The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-23
RoosEvELTs GROSS ERROR.

One Of the most regrettable of the
many errors Of President Roosevelt
was that one in which he attempted
to force upon the country a recognition
of race equality. There have been in
Vulnerable illustrations OF the harm
done by the incident of the Booker
Washington dinner; if there has been
a solitary instance showing any good
accomplished by it, that instance has
failed to come to public attention-and
it is pretty certain that If any such
instance existed the apologists for the
President would be quick to seze upon
and exploit it.
One Of the latest incidents to be
traced directly to the Presidents en-
tertaining of a negro at his table was
referred to In our Washington dis
patches Wednesday, when it was stat
army had concurred in the recon-
mendation of Gen. Frederick Dent
Grant, son Of Gen. Ulysses s. Grant,
that John ]. Smith, a member of the
United States Army Hospital Corps, be
discharged from the army "for the
good of the service"
Who is Smith, and what is his Of
Tense? He is a regularly enlisted man,
white, who served in Cuba and has
been in the service several years. He
has married a negress. The negress
was attached to the hospital corps, and
Smith claims to have fallen in love
with her while she was nursing him
during a spell of sickness. AS soon as
Hospital Surgeon sparrenberger learn
ed that Smith had married the negro
woman he reprimanded him severely
and recommended his discharge. The
reply of Smith is alleged to have been:
Il have a good precedent for my ac-
ton. If President Roosevelt, COM
mander-i in chief of the army and navy,
did not feel himself too good to eat
with a negro, 1 think 1 have a right
to marry a negro woman if l want to-"
And Smith was inclined to dispute the
right of the hospital surgeon to recon-
mend his dismissal, inasmuch as he
had merely carried to its logical con-
clusion the doctrine of social equality
promulgated by the President of the
United States, commander-in in chief of
the army.
Nevertheless Gen. Grant, commander
of the department, Endorsed the recon-
mendation of discharge, which was
concurred In by Surgeon General
O'Reilly; and thus the matter has been
passed along to the President him
self. Hospital Surgeon Sparrenberger,
Surgeon General OReilly and Gen.
Grant are all Northern men; but they
recognize that mesalliances between
the races are highly undesirable, for
a variety of reasons. the chief OF
which, from a military point of view,
is that the white men in the army
will not stand for It," There have
been angry mutterings in the post to
which Smith was attached (Fort Mott,
in New Jersey, ever since the mar
riage Of the white man and the negro
woman became known.
When it occurs that there are some
white men, like Smith, who quote the
President as authority for the fullest
contamination of social equality be-
tween the races, is 1t to be wondered
at that the Presidents example has
impressed the other race with the idea
that there should of right be no social
barrier of race or color7 AS a mat
ter of fact, much of the revival of
strong feeling between the races is
due to Theodore Roosevelt's gross err
ror in the Washington incident, and II
will take years of time to eradicate
the bad effects Of that error.