Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-03-07

| but one or these has met with strenuous
opposition. On the other hand, Fresi-
dent Roosevelt has, perhaps, appointed
more men to Office from among the con-
servatiye whites OF the South than all
the other Republican Presidents put to.
gether
1t is plain, therefore, that the reason
for the present ferment must lie deeper
than the mere appointment to Office of
Negroes. The true reason is that these
appointments have been taken at the
South as evidences of an attitude on the
part of the President toward the race
question which the South reprobates
far more than the selection of however
many Negroes for Office.
And again:
The first of these causes was undoubt
| eoly what is now known as ''the Book
er Washington incident"
To make this understood il is neces.
sary to speak plainly. Conditions at
the South have changed within ten
years. The old relation between the
races has changed. Those who have
made that relation one of kindness
and affection are passing away. The
races are wider apart to-day than they
have ever been. 1t is, in the main.
| only those who knew the old relation
that retain the old feeling. The
new Negro, when he gets an education,
becomes the afro American. Every
question in which the Negro is concern
| ed becomes now a race question. The
Negroes will not have it otherwise, and
the whites must act accordingly. The
most passionate aspiration of the new
Negro is for social equality.
Mr.. PAGE errs sadly in this. Social
equality is a nightmare that has no ex-
istence in fact. No man can cross the
threshold of another mans door with
out an invitation so to do. When he
extends the invitation, he should have
no cause to complain, because he ac-
cepts the courtesy extended. In refer
ring to the lilly white movement in the
South, Mr~PAGE says:
This, however, passed, and might
nave passed completely, but for another
act which appeared to point in the same
direction.
For years, throughout the Soutb
there has been the growing hope that
the Negro might be excluded from poli
tics, and that another party might arise
there to which the whites might turn
without finding themselves in the asso-
claelon That utilization with the Negro
party IN the South has for the most part
slgnlfied. 1t was generally held that
this would mean the removal of tho
most debaslng element OF politics. of
tine onIeI cause OF MISUNDERSTANDING he.
tween the North and the South: and
the opportunity for the South, relieved
from the thraldom incident to the exist
ence OF only one party, TO place herself
In harmony with the rest of the conn
try. Ihls movement was ADVANCING
propitiously when the Administrators
interviewed. One or two men who had
made themselves prominent in il were
removed from Office 1t is said that
they would have been removed anyhow
Tor violation of the general order pro-
hlbiting otficeholders from too active
participation in politics, and that the
TACT that they were excluding Negroes
from their conventions had nothing to
do with their dismissal. 1t is possible
that they ought to have been removed
AT least, however, the circumstances
were unfortunate. 1t looked as if these
men were being disciplined for irving
60 form partly exclusively of whites.
Inc Negroes so understood 1t, and the
whites so understood it.
Mr.. PAGE gives one section of his case
away, when he says:
The South does not fear social eouali-
ty. 1t knows that it can not be. But
1t fears the consequences of ANYTHING
looking like the most remote recopni.
ton of 1T. 1t feels, as no one else
can, the consequences of every
agitation of this kind. Social
Equality" and the "Sword and Torchr
terms which none would have ven
tured to use five years ago-are begin
ming TO be openly advocated by candi-
dates for office at Afro American"
meetings.
The conclusion of mis- admirable arti-
Gle is made i'll the following conserva-
tive vein:
Happily, there is still conservative
element among the Negroes at the
South-mainly composed of those who
knew the old relation between the
whites and the blacks-who repudiate
such incendiary doctrines. And, hap
PLY, there are those among the whites
who know the President These know
that however he may have misunder-
stood conditions there, he has no inten-
ton of fastening again ON the South
Negro domination or of fostering social
equality in any form. Those who know
him best feel that he has simply been
misunderstood, and believe that in time
the whole South will recognize it. They
recall what he said few years since in
the "Sewanee Review" and republish-
ed in American Ideals:
"The whole civilization of the future
owes debt of gratitude, greater than
can be expressed IN words, to that
democratic policy which has kept the
temperate zones of the new and the
newest worlds heritage for the white
people,"
The world has not changed since then
and neither has Theodore Roosevelt.
Colored men, what does all this mean?
Is IL possible that you have "eyes that
see not and ears that hear not ?" Ac-
cording to Mr. THOMAS NELSON PAGES
assertions, the South has been too quick