The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1901-10-26
..NOT OUR FUNERAL"
Henry WattersOn's CONNER tS
on WashingtOn's Dinner.

! " attcTSOn Will cOttOFlally DISCUSS
President Roosevelt's dinner to
Booker +. Washington. He will
say in part:
| each American, whether native
or of African descent, has the right
to pick his company, to sit at table
with whomsoever he will, and, if it
| please the Preside mt to dine one or
a dozen gentlemen of color at the
White House-unofficia mind
you-that is nobody's business.
"Nevertheless, and at the same
time, there are certain Conven
tionalities-call them prejudices if
you like-it were we'll for all men,
and particularly for great public ex-
emplars, to consider in their migra-
tons between the drawing room
and the dining room. Even as
blunder is held in politics and di-
plomacy to be worse than crime,
so in society. Particularly in those
homes of luxury which give the
word and set to the phrase -four
hume red,' it is safer to commit sin
han to be detected in a solecism.
"The president need not be re-
minded OF this, for he knows it well.
Nobody knows It better. But he is
exceptional. Born with a ruffle
around his neck and gold spoon
in his mouth, he grew up to fitch
from among his playthings ticket
calling for the capital prize in the
lottery of life. Such man is
tempted to defy usage. He gets to
be a law unto himself.
"In a matter like this, we should
seek first of all, to be just. AT least
no old-time Republican will venture
to chide him for teaching by ex-
ample what they were able to teach
only by precept. In a word, Mr..
Roosevelt is true to his political
religion.
s:The foundation stone of that
religion was and Is and ever will be
the equality Of man. To free the
negro, to educate and elevate the
negro, to seat the negro in the high
places of the land was not the I'M
doing doctrine of original abolition
ism? Was it not the logic of latter
day Republicanism? Why should
not every child of the higher law
come to his estate, possess the
courage of his opinions? Why
should he pale before the fire of
Southern rebels or Northern
dough faces?' Did not his party,
for the sake Of great moral lesson,
purposely keep the seat last occu-
pied in the Senate of the United
States by Jefferson Davis vacant
until it could be filled by a gentle
man Of COLOR"
s'Revolutions never go backward.
It is but step from the Capitol to
the White House, from the council
board to the banquet hall, from the
marriage festival to the bridal
chamber, and there you are pro-
phecy fulfilled. Mr.. Lincoln ight
not have done it. Mr.. Mckinley
would scarce have tried it. But
shall Mr.. Roosevelt, the dashing
rough rider, the confident reformer,
the progressive philosopher, quail
before his duty to humanity and
God?' Perish the thought.
ssWe mourn for Booker Washing
ton. He it is On whom such con-
sequences as betide this kinder
garten lesson IN the ethics of
modern life are likely to fall. He,
in the end, will, as it were, have to
pay the freight.
"When Frederick Douglass mar
ried a white woman, his power was
gone 1t did not elevate him in the
estimation Of white men. It lost
him caste among the people of his
own race. Booker Washington, as
head of the Tuskegee school, was
admi, able. AS head even of the
kitchen cabinet he is to be pitied.
A red rag to racial prejudice, an
object of envy to those blacks who
are intelligent enough to differen-
tiate, an offense to white Republi-
cans, am offense to white Democrats