The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1907-01-17
Nothing Involved in Dismissal Of Ne
gro Troops Except Race Question
Present Administration RssponE-
BILE for Present Acute Situation N
south-President Encouraged Ne
gro TO Assert Equality Then
Wrought Vengeance On Whole
Battalion.

striking contrast the ideas of the
South and North on this question:
President, be maintained, had en-
couraged the negro TO assert his
equality and then had wrought ven
ceance on a wheIe battalion for fol-
lowing that encouragement. lie con-
dsmned the Presidents action IN
both respects.
AT this point Mr. Tillman was IN
errupted for the first time. Senator
Nelson asked: Would YOU deny
those privileges TO white soldiers !"
81 will go as far As any man III
giving white men, eithe: soldiers or
citizens, their rights answered Mr..
Tillman.
"Why should not the eolored sol
der. if he conducts himself as j
white soldier, have the same consider
alton ?"
For the simple reason that God
Almighty made him eolored. He did
not make him white" retorted Mr..
TIlman. who added that caste feel
ing was universal; that it pulsated
even in the bosom of the senator from
Minnesota lMr. Nelson).
Mr.. Tillman characterized the
President 5 action III the Brownsville
natter as "nothing more or less
than lynching: He challenged any
one to produce i'll the army regula-
| ton or elsewhere any foundation for
the charge of conspiracy of silence,
mutiny and treason made against the
soldiers. although he declared that
there was no doubt that the soldiers
were responsible for the "outrage at
Brownsville
1.-The whole issue involved is one
| of race. and the President is pri-
marty more responsible than any
other man for the position the ne
groes in the South have taken on the
question Of negro rights. He gave
| recognition to Booker Washington IL
a social way. He did it knowing he
was flying in the face of caste feel
| ing among seventeen millions of
| Southern white men and against the
| same feeling of two-thirds or three
fourths of the Northern people. He
does not understand the negro or the
deep and vital character of the issue
involved. He made a mess Of it III
the first instance and he has made a
worse mess of the last,
"The well-known attitude of the
administration on the racial question
has been the cause Of great and no
ticeable change In the demeanor anG
action of the negroes through the
South and the greater question of re-
lationship between the races cannot
be much longer kept down." He pre-
| 1icted in the near future a race con-
flict to determine whether the Negro
is the equal of the Caucasian.
Something ahould Be Done.
"It is high time something wa:
being done to have this great and Vi
tai question brought before the coun.
try in some practicable and sensible
way. The deep interest shown i:
the Brownsville tragedylis ample evi.
dence that the people Of the country
are beginning to feel a deep concern
in the various phases Of this ques,
ton, and it is absolutely useless fol-
doctrinaries and politicians to un.
dertake to pooh-pooh the question
and dismiss it with a wave of the
hand and for one. I am ready to &c
to battle under the slogan 'America
for the Americans, and This is The
white mans country and white me1
must govern it -
Senator Tillman convulsed the gal
leries and amused many senators by
illustrating the discrimination be-
tween the races in Washington. "Ne-
groes are not allowed TO drink at all
| the bars in Washington, as YOU all
know" he said. The last three
words were given especial emphasis,
and the senator waved his hand TO III
clude the whole senate.
| Mr.. Tillman said there were some
times when he wished to be dispas.
sionate and deliberate, and he had
prepared in writing, his discussion of
the race question and would read it.
The war had settled the question o!
slavery and also the question of
whether we were to be q confedera-
ton of nation. We were, he said. a
nation with a big M but the
Southern half of the country had no
conception of the word NATION -
except as 1t Is connected with the
word ''Nigger," and more's the
pity
To question from Senator Bever-
Idse that remedy be suggested. Mr..
Tlllman declined to enter into that
phase of the discussion. He said he
has arisen from a sick bed to speak,
and TO follow the discussion of the
question, would involve another two
hours speech. 1t had simply been
his object to point out that the peo-
pie Of the South were on the crest OF
volcano and confronted with sit
uation of which the people of the
North had no conception. AS to tbs
brownsville matter he stood on III,
proposition that the innocent ought
not to be punished because there
were some guilty, .and I think the
president has made some very grave
blanders in dealing with this sub.
ieet,''