possibly be distasteful, any criticism of the President's act savors of very great impertinence. But, considered in any light, the invitation is not a subject for criticism. Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton is one of the most notable citizens of the country, just because he has done noteworthy things. He is the founder and the successful executive of one of the most remarkable inst.i.tutions in the United States, the Tuskegee (Alabama) Inst.i.tute, which not only aims, but in fact does, educate and train the youth of the negro race to become useful, industrious and self-supporting citizens.

"Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton is the embodiment of common sense and, instead of inciting the members of his race to dwell upon their wrongs, to waste their time upon politics and to try to get something for nothing in this life, in order to live without work, he has constantly preached the gospel of honest work, and has founded a great industrial school, which fits the young Negroes for useful lives as workers and teachers of industry to others. This is the man who was justly called by President McKinley, after he had inspected Tuskegee, the "leader of his race," and in the South no intelligent man denies that he is doing a great service to the whole population of both colors in this land. It is evident that the only objection that could be brought against a.s.sociation with such a man as that is color alone, and President Roosevelt will not recognize that prejudice."

The Evening Bulletin says:

"President Roosevelt night before last had Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton, the worthy and much-respected colored man who is at the head of the Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, as a guest at his private table in the White House. This has caused some indignation among Southerners and in Southern newspapers.

"Yet all the President really seems to have done was an act of courtesy in asking Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton to sit down with him to dinner and have a talk with him. As Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton is an entirely reputable man, as well as an interesting one, the President doubtless enjoyed his company. Many Presidents in the past have had far less reputable and agreeable men at their table. If Mr. Roosevelt shall have no worse ones among his private guests, the country will have no cause for complaint.

"The right of the President to dine with anyone he may please to have with him is entirely his own affair, and Theodore Roosevelt is not a likely man to pick out bad company, black or white, for his personal or social companions.h.i.+p. The rumpus which some indiscreet Southerners are trying to raise because he has been hospitable to a colored man is a foolish display of both manners and temper."

Boston, Oct. 19.--Commenting on President Roosevelt's action in extending hospitality to Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton, President Charles Eliot, of Harvard, said:

"Harvard dined Booker Was.h.i.+ngton at her tables at the last commencement.

Harvard conferred an honorary degree on him. This ought to show what Harvard thinks about the matter."

William Lloyd Garrison: "It was a fine object lesson, and most encouraging. It was the act of a gentleman--an act of unconscious natural simplicity."

Charles Eliot Norton: "I uphold the President in the bold stand that he has taken."

NO SYMPATHY WITH PREJUDICE.

New York Herald: The President has absolutely no sympathy with the prejudice against color. He has shown this on two occasions. Once he invited to his house at Oyster Bay, Harris, the Negro half-back of Yale, and entertained him over night. The other occasion was when he took in at the Executive Mansion at Albany, Brigham, the Negro baritone of St.

George's Church, who was giving a concert in Albany and had been refused food and shelter by all the hotels.

WASTING THEIR BREATH.

Philadelphia Press: President Roosevelt's critics are wasting breath and spilling ink. There is an obstinate man in the White House. The cry of "n.i.g.g.e.r" will neither prevent him from continuing to appoint to any office in the Southern States the best men, under whatever color of politics, who can be found under current conditions, or recognizing in the hospitalities of the White House the best type of American manhood, under whatever color of skin it can be found.

THAT DINNER.

New York Tribune: The Southern politician who criticises President Roosevelt's action in inviting Prof. Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton to dine at the White House is likely to raise the query whether the manager of the Tuskegee Inst.i.tute or himself is really the more deserving and genuine friend of the South.

DEMOCRATS HAVE CHANGED ATt.i.tUDE.

Glad of Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton's Help in Securing Office.

NOW JEER ROOSEVELT.

Berate President for Dining With a Negro.

Some Noted Occasions When the Alabama Educator Has Received the Plaudits of the South.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., Oct. 19.--President Roosevelt has a fine sense of humor, and while he regrets that he has without malice stirred up a tempest in a teapot for the Southern editors by entertaining Professor Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton at dinner, he cannot put aside the humorous side of the situation. It is only a few weeks since a number of white Democrats co-operated with Booker Was.h.i.+ngton in regard to the appointment of ex-Governor Jones to the vacancy on the Federal bench in Alabama, and Was.h.i.+ngton spoke for these white Democrats when he came to the capital and a.s.sured President Roosevelt that Jones would accept the appointment and that it would be satisfactory to all cla.s.ses.

Was.h.i.+ngton had seen the President and had acted as his agent in interviewing Governor Jones and others as to the appointment. The Southern Democrats applauded the appointment of Jones, and they praised Was.h.i.+ngton for using his influence at the White House to secure such an appointment for a Democrat. Then they all spoke of Was.h.i.+ngton as a gentleman of culture, who had the refined sense to cut loose from the Republican leaders of the Negro party in the South and work in harmony with the best cla.s.s of whites. Now they are abusing the President for dining with a "n.i.g.g.e.r."