The age-herald., 1901-10-21
Booker WashInaton,s pInner.


 Booker Washlngton's Dinner.
 From the Washington Evening Star. Ind.
 Rep.
 The bitter denunciation of President
 Roosevelt by Southern newspapers and | Southern public men for his dinner to
 Booker T. Washington suggests the fu- l tility of the effort to build up in the South party which, avoiding or ignor-
 ing the race question, shall give expres-
 sion to the natural sentiments of that
 section on great national issues. The | prejudices of the South are clearly too strong to permit partisan divisions there
 on economic issues simply on their merits in consideration of their bearing upon Southern prosperity and welfare. Presi- dent Roosevelt has ignored political dis | tinctions in the appointment of a fed
 eral judge, he has turned down. the | regular Republican machine and the ne- gro in politics in other Southern appoint ments and he has honored that negro
 whose teaching is in effect the political self-effacement of his race and its devel- opment as an industrial factor. But the
 method which he has selected to honor this negro has rendered his action not an indorsement of the Southern view of the proper aspiration of the negro, but
 'the most damnable outrage which has ever been perpetrated." The South is willing to praise and in it's way honor Booker Washington for teaching the ne- gro to develop himself morally, mentally and financially, and not to view the pos 1N A flee as the chief end of man, but it pro- nounces unclean and avoids as leprous a
 President who would invite this "nigger to oine with him at the White House" 1 And 1t appears that in order to lay the | foundations of party through which the | South may sustain those policies of sound
 money and of territorial and trade ex- | pansion, which are traditional in the sec ] tion and which are now absolutely es- sential to it's material welfare, President | of the United States must not only con done open and fragrant violations of con- stitutional amendments and the retention In the national councils of an undue and
 unconstitutional preponderance of South ern representation; must not only refrain from any indignant utterances which
 
 whom it pleases to indulge in the prac- | tice of burning negroes at the stake;
 must not only shut out the negro from | office and in effect command him to re- | frain from the exercise of rights of citi | zenship in the South, but must even | choose the guests at his official dinners solely with reference to the social pre- | judces of American citizens residing in | the South.
 The continuance of the era of good feel ing and the effort to bring about a condi- tion of things political in which the South can work for the national policies which
 are vital to it's prosperity is of far more concern to the people of that section than l to any other Americans, or to any Presi- dent or party whatsoever. No Republi- can electoral votes from the South can ! be hoped for during this generation. Po- | litically the game is not worth the candle. The movement Is, however, for the permanent ultimate benefit both of | the South and of the whole republic. It | is unfortunate, from the point of view l of well-wishers of the South, that this | episode occurred. The blame attaches
 
 | nigger," but to the men who, with that occurrence as text, have demonstrated | in the name of a whole section how ab- | ject a surrender of all personal principles | and convictions Is demanded by them | from President, with whom they will permit themselves to associate politically | and from whom they can with self-re- | spect accept offices and policies which
 benefit their own section more than any other. There Is already impatience in the | North and West over the extent of the l advances made by Presidents Mckinley | and Roosevelt to maintain the era of good feeling in the South. and this out burst over an episode personal to the
 President and in political bearing not un-
 friendly to the Southern view is dis
 tinctly a tactical blunder.