The Van Buren press., 1903-03-21

= 'NJ ~ va W Vi Nlb NASH LtSi.
Would Mr.. Roosevelt think it wise to
have the testing done in a powder
magazine? He favors target practice
for our soldiers. but he hardly would
approve the setting up of the butts in
crowded city.
II President Roosevelt ia not simply
playing politics with reference to the
presidential nomination in 1904, and
honestly wants to open the door of hope
and opportunity to the negro by giving
him office, he can do 1t without insult
ing and agitating the entire white popu-
lation Of the South
DR.. Crum is not the only educated
and reputable black man in the United
States, nor is Charleston the only city
where negroes who are his equals in
ability and character can be found.
Boston has custom house rs well as
Charleston. IL in order to assert the
equality of the races. a black must be
made collector-of-the-port somewhere
why not select Boston instead of
Charleston for the hoDor2
Moreover there is no law to prevent
Mr.. Roosevelt from opening the door of
hope and opportunity in Washington,
and admitting some colored citizen of
distinction to the cabinet. There is no
law to restrain him, either, from sur
rounding himself with negro secretaries
and clerks.
Such support as the president re.
ceives in his efforts to thrust colored
office holders upon the whites of the
South comes, of course, nearly alto
gether from the North, and when sim
cere and ASSOCIATED from mere political
partisanship is accorded by men so con-
stituted that when their minds give
hospitality to a tine-sounding general
principle they have no room left for
facts which counsel against the enforce
ment Of the principle in human affairs
at any given time or place.
The door Of hope and opportunity
must not be closed against any man on
account Of his color; therefore negroes
must be given Office -. So runs
the logic, but we do not observe that
the men who assent most enthusiastic
cally to the argument are at all eager
to give it reality near at home. BOston's
officials are not dark complexiOned
Massachusetts governor is white
man, and negroes are not elected TO
seats in any Of the legislatures of the
New England states. Their senators
and representatives In congress, strange
to say, are all Of the Caucasian race.
The middle states the states OF the
middle West and OF the fan west seem
quite as reluctant rs the South to have
the negroes hold Office.
Long distance megaphoning about
the rights Of the oppressed costs moth.
ing That perhaps, is why it is 80
popular an exercise.
1t Is only in the southern states,
where the negro population is large,
that the African represents race prob
lem, Outside efforts, military and
political, TO solve that problem have
failed. The sober judgment Of the
country has arrived at the conclusion
that the solution had best be left to
time and the people Of the South them.
selves, They do not hate the negro
and they understand him. In their
personal relations with the blacks
southern men as u rule are far more
kind and considerable than are Ameri-
cans who have not been brought up
among them, Elsewhere In our coun-
try-including New England--it is
sheer race prejudice that causes negroes
Of ability and education TO be discrim-
mated against politically; in the South
the motive is fear, The whites there
have had experience OF negro domino
zion and they are resolved not to under.
20 n repetition Of that experience, win
any unprecedented man who is acquaint.
ed with the history Of the reconstruc-
ton era blame tbem2
With all genuine efforts TO elevate
the negro Intellectually, morally and
industrially the people Of the South are
IN hearty sympathy, That cannot DO
disputed, No man could be more thor.
oughly respected among them, or more
cordially encouraged In his great work
for the practical education OF his race
than is Booker r Washington, Aud
nobody who has the slightest knowledge
Of actual conditions IN the former slave
states can question for moment that
one Booker r, Washington IL worth
more to his race than the giving Of
every collectorship In the Union to ne.
groes would be,
Fair men throughout the country
sympath2e with the resentment which
the South Is always sure TO express
when politicians in seeking their own
ends disturb the quiet and menace the
safety Of the section by spreading false
and foolish hopes aud sinister discon
tent among the ignorant masses of sim.
pie black men not yet advanced mon
tally much beyond tho plane Of child