The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-03
THE WHITE HOUSE DINNER. The Way the Democratic Paper al
 Tuskegee Views It.
Tuskegee News.

Tuskegee News.
 published by the white 'epole in the town of Tuskegee and in Macon County, Ala bama. where the Tuskegee Normal anu Industrial Institute is located and or which Booker T. Washington Is princi- pal. This is the first time that this paper has referred to the White House dinner which has created so much discussion We have waited patiently before discus. sing the matter because we did not want to speak excitedly or hastily.
 The News would say that it has no heS- itation in saying that It regrets the mel dent and also much of the unpleasant dls- cussion that has grown out Of 1t. Fro lessor Booker T. Washington has lived in this community now for twenty years and the white people in this town ana county feel that they know him and his work pretty well. There can not be found in the whole South a more intelligent, cultured and discriminating set of white people than those that live in Iuskegee and vicinity and none who would more quickly see and resent any social ad- vances on the part of the negroes In the South.
 Professor washingtons life for twenty years has been an open book n tnis SsrdIv Gom1 the part of fairness to judge man by one act with which we may not agree rather than by his twenty years Of wise living.
 munity that for fifteen years Professor
 Washington's business in securing the money to carry on his work has thrown
 him into contact with the Northern Mnl.e man. both in the South and the North, in way that does not often fall to the lot of the average colored man, but 1t is equally well understood in this commu- nity that all such contact is in the line of business and the purely social asp ect
 never enters Principal Washingtons head. | We feel quite sure that the same is true | of the much talked-of dinner at the W hits House and that 1t was not studied anH | planned affair on the part or Presloent | Roc sevelt and Professor Washington to offend the South. but that the President
 found that he could most conveniently
 saA Principal Washington on business at his dinner hour and therefore asked hlm | to be present. It is also known by our
 people that at the North the dinner table | Is place to talk over business 10 d
 greater extent than Is true in the South: We repeat that it has been known for fifteen years in the South that Professor Washington com ,s into contact with | people in the North in way that ne
 does not in the South. There mas oeen | scarcely a week during the last ten years
 when the Associated Press has not told | us of his speaking and dining at some | banquet in the North with Governors. etc | We all know that 1t was widely reported
 in the press dispatches three years ago l that he lunched with President Mchin- ley and his party during the Peace Jubi- 1 lee in Chicago. Nothing has been hld-
 
 Professor Washington knows that he would be the last one to seek invitations or to obtrude himself in social way upon any one. |. ..,.
 SC long as Principal Washington pays que regard as he has always done, ana as
 we believe 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 ana CIT cumscribe his actions while he Is In the
 North? Are some people not Tn oailee[
 of asking too muchE AS to tne tI Iutui1 we are sure that we can trust Principal Washington to do the wise and senslple thing as he has done up to the wash ington incident. -. engaged in preaching a propaganda Of
 social equality" W, believe we shou!p
 sec evidences of such teaching, ln M tniS community whe.e his school or 1,zuV stu- dents and teachers is lotated. Unm we do we shall be slow to pass condemnation
 Tt should also he rcm embered that the negro race is at the present. time Wlthoul ll representation In State Legislatures anh | in the national Congress and that the | negro race comprises one-eightn or our | entire population, and that tresideh'
 who has sworn to be President or 4i ont at
 people will once in d while want to get | information about :he negro race, ana II will be but natural Tor him 10 call upon l a man like Profess Washington TOT
 information and advice resarulhS ms l race. s. o;l l in his addresses that he had rather have
 the good will respect and confidence of his neighbors of both races in the ittIe town of Tuskegae where he has made his home for twenty years than b2'Wltn- out ,l the good will and confidence of his neighbors and have tte confidence Of all
 the rest oof the outside world We are are sure that we speak the truth when we sav that the town of Tuskegee still has
 the the highest confidence in him and re-