The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-02-04
ROOSEVELT AND THE SOUTH
He Has Decreased Number of Colored
Office Holders.

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 his 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 Republication, as it
was once called. could come back and
compare his administration with the
others they would reDTOach him rather
for considering race prejudice too leni-
entity, and deferring to it beyond logical
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 he has
avoided making appointments in places
and of a sort which would involve I'M
pleasant contact between blacks and
whites. In every way, he has tried to
make peace in the south-not to stir up
strife there. The list of his negro aD-
pointees may be searched in vain for a
man Of the stamp of the notorious De
mas. 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
he say, NO negro need apply" He has
been willing to say only, A cOlOred skin
will not let you in: neither can it shut
you out. The same standard must rule
everywhere"
In north. east and west it has not
been left solely to a federal admins
tration to draft men Of color into the
/ service Of the public. In New York
negroes are elected to offices ranging
from presidential elector down to city
recorder; Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois.
Indiana, Michigan, Colorado, all have
had them for years in their legislatures
In Pennsylvania We find them elected
! ff, l7or of he col hnard il
one city and to the aldermanic councils
/ in others. There is a negro mayor n
Idaho. These are officers not forceh
upon an unwilling people by a Wash
ingtOn administration. but elected by
their neighbOrs in states where the ne
groes constitute an insignificant frac-
! ton of the population. The number OF
such instances is proof enough that
there is no sectional prejudice behinn
the feeling, cherished everywhere elAs.
/ that the negro ought to be counted il,
/ the south for other purposes than the
swelling of its representation in con
Rress.
The worst. then. that Presiden,
! Roosevelt has accomplished, and the
worst his policy contemplates is a re
ductiOn rather than an increase in the
gross proportion of negro Office holders
in the south, through the careful sitting
of candidates Of all colors. He does this
as the friend at once of the white mar
and the negro so that the few chosen
shall be Differentiated in every ones
mind from the many discarded, and the
negro at large will be given to under
stand that he must reach the level Of
the white mans qualifications before rs
/ can expect to share the white mans
hcnors If there is any other way oil
handling this matter so as to be presi-
dent of the whole people and not of :
part, suggestions will be thankfully re
ceived and carefully considered at the
White Washington cor. Boston
Transcript (Rep)