The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1903-03-05
nlent.

ing the law at Indianola, with such
questions as social equality and
negro domination is as absurd as to
connect them with the nebular hypo-
thesis or the theory of atoms.
There are good reas ons to believe
that Mr.. Roosevelt began his admins
tration with very friendly feelings to-
ward the south and desire to concili-
ate the representative element among
the southern people, but in handling
the sensitive race question he has
shown an entile absence of tact. His
knowledge of the southern character is
meagre and his power of discernment
dull if he does not understand why he
has given greater offense to the south
than did President Mckinley, and why
his action has revived such an acute
phase of what is known as the negro
problem. In closing his letter the
president says: GIN view of all these
facts, have been surprised and some
what panied at what seems to me the
incomprehensible cutlery in the south
about my actions-an cutlery apparent
ly started in New York for reasons
wholly unconnected with the question
nominally at ISSUE"
The feeling in the south against the
Presidents course is genuine and not
the result Of any political jugglery OF
the exaggerated representations Of q
"yellow journal" Secretary Root in
his address at q Lincoln birthday din.
ner ascribed the elamor in the south
against the president to an out growth
of negro Acknowledgement worked by
the new constitutions of several south.
ern states. This far-fetched and un.
warranted theory has been echoed by
a number of leading politicians at the
north, including so estimable journal
as the Worlds Work, but it is entirely
erroneous. The real reason why the
president has so stirred up southern
resentment and criticism should not be
difficult to find if honestly sought.
In the course of his letter the presi-
dent refers to Thomas Nelson Page,
among other southern democrats, as
one who will testify that he has sought
consclentiously to appoint good and &C
ceptable men to Office Mr.. Page has
an article in the current number of
Golfers Weekly which tells plainly
why the president has come so much
into disfavor with the southern people.
1T is plain, Mr.. Page says, "that the
reason for the present ferment must be
deeper than the mere appointment to
office of negroes. The true reason is
that these appointments have been
taken at the south as evidences of an
attitude on the part of the president
towards the race question which the
south reprobates far more than the Sc
lection of however many negroes for
Office. The first of these causes was
undoubtedly what is known as the
Booker Washington incident" The
prepident ought to know this without
being tod The people of the north
generally should know it, if they have
any appreciation of southern sensibil-
tiles, and it should serve to explain to
the president why his actions are "con-
nected with such questions as social
equality and negro denomination"
The other causes Mr.. Page assigns
arc the Presidents spirited interior
ence with the movement among south
ern republicans to exclude negroes
from their party deliberations and
management and the Indianola affair.
1t was in the Indianola case that the
presidents action seemed to be pur-
posely sensation and was aggressively
obnoxious. He speaks in his letter of
this indianola affair as "upholding the
law, " but he also overthrow the law by
suspending postoffice as a method of
Furnishing the white people of the com
munity because they had made public