The sun., 1903-06-09

President Harrison appointed him post
master here in Charleston. Crum was
then. accused Of having gone to the Re;
TO Blaine and to have sold out .afterward
to Harrison, the postmastership here being
the reward for his treachery.
This charge Mr.. Crum Indignantly. de-
nice, but i was presented to the &c committee
Colorado that it defeated Crums con-
firmation, and President Harrison with
drew his name. Now, beyond this episode,
Crum had been entirely obscure here,
known generally to the negroes, among
whom he praotised medicine, andto white
man here and there as an orderly and fairly
intelligent .muatto, with the usual mulatto
ohsession for Office seeking,
Aside from the dlsapproval of his race.
the objection raised by the business element
here to his appointment was his utter ig-
noranoe Of business. His entire training
for an office that would throw him in bust
hess contact with the mercantile element Of
an important seaport was that he had
physicked the negroes OF the city during
the intervals when he was not operating In
political conventions ,oI,.,caI or carrying on
sumingN that the business OF the Govern
ment isN entitled to the same ntelligence
In its administration as any individual enter
prise. the people here asked this question:
What great business house, looking for a
representative III NndTIeStOu, Nouiu beIoGt
man whose sole recommendations were
that he had practised medicine among the
negroes, had been a chronic and unsuccess-
full Office seeker and that he was himself
negro and, therefore. utterly distasteiul
to the entire, community with which he
would do businessT
That is precisely the case as regards
Crum and the Charleston collectorshiP.
The Chamber of Commerce. the Cotton
Exchange. the Merchants Exchange, the
Young Mems Business League, the
Commercial Cluh-every business organi.-
against his appointment. The statistics OF
his Office show that not negro does buhi-
ness through it. Out of the $40 900 license g
paid in the entire city Of Charleston for
business Of all kinds the negroes only pay
$4,000. There is not a negro exporter or
office The people here felt that, where
the objection to the appointment of a GER
tain person to n Federal Office was so en-
tirely unanimous, it was shared in by
every person without an exception doing
business with that office-it was felt, under
such circumstances, that, no matter on
what grounds that objection might he based
10 should be sufficient, in Government that
is based on the representative theory
in itself to bar such an appointment.
themselves of the Presidents rasping,
dra gooning negro campaign in the South
is manifest here. as it is everywhere, more
or less. all over the Southern States. Char
lesion has always been particularly friendly
and encouraging in its treatment OF the
neErSes, f5s rsons bsrs bo ve al, the old Southern
sympathy for them in their weaknesses and
patience with them in their short -comlngs,
which are always 50 noticeable when
brought in contrast with the harsher and
more intolerant ways OF Northern people
who have come to live in the South and are
for the first time in their lives "up aga inst
the negro as he is in fact and not as he is
in the ina gnings of theorists and dreamers
who live afar from the problem
Booker Washington, when he was here
during the Exposition, said emphatic
that the negroes were better treated as a
whole in Charleston than they were IN any
other city in the South They are not only
prote cted fully in their rights but the
people of Charleston have opened wide
for them doors of hope" that are hinged
on common sense, and not on politics or
the conceit Of ignorance. Negroes have
been put on the police force here, thing OF
and not long ago one OF the lemtenants
Of the force was of that race. The very
fact of the negro department to the eH-
position is indicative of the friendly atti-
tude of the whites to the blacks here. But
even now, as an inevitable result Of the
at the hands OF an outsider, there is in the air
a spirit of reaction. There are extremists
who urge the elimination OF negroes from
the police force. And with that there i, a
noticeable restlessness and aggressiveness 80
on the part Of the egroes themselves
Just as has been the case all over the
South the Presidents course has given a
cue to the radical agitators among the
whites, and to the agitators who preach the
doctrine Of discomfort among the blacks.