The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-22
SOUTHERNER'S ADVICE
Walter wellman's Washington Special to ID IT

HOlCc Ol IHO NlOltnt ClltiSiShA Southern newspapers are heaping upon him because he had Booker Washington at dinner in the White House. It is hint ed that the President may improve some occasion to reply to his critics during his visit to New England next week, but no enc Is authorized to say so.
 The storm which has been stirred up In the South over this matter continues to be the chief topic of conversation at the National Capital. While there is no diminuucn in the number of Southerners who go to the White House every day seeking appointments for their constitu- ents, it Is not denied that the Booker Washington dinner is likely to produce serious effect upon public opinion in the Southern States.
 Northern people are unable to under stand the high tension of feeling which exists in the South over such a trifing affair, and Southern people say they can not understand why the men of the North are so indifferent to what they call the Presidents blunder in asking "a nigger" to sit at his table.
 Prominent men who have lived both in the North and South say the difference is wholly in the point of view, and that there is good deal of right on both sides. In their opinion nothing is to be gained by violence of expression and loss
 
 yet by efforts at the North to answer the objections of the South with rdicule and talk of blind, nreasoning bourbon ism of the Southern men. It would be much better for each side to make sin cere effort to understand the views and prejudices of the other.
 Among the Southern men who have lived long enough in Washington to get an understanding of the Northern view point without in any way casting loose from their Southern traditions there is a genuine regret that any such incident should have arisen to mar the good feel ing that was springing up and to retard the work of "rationalizing'' the South politically, upon which President Roose- welt had entered with so much energy. An eminent Southerner, who has held an important place in the councils of the Democratic party and who is highly spected both North and South, today ex- pressed this feeling in tho following pri~ vate letter, which he wrote to one of his personal friends in the South:
 "'There Is no doubt that considering the temper of the South on the negro situa ton, Roosevelt made a tactical mistake In inviting Booker T. Washington to dine with him. He does not fully comprehend the extend of the prejudice at the South against anything savoring of social equal ity between the races. Nevertheless our people ought not to make too much of this matter.
 T very much fear that the severe com ments upon his action. and especially such things as occurred at Richmond the hissing of his picture and turning it with the face to the wall-may have an effect at the North, and even with Roose- welt himself (who is an impulsive man). that our people do not count on. He had been evidently intent upon ingratiating himself with our people by giving them good administration and appointing Democrats wherever he could not get good officials from his own party. His idea evidently was that the court esy he showed Washington, who is man of extraordinary parts and of fine char acter was simply giving to the negro the | husks, whereas giving the office to such a man as Jones was giving to the whites of the South the kernels of the grains 1 from the Federal crib. I fully concur with the Southern sentiment against so- cial equality, and think it ought always to be a live and active force, and noth- | ing else will prevent miscegenation
 Nevertheless, Roosevelt, you must re- l member, looks upon himself as the Prest- dent of the whole people-whites and blacks-and the difference between re- l ceiving and shaking hands with negro l at puDllc feCSptlOuS, dS MI. Cl'F Vle'lAu did. and dining the best man among them when both are done by the Chief EXecu- tive of the nation, Is not SO great as our people are inclined to think. at first l blush.
 "I sincerely hope that the conservatives l of the South will be careful not to add tn 1 the strong indignation which seems to 1 have been raised by an incident in which evidently Roosevelt could see no harm. 1 oh off hat vi will come to the South of this affair. It must be handled with great delicacy and care"
 This gentleman, though declining to per init the use of his name. gave me the fol- | lowing statement which I regard as both | interesting and important;
 | "President. Roosevelt made a tactical | mistake, because the entertainment of | Booker Washington at dinner was un- 1 necessary, and was sure to be misunder- | stood and 10 arouse criticism In the l South. At the same time our friends in the South are making great mistake by using incorporate language and in as- | cribing to the incident an importance which it does not possess.
 Nearly every Northern man with whom I have ever talked on the subject says the people of the South are wholly jusuhable in their refusal to have any social rela-
 tions with the negroes. and admit that
 were they Southern men they would take the same view.
 | Northern men, however, complain that the men of the South are not content ta follow out their own traditions In their
 own way. but that they want to dictata
 what Northern men shall do; that hn-
 cause they will not sit at table with a
 colored person they insist the President
 of the United States a Northerner, shall
 not do so. Northern men grant to South
 erners a perfect right to do as they likt but claim the same privilege for them l selves and for the President.
 "The deeper into the problem we g. the more complex it appears added this Southern gentleman. "Northerners tMuE
 we of the South are crazy on the su3- | feet of the negro. They cannot under stand our unalterable determination nut 1 to have the social barriers between jh 1 two races broken even in the smallest de- gree, They accuse us of narrownesS' ol hourhouism, of fierce hatred of our lnie- rior neighbors.
 Now il is important that we know tn reason for this determination ot tr whites of the South, and l will give II lo you frankly. It is not repugnancc to con tact with the blacks, for We have ih'n l universally as domestic servants ana ds nurses. It is not from a desire to k cI the negro ignorant, because we are oo!hA everything we can to educate and clc-
 vate him, 1t is not because We want L
 keep the negro down industrially' because
 we are helping him in many ways "li'
 in that rcsp. ct he is doing very well.
 "Thc truth Is that We will not toIorat'
 the first approach to social equality he