The age-herald., 1901-10-21
The Presidents Last Move.

From the New Orleans Picayune.
 President Roosevelt could not have committed any act, not actually unlawful that would have excited as much popular feeling or aroused public attention as much as has the entertaining of Booker Washington at dinner in the White House.
 The new President was received with extreme enthusiasm by many persons and newspapers in the Southern States as one who was pledged to continue Pres ident McKinley's policy of friendship and pacifcation for the Southern people, and when he appointed to a federal judgeship in Alabama a well-known and highly-es- teemed Democrat of that State, the de- light thereat was unbounded, and ex- travagant expressions of approval were heard on every hand.
 The Picayune was in nowise moved to enthusiasm on the subject as it Is now in no way disposed to visit upon his later act denunciation and anathema- Believ- ing that all the gush poured out in the first instance was premature and unwar- ranted. the Picayune discovers no good reasons for the heated and denunciatory terms with which the second act is char acterized when the known peculiarities of the President are considered. He Is man of most active and energetic i'm pulses. and acts from generous enthusi- asm, evidently without due consideration. There could be no more striking evil dence of this than the signing of the round robin" in the trenches in front of C,,Aa {IA xI.A xxrffI Spain was in progress
 The army had made an attack on Sam tiago, and while active hostilities had ceased at that point, the war was not over, and yet a colonel of volunteer caval- ry could so far forget and defy discipline as to address to the War Department an urgent demand to have himself and his men immediately moved away from the scene of action, assigning reasons that were by no. means justifiable of his de- sires, and using terms that were dis courteous and unjust to other officers and their commands.
 Nobody believes that the then colonel
 of the Rough Riders intended to violate
 discipline or outrage military etiquette,
 but he was so careless of them that he | did not stop a moment to think.
 | The Booker Washington incident is of the same sort. The President doubtless did not deliberately set out to violate the social traditions of the White House. or | to outrage the sensibilties of the white | people of the South; but in all proba- bility he Is entirely indifferent to the
 feelings with which the matter has been
 received. The fact Is, President Roose-
 welt Is not to be judged by the political
 and social acts of the previous occupants of the White House. He has not cared
 to regard the social ceremonies and off l cial routine that have heretofore been the 1 rule in the public residence of the Re- | public Chief Magistrate; but, on the con- 1 trary, is a law to himself. Probably no national chief in the world Is so indiffer- ent to social conventions. Nobody, knows
 what he, will do next under any circum-
 stances, and each act must be taken upon | its own separate deserts or demerits. He cannot be fairly Judged in any other | way. - l Without doubt at the present moment political position in the whole country,
 and has most seriously fallen from popu- l lar favor in the Southern State, for it is impossible to forecast his intentions and policy from his past acts. Nobody knows | what he will do next. The great com mercial interests of the country fear ] radicalism of any sort in the administra-