The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-06-21

may cnOSe TO 90 at MS own GaDie IN
his own home. But | have the right
as citizen and patron of his store
to object to his attempt to force my
family to eat at the same table with
negroes.
Negroes in His Restaurant.
If Mr.. Ogden ran a restaurant for
negroes and whites apart from his
store it would be matter of little inn
portance. 1t would become a negro
joint in a few weeks. No first-class
restaurant in New York dares allow
negroes at its tables. But Mr.. Ogden's
dining room is not run to make
money. 1t is there for the accomoda-
ton of his women shoppers that they
may not leave as long as their money
lasts. Hence the atrocity of his use
of it for the purpose of preaching
social equality.
If you ask me why | continue to
patrOnize his store say to you frank
ly that | am married man. | don't
patronize his restaurant, nor do my
wife and daughter, l have begged and
pleaded with my wife in vain for
years, trying to rescue her from the
slavery of the 'Wanamaker habit. p"
AS well talk to an opium eater or an
old topper. She has sworn to me again
and again that she will reform, but
the minute she strikes New York
straight to Mr.. Ogden's store she
goes! l don't object to her going on
his account-far from it. She is a
good Georgia girl, who graduated on
the race problem long ago. | confess
my reason is financial.
A Challenge to ogden.
If the editor of the State wishes to
test the question of Mr.. Ogden's pitt
full negro obsession, let him challenge
the president of the Southern" Edu-
cational conference to give up his
negro propaganda restaurant, or re-
sign his presidency! I'll guarantee
that negroes will continue to eat with
white ladies in his store, and that the
conference will find a new presiding
officer! | may be mistaken: it is
barely possible that Mr.. Ogden in
novatiOn of the past few years in as
sociation with southern white people
may have broadened his mind-but [
will not believe it until | see it.
The State asks why l have delayed
my attack on the efforts of a group of
good-hearted, weak-minded yankee
philanthropists to pauperize the ed
vocational system of the south in the
interest of negro equality.
Again [ will be frank. This South
ern" educational society is composed
of many of my warm personal friends,
among them Mr.. Page, my publisher.
They are in dead earnest and their
aim is high, and in the main good. /
have hoped that they might shake off
the influence of such men as Ogden
and the editors of the northern negro
organs like "The Outlook" But it
seems a vain hope. The truth is these
negro propagandists are the men who
secure the funds which make the
Southern" Educational board a
power to be reckoned with.
AS a southerner who loves the
south and the north, and who believes
that the south has performed mighty
service for this republic in preserving
our racial integrity in spite of the
efforts of such men as Mr.. Ogden to
corrupt it, | view with suspicion the
Greeks who bear gifts. And venture
mildly to suggest that a southern {.
educational board with its head
quarters in a negro equality restau-
rant on Broadway, New York, is a
legitimate subject for discussion.
Educational Board Dangerous.
The state has been deceived, at least
about Mr.. Ogden, whose real inter-
ests have always been with the negro
during his entire life. He is the pres
ident of the board of trustees of the
negro school at Hampton, and on the
board at Tuskeegee. 1.-The were to de-
ny over his signature his negrO-loving
obsession it would raise laugh
among his friends which could be
heard to Philadelphia. This soft spot
in his brain is so we'll known here
that it is a joke. and is excused by his
more robust associates as mild form
of insanity.
1t is good time for the state to
gracefully withdraw as an Ogdenite
champion. You are not bound to
keep 1t up.
Many subtle forces are at work IN
America to undermine the barriers
which separate our 1900, 900 Africans