The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-10-24
Senator Carmack Of Tennessee Saws
the Dinner Incident Caused
General disappointment.
LUKEWARha DEMc Gratis CURED,
Convinced That Republican Party
Has No Sympathy for South
ern White Mans Views
on the Negro Question.
The Republic Bureau,
iith ST. and pcnnsylynnia Ave


| washington. Oct. Ex-senator Carmack OF
Tennessee is in the city. His opinion re.
| Sarc!ng the new alignment of parties there
Is entitled to weight. His home is in
Memphis. where bitter denuacintion of the
President has recently been heard The
! Senator talks frankly of the negro aues.
! tion in the South and Of its influence on
Southern politics.
F., He said
THE Booker Washington incident has
| caused general feeling Of disappointment,
ana disgust In the South. This is especial
iy true among those who have been inclined
10 wander off from the Democratic party
in recent elections and who had persuaded
themselves that the Republican party had
come to take the Southern white mans view
of the negro question.
WI nat some people choose to describe as
race prejudice is strong among the bet
Ter ciass OF Republicans. at least in my
state, as II Is among Democrats. 1t is in
fact. feeling common to all people with
white skins
The Memphis SciE:etar for instance
which was especially severe in Its criticism
OF that dinner. supported Mr.. Mckinley
both IN 1886 and 1900. and seemed to be an
extraVangent admirer Of President Roose-
welt. The white people of the South will
not yield ore tot or little upon this ques-
ton You may call it race prejudice but,
IN our opinion. 1t is simply the racial in
6tinct OF seif-prcservation. Whatever 1t
De- the man who sins against It, according
20 the view held by our people, and be-
iieVe by n very large proportion OF the
white people everywhere, sins against his
own color and his own race.
assuming that the policy adopted by Mr.
mckinley and continued by Mr. Roosevelt
Oh distributing patronage among recalci-
trant Democrats in the South would have
hao any effect at all. the Presidents action
VIII tend to make 1t nugatory and vain
ihis Will be especially true now that Re-
publican leaders like Hanna and Foraker
nave taken 1t up with such eagerncss In Or
der to rally the color voters OF Ohio. Mr..
FORAKER the other day said In substance
that the Presidents action was intended to
emphasize the fact that this is not a white
mans country any moro than it is any
other kind of mans country and tina: It was
a refusal to recognize the existence of a
color line.
Well. that sort OF thing will not be
pleasant reading to the class some of orr
Republican friends have been cultivating in
the South. They may have lost their at
tachment for the Democratic party. but they
have lost none Of their respect for their own
race"
What has been the effect Of the appoint
ment OF Democrats to office in the South
prior to the Booker Washington dinner?"
Il think 1t was having to a certain ex-
TENT replied the Senator. "the effect IN
tended, though the Importance of It mas
been largely exaggerated. In the appoins-
ment of Ex-Governor Jones of Alabama, Mr..
Roosevelt was simply following the path
blazed out by Mr.. Mckinley. Mr.. Mckinney
was tho first President who had the bold
ness and the cleverness to use the power of
patronage to demoraiize his adversary. He
knew, that IL those who left the Democratic
party in 1896 were let alone. they would In
evitably drift back to their old party re- /
lations. He therefore cought to make the !
permanent by proper distribution
Of the loaves and fishes. and whenever one
boiling Democrat got bite 1t encouraged
hope in the bosom of fifty others. OF course
q certain following can always be built up
In this way. but It can never become formid-
able, and it can never endure