The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1905-11-16
The Presidents Tour.
Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The tour OF President Roosevelt
through the South was the most not
able, and we may say the most sue
cessful, tour made in this generation
by any public man. 1t was an ova-
ton from the time he left Washing
ton until he left New Orleans, and
there was no accident except that on
the government vessel which took him
down the river after the tour was
ended. Nor were there any untoward
Incidents, any speeches or circum-
stances that were disagreeable to
either the President or to the people
who received him. 1t was Il complete
success from start to finish.
Doubtless many of our Northern
friends are saying within themselves
that the Southern people are tickle;
that they are a people who denOunce
a man one year and the next take
him to their hearts. The simple fact
is that the Southern people have not
understood President Roosevelt until
recently. They thought that he was
| disposed to treat them with con-
tempt, to disregard their traditions,
| and to defy their Instincts. 1t was
not merely his act Of invitinga negro
| to dinner and his further acts of APP
pointing negroes to otfice,p per Sc, that
offended the Southern people; it was
| what they believed to be the animus
of his acts.
President Mckinley had appointed
negroes to office, and the South did
not take serious offense, however dis
agreeable it might have been, but we
all thought that Mr.. Roosevelt, as
President OF the United States, meant
| by his various acts to notify the
Southern people and the world at
large that he proposed, SO far as he
could, to obliterate the color line,
socially as we'll as politically. That
was the reason the Southern people
were SO bitter at one time against
| President Roosevelt.
| We are not afraid of the race ques-
ton. We have shown our ability to
deal with it, and we can deal with it
if the Federal government will allow
us to do SO in our own way. We are
not afraid of the negro. either social
ly or politically. We know how to
get along with the negro race, and
we are getting along admirably. But
If there were a President of the United
States who had contempt for our
views of the subject and for our way
of dealing with the race question. and
who should undertake to NEEDLE,
there would be no end OF complica-
tions and trouble. There is but one
sensible and efficacious way of deal
ing with that question, and that is
complete separation. That plan is
no experiment, but the conclusion OF
long years OF study and experience
Oil the part of the South's leading
men and women. That plan is in the
| interest of the black race as well as
the white race, and is necessarily the
best for good order, good govern
ment and the safety, welfare and
happiness of the blacks as we'll as the
| whites.
But We discovered some time ago
that we had misunderstood President
Roosevelt, and his visit to the South
has confirmed it. He has shown US
that the Southern blood in his veins
is still red and that his Southern in
stincts are still dominant. He has
shown us that he not only has pro-
found respect for our view OF this
question, but that he is in sympathy
with us, and he even went so far as
to say in one of his speeches that
these questions were questions for the
South to settle for itself. We have
found Mr.. Roosevelt to be sensible
brave, chivalrous, friendly and sym
pathetic, and such man will always
command our respect, no. matter
what an impossible gulf may sepa
rate us politically. There is no tickle
ness about it. Our attitude toward:
the President has changed because We
have found him to be Of us by hered
ity and with US by instinct. instead
of against US. And that is the whole
story.