The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1905-06-21
DIXON ON OGDEN.
Intuirv Into the Motive OF Movement for
southern Education.

lIiibHCl ~ Ii'NAbINN' iOiiO"ihS lhS
adn!onition Of the editor Of the State.
think it will be sufficient to con-
vince the editor ard all his southern
readers.
repeat with emphasis my assertion
that 'Mr. Ogden is a negro worship
per, pure and SIMPLE because he
teaches a school six days in the week
on Broadway where negro equality is
taught in the most direct and power
full manner possible by personal exam
pie.
Mr.. Ogden is the head Of the John
Wanamakcr store in New York, and
he conducts there the only first. class
restaurant in the metropolis where
big buck negro is allowed to enter and
seat himself at the same table with
white man wife and daughter. So
far as ! know, this is the only rcstau-
rant where such digasting spectacle
can be seen in New York, and so far
as | know, Mr.. ogden is the originator
Of the idea in tlis Town.
ain inclined 20 think that our peo-
pie Of the South were little unfair
to President Roosevelt about his ia
nous lunch with Booker II. Washing
ton. 1t was purely an accident Of
the presidents busy life. Booker
happened to be there at the lunch
hour, the president wished to talk
with him, and accordingly lunch was
served in an informal manner. Mr..
Roosevelt did not mean to preach
social equality with negroes he does
no! believe in it, In the heat Of
politics we of the South didn't tote
fair with our dashing young prcsi-
dent.
But in Mr.. Ogdcn's case, we have
the real thing; an honest, earnest,
wellmeaning Yankee fanatic who
does believe in it with all his soul.
He not only believes in it, he breaches
it. lie not only breaches it, he prac-
tees it. | have nothing to say about
what he may choose to do Mt his own
table in his own home. But l have
the right as Il citizen and patron Of
his store to object to his attempt to
force my family to eat at the same
table with negroes.
The State declared, before learning
my identity, that ::the authors init
macy with thingc southern is not the
point, his knowledge of Mr.. Ogden's
mode of association with persons of
color is the question at ISSUE"
The point is we'll taken. T have
voted in New York continuously since
1889. Ny knowledge on this issue is
ample and frst-hand. Mr.. Ogden's
store is the only one where keep an
open account from year'to year. I
have had this account there about ten
years. My wife land daughter now,
also) are afflicted with tho "Waua-
maker habit "a disease for which
kee!y never inv d any cure
They 60 there ant CO. al day--stand
on their feet, looking at his tempting
wares, as the tippler hangs around a
saloon, until they come home at night
in a condition Of collapse. I cant
blame them. They are made that
way. Mr.. Ogden keeps fine store
a tempting store--one Of the best in
America. In all my dealings with
him, he has never sold me a shoddy
piece Of good have always got my
moneys worth. AS merchant, he is
a man of the highest order of genius.
But as teacher on the race problem,
he is man oe profound and pathetic
ignorance, where money aud position
make him fanatic of dangerous and
far-reaching power.
If Mr.. Ogden ran a restaurant for
negroes and whites apart from his
store, it would be matter of little
Importance. 1t would become negro
joint in few weeks. No frst.class
restaurant in N ew York dares allow
negroes at its tables. But Mr.. Og-
den's dining room is not run to make
money. It is there for the accommo-
dation 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 ef preach
ing social equality. .......
II you ask me why I continue to
patronise his store, I say to you
frankly that I am q married man. I
don't patronize his restaurant, nor
do my wife and daughter. I hive
begged and pleaded with my wife in
vain for years, trying to rescue her
from the slavery Of the "Wanemaker
habit As we'll talk to an onium.