Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-10-25
Democratic State Ticket.
DINED AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

DINED At THE WHITE HOUSE.
There has been much comment owe
the fact that President Roosevelt ;
few days ago had Booker Washington
the rather celebrated negro who is al
the head of Tuscagee University, Ala.
d inc with him at the White House.
We are not certain that Mr.. Roose.
welt is the first president who has dined
negroes in the White House, but We
are certain of one thing, and that is,
that in 80 doing Mr.. Roosevelt has
seemingly already forgotten what he
said when Mr.. Mckinley died. If he
is to carry forward the work Mr.. Nc
Kinley had laid out, this bit is surely
outside the Mckinley program. Now
we do not object to courtesies shown
Booker Washington. He is no doubt
a very deserving person, what we do
find fault with is that Mr.. Roosevelt
by virtue of this act, says to the people
of the United State, and especially to
the South. 1.-The negro must be placed
on the same social plane as white
people. He shall not be kept down
because his father was a slave, be-
cause his skin is black or yellow" The
Prince of Wales by putting on a GER
tain kind of coat, or wearing certain
shaped hat at the Derby, could at once
make it so popular that everybody
else in the world rushed after it and
got one just like it. We doubt, how
ever, if everybody will entertain ne
groes at dinner simply because Mr..
Roosevelt entertained one.
Let's apply the rule to another case.
Suppose Mr.. Roosevelt thought that
the cab drivers of New York were be-
ing ostracised and held down below
their real social plane. Suppose he
knew some most excellent cab drivers,
and one especially, one who was a
teacher of cab drivers, and had school
for cab drivers only, and on this &C
count MIR. Roosevelt should entertain
the head cab driver at dinner in the
White House, would all New York
rush after cab drivers and make lions
OF them. Would they become feature
of all social functions, and be toasted |
everywhere, and would all New York |
sc elk cab drivers as husbands for their |
da lighters? We think not. We never
heard of Mr.. Roosevelt entertaining
cab drivers in his New York home, the
SOC al standing, upbuilding and for
tunes of New York cab drivers have
never disturbed MI. Roosevelt to our
knowledge.
A southern man writing to the New
Y ork Sun Oh the Booker Washington
dinner incident, says among other
things:
IA great deal of twaddle has been
INDUCED in in novels and cheap litera.
ture as to the hardships suffered by
retined and beautiful girls because.
forsooth, they happened to have but
a faint of the negro blood in their {
VEINS. Do the people who allow them ,
Sci yes to get worked up over these
cases ever stop to think {
how the faint got there? And can't
they be made to understand that the :
smaller the faint the more shame to !.
the individual Since intermarriage
has always been prohibited, it follows c
the smaller the faint the more genera +
lions of births outside of wedlock. ,
Would we even think white pirls prOp-l
er associates for our children when it I
was known that for many generations 1
their parents, grandparents and all d
the rest did not think it necessary to n
narry3"
This person knows that social equal
ty leads to marriage, and nothing so -
lands to the credit of Southern PEG
Die as that their daughters do not
marry negroes, and no matter how "
much any president entertains them ',
+ what amount of gush there is over g.
hem or over the fact that they have =,
cen permitted to occupy the place of -
onor at the presidents table, the same -,
determination on the part of the true :.
outherner, not to amalgamate, will IN
'main as before. Mr.. Mckinley, it -
as thought. would have broken w
,e solid South had he served out his w
I'm. Mr.. Roosevelt will make it =,
ronger and more solid il he continues u,1
the course seemingly mapped. out.