The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-10-30
THE BOOKER WASHINGTON In.
CIDENT.
Its Effect VIII beto Put Quietus on
McLaurlnism,
EDITOR The ADvERrIsER

BOOKER i. Washington, the good ne
gro, at family dinner has cut the jugu.
lar of the proposed white mans repub
lican party In South Carolina. The
Presidents subsequent appointment In
South Carolina of an alleged decent
white man was paralyzing blow tc
the groggy McIaurin party.
Doubtless Mr.. Roosevelt believed
that 1T was his duty to declare by an
act louder than any laundering wordy
declaration that the we'll behaved and
high-minded negro might aspire to the
sweetest joys that the society of the
highest civilized had to offer. Doubt.
less the President purposed to tell the
negro that worthy achievement would
leave no reward beyond his reach.
The President from his point of view,
the President as a Northern man,
thought he was right.
But the President, and more notably,
the Northern press that sustains him,
grossly and absurdly misinterpret tho
South. They construe Southern criti-
cism of the black and white dinner
party as the outburst of childish preju-
| dice. Only Northern ignorance in
dealing with this critical matter finds
utterance.
The barrier that the white man raises
In the South against social intercourse
| with the negro is merely the expression
| of the white mans Instinct for the
purity of his blood. With millions of
| negroes swarming at our doors we
know that rigid, iron-handed, pitiless
exclusion of them from the dream,
much more from the realize tion, of So
cia! equality, Is the single hope OF the
tion.
This profound feeling, call it preju-
dice If preferred, does not exist gene
rally In the North because the menace
OF numbers is absent. Northern men
can receive the cultured negro OF Ala
bama as Southern men received the
cultured yellow colored man of China
in Asheville last week.
But Southern men had hoped that
in this relationship to the negro that
embarrases and threatens them here,
they, had the sympathy, the tolerant
| and hopeful sympathy of the President
and the North. They thought that the
North understood; and that at last the
best of the North had agreed with the
best of the South, that the negro should
be lifted by education to a higher level,
but none the less separate level from
that of the white man.
The Washington dinner and it's re-
ception in the North explodes this
hope. 1t is we'll that 1t does. 1t is
well that the Northern President and
the Northern press defiantly tell us
that social equality is the goal that
they wish for the negro. 1t is we'll
that we are put on guard and we should
be thankful for the timely If blunder-
ing warning.
It is possible that this incident is of
| only passing significance. We hope
| that 1t Is. We hope that it does not
permanently mean that the appear
| ances OF friendliness on the part of the
North towards the South made so plain
by Mr.. McKinley's administration are
not idle. Yet for the present we must
| assume that they are. Until there Is
another and different manifestation,
let us realize that beyond Mason aud
| Dickson 8 line is still nurtured the sem
timent that threatens all that the South
as people holds most dear. Later pos
sibly even during Mr.. Roesevelt's ad-
ministrations, conditions may change
and 1t may be revealed that the
Washington incident may not be fol-
| lowed by the consequences that logi-
| cally would flow from it. But we can
not without foolhardy disregard for
racial safety take this for granted
The writer of this has sympathized
largely with some of the views held by
Mr.. McLaurin and would now repudi-
ate many of the doctrines OF Bryan
| Democracy, believing them ill-advised
and foolish. But it behooves us to face
the fact that the race question affects
us far more nearly and vitally than
any of mere political expediency. 1t,
therefore, behooves even those who be-
lieve with the writer that the creation
OF another political party than the
| founded on white social exclusiyeness
as its keystone, would make for liberty
and advancement to hold far aloof from
the McLaurin-Rooseve Washington
coalition, at least until q change
comes. Holding in contempt the po-
| litical methods of Senator Tillman as
do, [ cannot as a Southern man or as
an American citizen refrain from
acknowledging that he is under these
conditions safer leader than Senator
McLaurin Once there was prospect
that McLaurin would replace the
malodorous republican party in South
Carolina with q clean and healthy or
ganization. Now 1t appears that the
change is only one Of office holders with
| no outlook for material Improvement,
for Mr.. Roosevelt has made improve
| ment for the time impracticable. In
my Judgment, the man who holds Office
in South Carolina under Mr.. Roosevelt
gives implied approval to Mr.. Roose-
velt's views, even though he does not
feel that approval and the McLaurin
party by Mr.. Roosevelt has been
dragged to the plane which Republi-
! canism occupied in South Carolina be-
fore McLaurin's advent.
Finally, as a sound money man, as an
opponent of Mr.. Bryans views, as an
opponent OF Senator Tillman, as a be-
lever in expansion and in Legislative
measures for the commercial develop
ment of the whole country and partic.
| ularly of the South, L hope that some
thing. will take place that will oblite-
rate the memory of this Booker WASH
| ington affsir and remove the fear with
which it was laden for every patriotic
white man in the Southern States.
But at thi, time there is but one thing
for the white man to do and that is to
close up! All along the line! And de-
fend the white mans colors!
| AMERICAN.