The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-07

The following from Dr. Albert Shaw, editor of The Review Of Reviews ap- pears in the February nvmber of that magazine:
 A Southern Appointment.
 President Roosevelt has made about eighty appointments O. federal office holders in the StaIe of South Carolina of whom only one has been negro, This ore exception is a certain Dr. Cram, named for the post of collector of the port at Charleston. Inc State Legislature last month, adopted resolutions calling upon South Carolina's two Senators n attempt to prevent confirmation wnea DT. Crum appointment should como n.' Tor action in tnr Senate. In our oD!nIOn. President EJLSevelt wuu!G have done bet ter not 70 appalnt Dr. Crum. lie mas so nearly ignored the clored race in the making oi southern appointments that he might as well have adhered without variance to his main policy of sriecting for oific. III the Southern States only such persons as are entirely agreed hie tO the people nlost concerned. In the North, there might well be good many negro appointments: but not now in the South. IL IS true enough that OuiY tTO-hfthS or the population of South Carolina IS of pure white blood. On the other hand however. nearly all the people who have business with the collector of the porT at Charleston are white people who would prefer d white man m the office. Iresl- dent Roos"veit 5 motives are of the purcst and highest; nls attitude toward the South Is cnlvalrous and consideratc; no explanation or apologies are due rom him; and, indeed, the behavior of some people In the South toward Dr. Crum s appointment seems perVerse 10 tho verge of lunacy. That is why the appoint incnt is regrettablc.
 Roosevelt's Southern Policy.
 When President Roosevelt was in Charleston at the time of the exposition. leading white citizens advised him not 10 appoint q negro to such an office as the postmastership, hut they assured him that there would be no objection to his naming a negro for post like that ot collector Of the port-an office that is not in any familiar way related to the local life And they further said that if any negro were to be appointed. they would commend that most excellent fellowcitizen of theirs, Dr. Crum' to whose worth they themselves had paid tribute by making him the head of the negro department in their exposition. sub feet to the general direction of MT. Booker T. Washington. The President unques- tionably acted in perfect good faith, therefore, in naming Crum. fresident Mckinley could have appointed forty Crums and nothing would have been said. Mr. Roosevelt is the one President since the Civil War who has been Wiling 10 ignore the mere political aspects or the southern race question, and to consider
  pAthv for both races. lie has seen the difficulties of the problems which must find solution on the ground by the people who have to live. and work and maintain civilization in those Southern States. It is a curious fatality. therefore, that the white Democrats of the south should be so unappreciative Of Mir. Roosevelt s position; while, on the other hand It Is d great mark of the Presidents magma nInnitv that he is not much swerved from wi 1f he had originally conceived 10 DC the broad, historic path of duty by the casual circumstance that h's policy does not for the moment please either race in the South.
 A Suspended Southern Postoftice.
 There has been another incidcnt-and an extremely acute one-that deserves a little comment At the town of Indianola, in the State of Mississippi, certain Mrs. Cox. negro woman, served Tor several years as postmaster in President Harrison's time, and she was again ap- pointed several years ago by President Mckinley Her commission will expire in the latter part of the present year. She did not expect or desire re-appoint- ment. but would have been glad 10 serve out the term All the testlmony-and there is an enormous quantity of it agrees that Mrs. Cox has heen an eN- cellent postmistress. Her bondsmen are the leading white Democrats of the neigh borhood. A few weeks ago. there arose in the town of lndianoia a wave of anti negro feeling. and two or three colored men were warned to leave the town. Then followed the suggestion that India nola ought no longer to have colored person for postmaster; and Mrs. Cos was called upon to resign, It Is in dispute whether or not the request to resign was accompanied by serious threats. A formal resignation was sent by Mrs. Cox but reports from postoffice inspectors and others convinced Postmaster General Payne that Mrs. Cox had acted under durcss. and that she did not in fact wish the department to accept her resignation. Mrs. Cox, meanwhile, jeff the town. and the Postoffcc Department at Washing on suspended the postofficc. so arranging matters that the people of Indiunola had