The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-10-22
HURRAH FOReROOSEYrELLT.

nal one, no other guests being present.
Principal Washington was invited
by one who had long been his personal
friend to the hospitality of his table.
So far as is known this is the first time
that a colored man has ever sat in the
White House dining room, and there
is a mighty huttering in the dovecote
OF Washington society. Washington
before the war was a southern city and
since, although time has worked
changes, it's social life has largely been
under the influence of the descendants
OF the old slave drivers. This element
considers the act of the president a blow
in the face and is breathing out threat
enings and slaughter.
Nor is the agitation confined to the
national capital. For example, the
Memphis Scimitar on Thursday print
ed the folling refined reference to the
incident. The most damnable outrage
which has ever been perpetrated oy
any citizen of the United States was
committed by the president when he in
vited a niger to dine with him at the
White House." A little more than a
month ago Czolgosz, a citizen of the
United States, shot in cold blood Presi-
dent Mckinley. Yet the presence of
Professor Washington at the executive
mansion is 1.-The most damnable outrage
ever perpetrated by a citizen OF the
United States The comment OF the
Memphis Commercial-Appeal is similar
to that of the Scimitar. ut is now in,
cumbent, it says, ION those democrats
OF the south who received appointments
at the hands of President Roosevelt to
resign their offices. They can not afford
TO remain the recipients OF any favor at
his hands. Certainly there is no honor
attached to his benevolence of be-
stowals." 1t is plain to see, because
mahogany with a man of color a new
ed to the presidents strenuous life.
Who is this man Washington whose
entertainment is held to be SO great an
infany?: From all report he is a man
who is most worthy to bear the name
of Washington. He is a cultured gem
tleman who is devoting his life to the
the welfare of his fellow beings; he is
an orator and a philosopher, Of quieuf
manners and the most conservative
character: his views are broad and his
life spotless. and not only in'the north,
but in the south the good of all classes
have listened with profit to his words
and have wished him godspeed in the
carrying on of his great work. Out of
his energy and usefulness there has
been built up in the center of the black
belt OF Alabama an institution attended
last year by more than 1900 colored
young men and women, most of them
self-supporting, and being taught that
the building up of their manhood and
womanhood is the only royal road to
success and hon W. Tuskegee is not q
school where a smattering of Latin,
and mathematics is called an education
but one which teaches, first of all, that
labor is the foundation of excellence,
and that the negro can only hope to
rise as he shows individual merit. And
what is the spirit of this man. himself
born a slave, toward the race that
kept his mother and his people in
bondage, eating the fruit of their toll
and forbidding them knowledge and in
many cases religion? His spirit is
sufficiently indicated by a portion ofthe
last annual report of Tuskegee insti-
tute, wherein Principal Washington
simply says;
My feeling grows stronger each year
that perhaps in the heat of passion.
growing out Of racial and sectional
%prejudices. we have not always given
the southern people due credit for the
immense amount of help rendered the
negro during the period that he was a
slave. The negro as a slave was start
ed on the foundation of agriculture.
mechanics and household arts. While
| would by no means limit his
present education to these, but would
in all cases add academic and religious
training. do believe that we shall find
it helpful for a number of years to come
in u methods of education, to give
great attention to these fundamental
occupations. In proportion as one owns
the soil and has the mastery of these
fundamental occupations, in the same
proportion does he lay the foundation
for the highest and most complete de
velopment of himself and children.
Who is the superior in the sight of
God and man, he who wrote the above
paragraph, or he who wrote what APP
peared in the Memphis newspaper? On.
the deep infamy and narrowing infu-
ence of blind. unreasoning prejudice,
: Indeed it transforms men into beasts.
or worse than beasts. 1t is not the
color of the skin which makes the man
In average development the colored
race is inferior to the white race. How
, much greater the honor then to mer
like Principal Washington, who break
t the barriers of circumstance and lift
themselves up, in every essential o.
morality and intellectually, to a level
with the proudest members Of the
proud Caucasion race? How degrading
3 it seems to penalize merit and unleash
8 against its twin. monsters of prejudice
and hatred
: President Roosevelt, if there is any
one having a patent of nobility through
birth. has a right to deem himself an
+ aristocrat of aristocrats. He is ne
northern mudsill. but by directdescenr
draws his blood from one of the oldes'
and most conspicuous of the knicker
booker families. But long ago his sou
e awoke to the truth that rank is bu.
the %guinea's stamp and mans the COVE
for a that, y and he has had the strength
of will to follow the doctrine. He ask.
e before comforting his friendship, no
whether a man be rich or poor, or OBJ
scure or famed, white or colored, blu
: whether he is a man. Let praise be
u given that there are enough in thi,