The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1898-03-04
M.KINLnY As / Won PROMOTER.

Those Who ATE critieising the white mol
| in South Carolina for numbering the negr,
postmaster at Lake City in ,het State an,
burning his dwelling. which vas also hi
posto;hce. are not sufficiently fixing IN,
crime upon the republican administration
for the part IT played in the preilminarle'
10 that terrible tragedy.
The Post has only words OF condemna.
lion for the mob its action was bruta
and cowardlY In view Of the character o.
the proyocation under which IL WA
aroused but whai excuse for giving tn,
citizens OF that region even such a provo
caiion2 WHY should The administration &c
| QUE of iis way 10 hIlame race prejudico-
in The SOUTH
| Mr., Mckinley knows as well aa he knows
anything that the whites in the Southern
States have been protesting, in omlnous
| terms, against the appointment OF negroes
to offices, The discharge of The duties o.
which throw the incumbent in close bust
ncss and even social contact with the eiti-
zens of the community. To wave The red
rag in the face Of the Southern whites
invite aud ncitc violence To do this. too.
simply to reward some offensive negro pol
itcian who had been bought by Hanna TO
yen for Mckinley before the St Louis con
ventien is doubly reprehunsibie on the
ore. ident's part,
The appointee at Lake City was said TO
have been an impudent lazy ard ignorant
fellow aud his selection az postmaster was
moi only an insult 10 the community, hut
made the appointing power an instigstor
and fomenter Of the trouble and parti-
ceps criminis, through reckless defiance OF
local sentiment, in the crime thag followed
TIE victim was not no much TO blame for
accepting the office as Mckinley was for
appointing him. White the NAB eau no,
he excused for resortlng TO extreme meas
uTes neither can the president. or tho
appointing power, for It's disregard OF local
wishes and conditions. n the conduct OF
the one was criminal, tho policy OF the
other was outrageous and contemplate.
TO deliberately pursue course that viii
egg on, SO 10 speak. mob violence. is but
degree behind that violence in criminal
ity aud Mckinley is largely and directly re
sponsible for the murder of this post
master
Had the appointment been made IN q
city, where there is less contact with the
heads of the offices and where more
metropolitan spirit prevails, II would have
been bad enough and poor enough policy.
but 10 go into a little backwoods com
nhinity and pick out an ignorant and So
ctally ostraclzed and otherwise offensive
man and place him In the only Federal Of.
flee In the Town, an office, too. In which
he is thrown In direct touch with every
body-was an objectionable insult ana
outrage and would have been such had no
race preiudiccs been involved.
In short, and under the circumstances
the blood OF this negro and of his family
IL as much on the president OF the United
States as II IA upon The men whose pas
sons Mr., Mckinley 80 rcclSleSsiy and con-
temptupusly aroused. We look IN vain for
the Indication OF any good Judgment, or
ordinary intelligence on the part OF the
administration In this whole AFFAIR. The
time has not come for negro officials al
least in rural districts, in the South. and
Mckinley knows IL