The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-24
THE WHITE HOUSE DINNER.
Plain Statement from Booker WASH
ingtOn's Alabama Home.
Tuskegee (Ala.O News.

Tuskegee (Ala.) News.
The Tuskegee News is the only paper
published by the white people in the town
of Tuskegee and in Macon county. Ala
bama, where the Tuskegee Normal and In
dustrial Institute is located. and of which
Booker T.. Washington is principal. This is
the first time that this paper has referred
to the White House dinner which has Gre
ated so much discussion. We have waited
patiently before discussing the matter. be-
cause we did not want to speak excitedly
or hastily.
The News would say that it has no hest
fancy in saying that it regrets the incident
and also much of the unpleasant discussion
that has grown out of it. Prof. Booker L.
Washington has lived in this community
now for twenty years. and the white people
in this town and county feel that they
know him and his work pretty well. There
cannot be found in the whole South a more
intelligent, cultured and discriminating set
of white people than those that live In
Tuskegee and vicinity, and none who would
more quickly see and resent any social al
vances on the part Of the negroes In the
| South.
Professor Washington's life for twenty
years has been an open book In TINS com
munity and the South, and 1t is hardly the
part Of fairness to judge a man by one act
with which we may not agree rather than
by his twenty years of wise living:
1t is perfectly well known in this COM
munity that for fifteen years Professor
WashingtOn's business in securing the
money TO carry Oh his work has thrown
him into contact with the Northern white
man, both in the South and the North. il
a way that does not often fall to the lot of
the average cOlored man, but it is equally
well understood in this community that all
such contact is in the line of business, and
the purely social aspect never enters Prin-
cipal WashingtOn's head. We feel quite
rHro that tho GnV0n &c fFrrn Of tho much
talked-Of dinner at the White House, and
that 1t was not a studied and planned af-
fair on the part of President Roosevelt and
Professor Washington TO offend the South.
but that the President found that he could
most cOnViently see Principal Washington
on business at his dinner hour and there
fore asked him TO be present. 1t is also
known by our people that at the North the
dinner table is a place TO talk over business
to a greater extent than is true in the
South.
We repeat that it has been known for ff-
teen years in the South that Professor
Washington comes into contact with people
in the North in a way that he does not in
the South. There has been scarcely a week
during the last ten years when the Asso-
ciated Press has not told us of his speaking
and dining at some banquet in the North
with Governors, etc. We all know that il
was widely reported in the press dispatches
three years ago that he Iunched with Presi-
dent Mckinley and his party during the
peace jubilee in Chicago. Nothing has
been hidden from the South. ANY one who
knows Professor Washington knows that
he would be the last one to seek invita-
tons or to obtrude himself in a social way
upon any one.
One other question arises. 1t is this: So
long as Principal Washington pays due re-
gard, as he has always done and as we be-
lieVe he will continue to do. to the feelings
and wishes of the white people while he is
in the South how far can we reasonably
expect to limit and circumscribe his actions
while he is in the North? Are some peo-
pie not in danger of asking too much? AS
10 the future, we are sure that we can trust
Principal Washington to do the wise and
sensible thing, as he has done up to the
Washington incident.
Surely, if Principal Washington were en-
gagged in preaching a propaganda of $50
cial equality" we believe we should see
evidences of such teaching in this com
munity, where his school of 1900 students
and teachers is located. Until we do we
shall be slow to pass condemnation for one
incident.
1t should also be remembered that the
negro race is at the present time without
representation i'm state legislatures and in
the national Congress, and that the negro
race comprises One-eighth of our entire
population, and that a President who has
sworn to be President of all the people will
once in a while want to get information
about the negro race, and it will be bur
natural for him to call upon a man like
Professor Washington for information anC
advice regarding his race.
Professor Washington has often said in
his addresses that he would rather have the
good will, respect and confidence of hi:
neighbOrs of both races in the little town OF
Tuskegee, where he has made his home fol
twenty years, than be without the good viii
and confidence of his ~neighbOrS and have
the confidence of. all the rest of the outside
world. We are sure that we speak the
truth when we say that the town of Tuske.
gee still has the highest confidence in hin
and respect for him.