Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-02-05
ROOSEVELT AND THE sOUUH
Instead of increasing He Has Decreased
the Number of CoIored 0ficehOlders.

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Washington Letter Boston Transcript (Rep)
President Roosevelt has been very
harshly criticised for 'forcing the race
issue" through Crum's nomination. 1t
has not occurred to his critics, possibly,
that the race issue, if there is such thing,
was forced by bis Republican predecessors,
all of whom made more appointments OF
negroes to Office than he, and certainly
never approached him in the quality of
their appointees. If the old guard of Re-
publicanism, as it was once called, could
come back and compare his administra-
ton with the Others they reproach him
rather for considering race prejudice too
leniently, and deferring to it beyond logi-
cal bounds, than with going to the other
extreme. He has left in Office negroes
whom he found there and who appeared
to be doing creditable work; but be has
avoided making appointments in places
and of sort which would involve UNI
pleasant contact between blacks and
whites. In every way he has tried to
make peace in the South-not to stir up
strife tbeie. The list of his negro APP.
pointees may be searched in vain for
man of the stamp of the notorious Demas,
for example. The only point at which he
has parted company with his Southern
friends and kindred is on the question of
the absolute exclusion of the black man.
They have demanded that be says, "No
negro need apply" He has been willing
10 say only, "a colored skin will not let
you in; neither eau it shut you out. The
same standard must rule everywhere"
10 North, East and West it has not been
left solely to Federal administration TO
draft men of color into the service of the
public. In New York negroes are elected
to offices ranging from presidential
e.ector down to city recorder; Massachu-
sets, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
Colorado, all have had them for years in
their Legislatures. In Pennsylvania we
find them elected to the presidency of the
school board in one city and to the alder.
manic councils in OTHERS There is negro
mayor in Idaho. These are officers not
forced upon an unwilling peope by
Washington administration, but elected by
their neighbors in States where the negroes
constitute an insignificant fraction of the
population. The number of such instances
is proof enough that there is no sectional
prejudice behind the feeling, cherished
everywhere else, that the negro ought to
be counted in the South for other purposes
than the swelling of its representation 10
Congress.
The worst, then, that President Roose.
welt bas accomplished, and the worst his
policy contemplates, is reduction rather
than an increase in the gross proportion
of negro officehOders in the South, through
the careful sitting of candidates of all
coloIs. He does this as the friend at once
of the white man and the negro, SO that
the few chosen shall be differentiated in
every ones mind from the many discard
ed, aud the negro at large will be given to
unde rstand that be must reach the level #
the white mans qualifications before he
can expect to share the white mans hon
ors. If there is any other way Of handling
this matter so as to be President of the
whole people and not of a part, sugges.
tions will be thankfully received and care.
fully considered at the White House.