Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-06-12
A Tempest in a Teapot.

The effort OF the Olympidn to faunt
the ensanguined garment over the
statement that certain hotel proprie-
tors refused to entertain the negro
delegates to the Mckinley Convention,
while it might reflect some credit
upon its zeal by no means commends
its judgment.
The idea that the tradesmen of st.
Louis were so wanting in business
sagacity as to offer deliberate insult
to representative men of any party
that had been invited to hold its con-
vention in their city, is so preposter-
GUS that any fair-minded politician
would have hesitated to make an at
tempt to convert the vague state.
ment into a cause for declaration of
war and suggestion that "The Re-
publicans of every precinct of every
Northern State assemble and direct
dispatches TO the national committee.
men from their States to act promptly
in transferring the convention from
St. Louis to Chicago. or some other
convenient northern city"
One would suppose from this vigor-
GUS language that glaring outrage
had really been committed, and that
nothing but be-loOd-the most san
culinary of gore-could wipe out the
premeditated and heartless insult.
But when the true facts are stated,
how like the boy who shot off his air
gun in school, must the writer feel who
places in cold print the declaration
that very ordinary experience OF all
visitors in a crowded city should be
made the pretext for declaring that
"the maintenance of the civil liberty
OF every citizen of the nation is at
stake; and if this assumption be lit
orally true, how effectually it disposes
of the charge that race prejudice has
anything to do with it!
The facts turn out to be that, as u.s.
ual. accommodations at the principal
hotels were engaged weeks ago, and
Sambo, unused to the custom in such
matters, simply "got left" Rooms
were in no instance refused to such
colored delegates as applied in time.
1t follows, as matter Of course, that
even in q city like St. Louis, that
when several thousand applications
are made at once for temporary ac-
commodations, the best are taken, and
the delegate or lobby member, be he
white or black, if he comes late, must
put up with what is left. A dispatch
says that all the hotels are full but
one, and the colored men who have
viewed the quarters provided for them
in that building are disposed to kick
because there is not hot and cold wa
ter in every room. The trouble with
the colored men is that they will be
satisfied with nothing less than par
lor room on the ground floor, with q
white fan swinging and q music box
under the folding bed, and if they can
not get it, there are many white jack
davis, ready to foment discord on the
slightest pretext and organize a kick.
Then again, there was some disagree
ment as to rates and other matters Of
detail, occurring every day. when and
where conventions are held, but they
ordinarily excite no comment, for the
profesfessional politician sees in them
no means for engendering race preju.
dice or exciting partisan spite.
The only instance reported wherein
possibly some blame may attach for
refusal of entertainment il the case OF
thC uoho&VuiGhS VI SuC Nv J8ACS nOs
tel, which, it seems was to have been
made the negro headquarters during
the convention, and this alternative
was forced by the employees of the
house. most of whom were negroes
themselves, who absolutely refused to
serve longer if the proposition was not
abandoned. Neither the proprietors
nor the community should be held re.
sponsible for the action of strikers,
who often embarrass their employers
without sense or reason.
The Business Mems League OF the
city deemed it their duty, however, to
stifie this contemplate effort to make
party capital out Of very ordinary
incident, and they have engaged to
provide accommodations for the col
orcd delegates equally as good as the
late white delegates get if they have
neglected to engage accommodations
wien good quarters could have been
secured.