Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-02

Declares There il No Foundation for
the Criticisms Regarding
Negro Preferment.
The following letter written by the Presi-
| dent to Clark Howell. editor Of the Atlanta
| Constitution, was given out at the White
| House today
WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, February "A, 1908
My Dear Mr.. Howell:
/ have a high opinion Of the gentleman
you mention, and If the opportunity occurs
I shall be glad to do anything I can for
him.
Now as to what you say concerning fed
eral appointments in the south. Frankly, it
seems to me that my appointments speak
for themselves and that my policy Is self
explanatory. So far from feeling that they
need the slightest apology or justification,
my position is that on the strength of what
I have done I have the right to claim the
support of all good citizens who wish not
only a high standard of federal service but
fair and equitable dealing to the south as
well as to the north, and a policy Of con-
sistent justice and good will toward all men.
In making appointments l have sought to
consider the feelings of the people OF each
locality so far as I could consistently do so
| without sacrificing principle The prime
tests i have applied have been those of
character, fitness and ability, and when I
have been dissatisfied with what has been
offered within my own party lines l have
without hesitation gone to the opposite
party-and you are Of course aware that I
have repeatedly done this in your own state
Of Georgia. I certainly cannot treat mere
color as a permanent bar to holding office.
any more than I could so treat creed or
birthplace-always provided that in other
respects the applicant or incumbent is
worthy and well-behaved American citizen.
Just as little will treat 1t as comforting
right to hold Office. have scant sympathy
with the mere doctrinaire, with the man OF
mere theory who refuses to face facts; but
do you not think that in the long run it is
safer for everybody If we act on the motto
"all men up" rather than that OF some
men DOWN."
Judge by His Acts.
I ask you to judge not by what say, but
by what during the last seventeen months
I have actually done In your own state
Of Georgia you are competent to Judge from
your own experience. In. the great bulk OF
the cases have reappointedt President Nc
Kinley's appointees. Thef changes l have
made, such as that in the postmastership
at Athens and In the surveyorship at At
| lanta, were, as I think you will agree.
changes for the better and not for the
| worse. It happens that in, each OF these
offices 1 have appointed a white man to
succeed colored man, In South Carolina
1 have similarly appointed q white post
master to succeed a colored postmaster.
Again, in South Carolina / have nominated
a colored man to fill a vacancy in the posi-
ton of collector of the port of Charleston,
just as in Georgia 1 have reappointed the
colored man who is now serving as col
lector of the port Of Savannah. Both are
fit men, Why the appointment of one
should cause any more excitement than the
appointment Of the other am wholly at
loss to imagine. AS am writing to man
of keen and trained intelligenco l need
hardly say that to connect either OF these
appointments, or any Or all my other APP
pointments, or my actions in upholding the
law at Indianoa, with such questions
social equality and negro domination"
Is as absurd as to connect them with the
nebular hypothesis or the theory Of atoms.
l have consulted freely with your own
senator's and congressman as to the char
acter and capac Y Of any appontee in
tion. My party advisers In the state have
been Major Hanson Of Macon, Mr.. Walter
Johnson of Atlanta-both of them ex-con-
federate soldiers-and Mr.. Harry Stllwel
Edwards, also of Macon. / believe you will
agree with me that in no state would 1t be
possible to find gentlemen ADLER and more
upright or better qualified to fill the posi-
lions they have filled with reference to me.
In every instance where these gentlemen
have united In making recommendation 1
have been able to follow their advice. Am
| not rlgnI IN saying lQdI Un6 1eQeTdl Omcc
holders whom l have appointed throughout
your state are as body of men and women
of high order Of efficiency and integrity?
- you know of any federal office holder in
Georgia of whom this Is not true pray let
me know at once. will welcome test-
mony from you or from any other reputable
citizen which will tend to show that a
given public officer is unworthy; and. most
emphatically, short will be the shrif; of
any one whose lack Of worth is proven.
Incidentally I may mention that large
percentage OF the incumbents of federal
offices in Georgia under me are, as under
stand 1t, Of your own political faith. But
they are supported by me in every way as
long as they continue to render good and
faithful service to the public.
Same in Other States.
This is true Of your own state, and by
applying to Mr.. Thomas Nelson Page Of
Virginia, to Gen. Basil Duke Of Kentucky,
to Mr.. George Crawford of Tennessee,
to Mr.. John McIlhenny of Louisiana,
to Judge Jones OF Alabama and Mr..
them democrats and all of them men
of the highest standing in their respec-
tive communities, you will find that what
1 have done in Georgia stands not as the
done throughout the south. l have good
reason to believe that my appointees in the
different states mentioned-and as the sum
of the parts Is the whole, necessarily in the
south at large-repr eSent not merely an
| Improvement upon those whose places they
took but, upon the whole a higher stand
ard of federal service than has hitherto been
attained in the communities in question. L
may add that the proportion of colored men
| among these new appontees is only about
one in a hundred.
I'm view of all these facts l have beeA
surprised and somewhat panied at what
seems to me the incomprehensible outcry
in the south about my, actiops-an cutlery
| apparently started in New York for rea'
III, 1T n hn
ton nominally at issue. T. am concerned
| at the attitude thus taken by so many OF
the southern people; but I am not In the
| least angry, and still less will this attitude
have the effect of making me swerve one
| hairs breadth to one side or the other
from the course have marked out-the
course 1 have consistently followed in the
past and shall consistently follow i" The