The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-04-02
THE RACE QUEsTION-A NEW
ASPECT.

There is natural and excusable
disposition on the part of the general
reader to shun articles on the negro
question. The subject is somewhat
hackneyed, and it is only when an es-
pecially horrible case of the lynching
of a negro at the South compels the
attention, even of the most stolid or
Indifferent that the race questions
abiding presence and Importance in
the body social or polite is made gen
orally manifest. 1t became manifest,
also, in another and very significant
form when President Roosevelt not
long ago asked Booker Washington to
dinner at the White House, and again
recently when negro was appointed
to the chief federal office IN Charles
ton, S. c., the city of the South the
proudest and most sensitive in matters
pertaining to blood and complexion.
In some less conspicuous incidents of
recent occurrence the slumbering
fires of he burning question at the
South have blazed out.
The new aspect of the negro ques-
ton is the subject of an article in
Golfers Weekly, by Thomas Nelson
Page. Mr.. Page is conservative
and we'll balanced southerner. He
understands the value of different
points of view and what he says must
necessarily carry weight. By his
extraordinary tact President Mckinley
had won the goodwill of the southern
people. Instances are cited to show
how the political solidity of the South
was breaking under his tactful man
agement. Fifteen years ago, for
example, the Westmoreland Club of
Richmond, the leading social organ
ization of Virginia, had not a Repub-
lican in it; in the last national cleo
ton a majority of the members voted
for Mckinley and Roosevelt.
In many ways and by many qualities
Roosevelt, also, appealed to the good
will of the southern people. Mckinley
appointed many negroes to important
offices in the South without injury to
his prestige there. Roosevelt had
made fewer appointments from the
ranks of the prescribed race, and
more from among conservative Demo-
Gratis, but his popularity there has
suffered sudden eclipse. The deep
est feeling is beginning to be stirred,
and this is the new aspect of the
negro question presented by Mr.. Page.
The reason for the present ferment
lies deeper than resentment over the
appointment of negroes to Office.
In former times the person of color
was simply "nigger. Education
has changed many things. The negro
becomes an cairo American, " and
questions affecting him become new
race questions, The negro will not
act accordingly "The most passion
ate aspiration Of the new negro is for
social equality" says Mr.. Page, and
"this means in plain terms what the
South in plain terms intends shall not
be. - Strangely-and incredibly-the
writer of the article in question finds
in the increased frequency of the
crime for which lynching has come to
be the almost inevitable penalty a
manifestation of this aspiration. The
frightful spread of lynching in its
70 h 90 a
this crime, Mr.. Page allows, is a
manifestatio of the determination of
the southern whites that this aspira-
ton shall never be realized. In this
aspiration for social equality, and
this opposing determination of the
southern whites, is the reason why Mr..
Roosevelt's simple act of courtesy to
Mr.. Washington aroused so much eX-
element in the South The negroes
showed their appreciation of the
Presidents social recognition of their
race; its effect was instantaneous
and far reaching.
The hope had been entertained in
! the South that another party might
arise thece to which the whites,
yearning for the end of sectionalism,
might turn without finding them
selves in the association that affilia-
ton with the merge party in the South
has for the most part signified. 1t wai
generally held that this would mean
the removal Of the chief cause of mis-
understanding between the North and