The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-24
HIS POLICY IN LIME LIGHT
Fostering of Negro Pride May Have Awakened Fresh Hatred Among the Races and Brought on the
 Recent Disturbances.
BY PATTERSON sTEALEY.

l ance of lynchings and the daily cont
 ment upon them has resulted in placing
 in the lime light the official and unoffi-
 oial actions of the President towards
 the racial question. The direct state
 ment that the President Is responsible
 for the conditions he so fereely de-
 nounces in his letter to Governor Dur
 bin of Indiana could not. of course, be
 made. At the same time its direct denial could not be successfully supported, for there are few things. almost matters
 of record, which in the minds of many
 place responsibility dangerously near the White House door.
 Since Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to
 the presidency the negro has for some
 reason become more of a factor of dis cussion than at any other time since the
 reconstruction period. This may mere l ly have happened. but there are not a
 few who believe that the southern poll
 cles of the President have resulted in giv- 1 ing the negro an idea of his self-impor-
 tance which has directly or indirectly
 been the cause of the present agitation
 and possible increase in lynchings and
 kindred lawlessness.
 Lilly White" Movement.
 The beginning of the present negro dis
 cussion may be said to have originated
 with the lilly white movement in the south, President Roosevelt's several poll cies towards 1t, and the attempts In
 congress of such men as Representative Crumpacker of Indiana to conduct an ln- | fha of ioi,
 mean the cutting down of the southern
 states electoral vote the resultant dis cussion over the Presidents appoint
 ments and explanations, and their lack
 of consistency, plunged the whole matter in the arena of thought where 1t has since held such a prominent place. One of the very first utterances of President Roosevelt was the emphatic declaration to build up decent republi- can party in the south. It Is undoubted- ly true that the southern republicans construed this to mean a republican party without the negro
 The lilly whites' believed sincerely that l the President was in line with their
 views Former Senator Pritchard of l North Carolina, one of the ablest of southern republicans, gand since his re-
 tirement from the senate deservedly ele- 1
 the leader of the republicans of his state, 1 and was hailed far and wide as the Pres | ident's mouthpiece. Pritchard's views were unconcealed. He boldly advocated the elimination of the ignorant negro if the republican party of the south was to attain responsibility.
 While the campaign was progressing fiercely in North Carolina, the President passed through the state and his train was boarded by Senator Pritchard and a number of his political associates All of these men received the impression to use no stronger word, that the President would ~stand by the senator during his campaign. As the issue was the elimina- tiop of the negro 1t was taken for grant
 ed that the President meant that he en- dorsed the views of Senator Prtchard. Shortly after this time Senator Pritchard. still recognized at the Presidents friend, attended big banquet in Birmingham, Ala. given by the lilly whites' of that state to launch their new party and its candidate for governor. All this time the President was being quoted, perhaps
 wrongly, in favor of decent republican party In the south, that is a party with
 out the negro for no other party can
 attain to decency where the negro popu-
 laton becomes a prominent factor
 cange of Mind.
 1 Shortly after this Birmingham banquet
 there came change in the mind of the
 President or else an announcement of
 entirely unexpected policy towards the
 matter Several months before this, however, Judge Bruce, of the Northern l Alabama district died, and the appoint
 ment of successor devolved upon the I President The lily whites" of the state l had put forth several candidates for the I place. It is not questioned that the | President could have found in the ranks of the lilly whites candidate qualified
 for the federal judgeship. Their claims. however, were absolutely ignored and the President went out of the ranks of the party and appointed a democrat to the position It was generally acknowledged that the President could not have ap- pointed a better man than Judge Jones, but 1t was we'll understood that the ap- ointment was simply blow to the lilly whites" and 1t took them very much by surprise. The President was suddenly found to be against a decent republican
 party as decent was construed in the south.
 What caused the change, if it were a change, no one seemed to know posi- lively, but there were some shrewd guesses made For instance. rumors
  l Senator Hanna of Ohio had the conven- | ton vote of the southern states in his vest pocket and that the President, by | giving aid to the lilly whites was simp- | ly warming the proverbial serpent. This 1 was probably true of the lilly whites | as they did almost to a man favor the | Ohio senator's nomination. The belief 1 is that the Presidents advisers, Post
 master General Payne and J. S. Clark | son of New York, learned of this senti- ment and advised the President that in view of the importance of the negro vote | in such states as Ohio, Indiana and Illi-
 nois he could not afford to be placed in | the attitude of aiding the lilly whites. !" l The result was that the President com
 menced to pound the lilly whites" at l every opportunity, and removed Collec- tor Bingham of Alabama because he was
 prominently identified with the move | ment.
 Letters Circulated.
 Shortly after the turndown of the Ala 1 bama lilly whites" letters from the Pres | idents adviser on southern matters, J j. l S. Clarkson, began to find their way into
 the hands of negro politicians all over | the south Many of them bore the re-
 pugnantly familiar address: My Dear | MT. -" and clearly indicated that the | President opposed the building up of a decent republican party in the south if | it had to be built up through the elimi- nation of the negro Having lost the moral support of the administration which it had fully expected the my white" party was thrown into confusion. | .;,l1 ia, ,rfh r.,Ii la