The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1901-10-25
THE ROOSEVELT.
WASHINGTON EPISODE.

The scimitar's Strong Language
The Memphis Scimitar, paper with
strong Republican. proclivities, says
1.-THE most damnable outrage which
has ever been perpetrated by any citi-
zen of the United States was COM
mitted yesterday by the President,
when he invited a niger to dine
with him at the White House. 1t
would not be worth more than pass
ing notice if Theodore Roosevelt had
sat down to dinner in his own home
with Pullman Palace Car porter,
but Roosevelt the individual and
Roosevelt the President are not TO be
viewed in the same light.
Had the guest of the President on
the occasion mentioned been black
representative of Hayti, no doubt there
might have been some excuse, because
of diplomatic reasons but the fact is
that he went out of his way and ex-
tended q special invitation to niger
to sit down at table with nina mig
ger whose only claim to distinction is
that by comparison with the balance
of his race he has been considered
somewhat superior. This is not an
incident we are discussing it amounts
quite to the dignity of an epoch in
history. The logic of the event, If We
understand anything of logic, is that
the white man and the black man are
not only political equals, but in the
march of time may become social
equals. When the President of the
United States sits at dinner with a
niger in the White House he an
nounces to the people not only of the
United States, but of the world-be-
cause this is the proudest naUion in the
world that any niger who happens
to have little more than the average
amount Of intelligence granted by the
Creator to his race, and cash enough
to pay the tailor and the barber ana
the perfumer for scents enough to take
away the natural niger smell, has a
perfect right to be received by the
daughter of the white man among the
guests III the parlor at his own home.
"Nothing could have happened
which would prove more concluslvely
to the American citizen the absolute
incompetency and unwOrthiness of
Theodore Roosevelt to occupy the po-
sition which he has won by chance,
than the circumstance in question. 1t
justifies every harsh criticism which
has been made of him and forces this
newspaper to retract every co1npli-
mentary thing which it has uttered in
his behlaf. He is after all not a
statesman, but a mere swashbuckler
and something else, with which we
hesitate to offend the ears of our read
ers Abraham Lincoln, the greatest
President and perhaps the greatest man
the United States has ever known, was
in favor of the freedom of the niger,
but Abraham Lincoln was too big
and broad man ever to have suggest
ed by any act of his so awful thing
as the amalgamation of the races. and
this is what this man Roosevelt has
The people of the South are doing
everything in their power to better
the condition of the niger race. Many
Of the schools built for them are quite
as handsome, we'll appointed and well
managed as those constructed for white
children. Nearly all of the niggei
churches are largely built by contribu-
tions of white people. There is a
growing disposition to provide better
quarters for niger servants, and it is
not uncommon for white man in g
street Car anywhere in the South tC
give his seat to an old or feeble black
woman; but the line is drawn at social
equality which means mongrel race
"a race which can never accomplish
anything and which must be dropped
degree by degree to the lowest scale
!, among the nations of the earth.
ITO sum up, the President of thu
United States has committed crime
against civilization, and his niggel
guest has done his race a wrong which
cannot soon be erased.
I'm order to get the best out of thu
, white races as well as the niger rae,
it is essential that the blood of eacl
should be pure and uncontaminated b,
that of the other. The most vigorous
blacks are those which have no strait
| of other blood and the most progressive
and enlightened nation on the earth i
: the AngloSaxon, because its blood ha
!. been kept pure.
"The President has rudely shattered
any expectations that may have arisel
from his announced intention to max
the Republican party in the South re
spectacle. He has closed the door t.