The Washington herald., 1907-08-12
PRESIDENT ON GRILL
Prof. Miller Tells of "ROOse-
Eelt and the Negro.
INGRATITUDE IS THE CHARGE
Howard University Professor Says
He Turned on the Race that Saved
Him at San Juan HiII and In New
York GubernatOriaI EIectiOn-Af-
fair at Brownsville Discussed.


fair at Brownsville Discussed.
Prof. Kelly Miller a member of the
faculty of the Howard University. mas
just made public an article entitled
Roosevelt and the Negro"
Beginning with an analysis OF President
Roosevelts motives and impulses, the
writer discusses in detail the relations OF
the administration to the negro race.
Prof. Miller's paper. in part, is as follows:
The late Senator ingalls,, in one Of
his luminous flashes. defined politics as
the metaphysics of force This defini-
ton fits with philosophlc fneness the ma
ture of Theodore Roosevelt, who is its
most strenuous exemplar.
In effective political cynamics and in
tensity OF accelerative, energy he easily
| surpasses all the present day rulers OF
the earth. He has no reserved physical or
psychieaI potencies. All the energies of
his nature are IN the active voice and
present tense. With him pure reasoning
is a burden. and disquIsitional niceties a
His one superlative passion is how to
bring things to pass. His mind works
with the celebrity Of feminine intuition.
He reaches conclusions and settles issues
/ with a swiftness and self-satisfying GER
| tainty that startles the more cautious
statesmen who rely upon the slower proc
! esses Of reason and deiiberation.
He has diagnosed the case. prescribed
the remedy. and cured. or killed, the pa
tient before the ordinary physician has
finished feeling the pulse. After the deed
is done. he leaves 10 the college professor
or the senlle Eoralist 10 discuss the moral
I quality OF the method employed. If he
has not a jesuitieal disregard Of means.
he at least considers them as but subsidi-
ary processes, which must not too seri-
ously embarrass the righteous end In
view.
Never Reaches Sublimity.
He is the greatest living preacher of
righteousness, but 1t IS always righteous
ness as il Is In Roosevelt He holds to
his conception Of public duty with the
tenacity Of infellible assurance. II 9TH
Z
TO appreciate hts more enlightened point
Of view. the worse IS the perverslty. or
the more the pity. He never reaches in
tellectual or moral sublimity, but is tran
scendent only in action
His deeds are never dull Even IN deal
ing with the commOnplaces Of life he In
fuses into them the energizing spirit OF
his own nature. He dTamatzes the Ten
Commandments and vitalizes time-worn
moral maXims with spirit and power as
If they were fresh pronounCements 10
arouse the energies OF n lethargic world.
A man almost or wholly without Anglo
Saxon blood. he is the ideal embodiment
Of the Anglo-SaxOn spirit, which glorifies
beyond all things else the power Of doing
things.
The Celt is IN bis heart and hand
The Gaul is IN hts brain and nere.
He is absolutely seIf-centered. and be-
lieves that he was sent into the world to
set things right. The world has accepted
him at his own appraisement. as Il IS
prone 10 do with all ardent natures.
especially II they be serious and inces-
SAINT IN the advocacy of their nigh pre-
tensions.
He accompIishes his sovereign purposes
while his fellow-citizeas stand amazedly
az gaze, as an astronomer when a new
luminary flashes suddenly upon HIS vision
and pursues its unc0mputed orbit across
the skies.
Regulator Of Many Things.
There is no question Of human inter
est whose magnitude or minuteness is
beyond his strenuous handling. He gives
Ine American women salutary advice as
TO their domestic function and duty; with
an off-hand stroke of the pen seeks to
reform English photography, which has
been slowly modifying from the Chaucer
to Mark Twain: sets up as expert critic
OF the habits OF Wild animals: while
Americans, of however high reputation
and standing. who persist in seeing things
under other than HIS own angle of vision.
may regard themselves as lucky indeed
II they escape being relegated to his
famous Index Praevaricatorum'
saved by Negro Troops,
RooseYelt's second point Of contact
with sthe negro race was during the
Spanish war. In that famous charge I'D
San Juan Hill-or was ii Kettle HIP
the courage and intrepidity of the negro
troops saved Col Roosevelt and his
Rough Riders from utter destruction.
Had IL not been for their coura geous IN
terventiOn he would have been cut of in
the flower of his youth, and his dazzling
career lost 10 the American people. Grati-
tude is not characteristic of a self-right-
eous nature. When one is overburdened
with a sense of his ordained primacy, he
naturally looks upon lesser men as being
put into the world as auxiliaries to his
higher mission. While the whole world
was extolling the prowess Of the negro
soldier, it was reserved for the chief bene- |
ficiary Of that prowess to sound the sole
discordant note. In a notable magazine !
article, where our present day warriors
are won't TO fight their battles with an |
ingenuity and courage rarely equaled on ]
the tented field Col. Roosevelt either dis l
credited their valor or damned them with |
such faint praise as 10 dim the luster
of their fame.
This ungenerous criticism dumfoundei /
the negro race. as subsequent develop /
ments have clearly shown touches the l
pride and arouses the resentment OF this 4
race as nothing else can do. For q time 1
there was no more unpopular man in /
America throughout Afro-Americandom. (
But election time was approaching Po- /
litical exigencies made him the available /
candidate for the governorship of the EN- /
pire State Of New York
The chief factor in this availability was /
the, military glamour that gathered about /
him because Of San Juan Hill, where the /
colored troops fought so nobly The re- /
suits at this election depended upon the
colored vote. whose resentment he had
aroused. Candidate Roosevelt so Modified I
and qualified the structures Of Col. Roosc-
welt as to take away much of the keen