The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-12
GOSSIP.
Kansas Day Club Is Hearing
Some Things.
Invitation of ". IT. Vernon, Negro
Orator, Starts Trouble.
MIR. WHITES DEFENSE.
Says That Action of Officers Is
All Right.
Recognized as an Educated and
Intelligent Citizen.

A good sized vein of trouble seems to
have been uncovered by the executive
committee of the Kansas Day club when
it invited Prof. w. T. Vernon, the ne
gro orator and educator, to make a
speech at the annual dinner of the club
on January 80. There are considerable
number of people, even in the Republic
can ranks, who do not believe in asso-
ciating with colored people socially, and
they look upon the Kansas Day BAN
quet as a social event. Others say it is
a political matter and therefore the in
vitation to Prof. Vernon was all right.
c. w. Mosher, a Wichita Republican,
has written a letter to D. A. Valentine,
president of the Kansas Day club, Sc
verely criticising him for extending the
invitation to Vernon. Mosher did not
like President Roosevelt's action in in
viting Booker T. Washington to eat at
the White House, but he is willing TO
overlook that as the president and
Washington ate by themselves, but the
idea of eating with a colored man at a
public banquet is too much for Mr.
MosherI Here is what he writes to Mr..
Valentine:
Dear Sir:-According to an item ap-
pearing in the papers, your committee
has arranged to have the negro, w. l.
as Hon E w. Hoch and other proml-
nent Kansans on the occasion OF the
Kansas Day club banquet, the 3Otn day
of January, 1905.
takes pride in protecting the fair name
of Kansas against results that must
flow from such eccentric1ties. not TO say
crankism, tending to make the name OF
Kansas laughing stock and a by-Word
everywhere l wish to most earnestly
protest against any such arrangements.
You, sir, are quoted as saying that
if w. T. Vernon was good enough 70
take part in the recent campaign under
the Republican national committee, you
guess he is good enough to take part IN
celebrating Kansas day, etc:
1T seems remarkable that one occu-
pying the position you do should mani
fest so little intelligence as to reason
in this way Is it possible that you
don't know better than to reason thussl
or is it true that your guess IS mercy
the words of a knave and a hypocr1te!
''The fact that he was thus employed
by the national committee does not es-
tablish the fact of his goodness, as you
vaguely put it. A negro belongs 70
the lowest race on the face of the earth,
while you, sir, and your committee are
supposed, at least, to belong TO the
Anglo-Saxon, the highest race IN eV-
erything that makes the world worth
living in If you, sir, and your commit
tee desire to associate with negroes, II
is YOUR privilege to do SO, providing
the negroes do not object, but l, Win
80 per cent of the white people OF Kan
sas, am not constructed tnat way; anu
while they may not write you In an
effort to make that fact penetrate your
skull, depend upon it they Will 1eel m
suited when anyone tries TO thuS as
function wherein the savage OF
Africa received and mingles on terms OF
social equality with all.
''Everyone that 1 have heard speak OF
the item denounces your action IN em-
phatic language Yourself and your
committee can be human Skunks II you
so desire, but the good and high-toneo
people of Kansas object to your throw
ing your filth over the state. Yours
l0- &C. w. MOSHER."
William Allen White says that the
invitation to Vernon was all right. He
gives instances where Booker l. Wash-
ington was invited to big banquets be
fore President Roosevelt invited him 10
lunch at the White House. Here is
Whites view of the matter:
"a lot of silk-stocking Republicans
seem to be mad and afraid to show it
because the Kansas Day club has in
vited w. T. Vernon to speak at the
Day banquet. Vernon is a
good talker. He is an educated man,
and probably has better table man
ners than the sword-swallowing gen !
tlemen that feel above him. When |
Mark Hanna gave his triumphal ban |
quet in Ohio eight years ago next
month. he asked Booker T. Washing |
ton to speak. 1t was Washington who
made the best speech at the banquet. |
though many of the great orators of !
-he Republican party were present |
The writer hereof sat next to Wash |
ngton, and knows that Washington |
had the manhood to turn his wine I
glasses down that the colored boys |
waiting on the table might have a |
decent example. At the big banquet |
Of the Marquette club at Chicago
three years ago, Booker T. Washing
ION was the star speaker. 1t SO hap |
oened that one of the men who was |
invited to speak could not be there,
md perhaps scne other dnicl<y man