Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-03-21
EMINENT WITNESSES TESTIFY.

WE publish in this issue letter from
MIR. G.. II. EDAIUNDs of Iowa, in which
he takes issue With the PLANET with
reference to its conclusions concerning
President RoosEvELTs appointments
in the South.
We would TO COP he was correct in
all that he says relative to existing con-
ditions. The outlook has caused us
much concern, and we have reduced
our opinions to writing with hope that
colored men located in states like the
one from which Mr.. EDMUNDs halls
may be able to bring influences TO bear
upon the Republican Party managers
and the President which will tend to
change this policy. which is destined to
sweep the colored citizen from all of
the Offices in the Southland
Mr.. EDMUNDs asks us to reply to his
letter. We have no need TO do so. We
will let President RoosEvELT's Secre-
tary of War, Hon. EIIHU RooT of New
York do so for us.
In his speech delivered before the
UNION LEAGUE CLUB of New York, Feb.
9th, 1908, among other things, he said:
| "A curious development has been
seen within the past year. President
| Roosevelt has appointed fewer black
men than President Mckinley did, aud
there are to-day fewer black men holding
office than when Mckinley died. Yet
loud outcries are to be heard in the
South about President Roosevelt's poll
cy of appointing black Ia II to office in
the Soath. Under previous Presidents
] mckinley, Cleveland, Harrison, and
back to Hayes time-more Negroes
were appointed to office and nothing
| was said
The next witness will be Mr.. THOMAS
NELSON PAGE, a gentleman, like Mr..
RooT, of unquestioned veracity. He is
named by Mr.. ROOSEVELT as one of his
referees, and he too must know abso-
lutely what he is talking about when he
says in his article Published in Col
LIER's WEEKLY of February 2Sth. 1908:
cit is claimed by some that this change
is due to the appointment of Negroes to
Office. But in the judgment of those
better informed, this does not account
TOR the present ferment. President Nc
Kinley filled over thirty places with
Negroes, among them such important of
hces as the collectorship of the ports OF
wilmington and Beaufort, North Caro-
INA and st. Augustine; the collector
snip OF customs at Savannah, Atlanta
and Georgetown, Ga; and the postmas-
terships of Athens and Darien, Georgia:
Beaufort and Florence, South Carolina:
Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and others-all
without causiI & a fraction of the excite
ment that has arisen of late, while only
Tour original appointments of Negroes
TO office in the South have been made
during the present Administration. and
out one OF these has met with strenuous
opposition. On the other hand, Presi- |
dent Roosevelt has. perhaps, appointed
more men TO office from among the con-
servatlve whites of the South than all |
the other Republican Presidents put to- |
gether."
The next witness will be President |
ROOSEVELT himself. In his letter to |
Mr.. CLARK HOWELL, editor of the At |
lanta, Ga, CONSTITUTION, he said:
My party advisers in the State have
been Maj. Hanson, of Macon; Mr.. Wal
ter Johnson, OF Atlanta-both of them
soldiers-and Mr.. Harry
Stlllwell Edwards, also of Macon. Am
not right in sa! ing that the Federal |
office holders whom / have appointed
throughout your State are, as a BODY.
men and women, of high order of eff.
cheney and integrity? Incidently may
me htloh that large percentage of the |
of Federal offices in Geor-
gla under me are, as / understand it, of |
your own political faith This is true
OF your own State; and by applying to
MI: Thomas Nelson Page, of Virginia;
TO Gen. Basil Duke, of Kentucky; TO
Mr.. George Crawford, of Tennessee; to
MI; John Mcl!henny, of Louisiana; to
Judge Jones. of Alabama, and to Mr..
Edgar ). Wilson, of Mississippi, all of
them Democrats and all of them men
OF the highest standing in their respec-
i've communities, you will find that
what have done in Georgia stands not
as the exception, but as the rule for
what L have done throughout the South.
may add that the proportion of.col-
ored men among the new sppointees is
only about one in a hundred ~
We shall take the liberty of calling
Hon. ELIHU Roof, Mr.. RoosEvELr's
Secretary of War to the stand and have
him give another extract from that IA
nous New York speech. He said:
II don't want to argue this question.
am certainly showing that we have
to face a new change of feeling in the
South, that the black man is denied the /
right to aspire to the highest there is in
American citizenship. This right to
aspire to the highest dignity which
was formerly unqueStioned is now cues
toned. In {. short time the white man
will succeed in excluding the black
man from all offices in the Southern
States"
He did not say the Democratic white
man or the Republican white man, but
white man, which permits us to pre-
sumo that white men of both poi ical
parties are in league with the conspi-
racy to exclude the black man from all