The Detroit times., 1908-12-17
NEGRO DISPUTE IS
! JUST A PERSONAL
WRANGLE
BROWNSVILLE AFFAIR HAS SEEN
ELABORATED UPON BECAUSE
or RoosEvELT.FoRAKEa QUAR-
REL-MEMoIRs OF TOM PLATT.
BY ALFRED HENRY LEWIS.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17.--Doubtless
Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Foraker are
much periodically In earnest in this
Brownsville business. and yet IL they
were TO hear some slight per cent OF
(, the cynical comment OF cloakroom
and corridor, II is 10 be thought their
zeal would much abate. The common
feeling is that they are not so much
animated OF love for the Negro or
an instinct OF the square deal" as OF
mere hatred OF each other.
Politics. personal politics. has been
the bug under the chip Of this Browns
Vile affair from the beginning. and
the two notable gentlemen who most
prominently engaged themselves about
It seized upon the Negro, not for his
good. not for wrongs that had been
dozen him, but simply as a club OF pre-
JUDGE and color wherewith TO beat
each other over the political head.
Neither OF them Is given credit for
breadth OF motive; neither would in.
jure. but only help himself were he
to let the matter drop.
The murder Ia Brownsville was and
still II question for the local au-
thorities. Worse killings" by the
way, are of almost daily, or rather
nightly occurrence on New York
city's east side, and get by with moth
Ing more than yawn OF weary dis
interest from the police authorities OF
Mulberry-st.
The Brownsville killing was not the
most horrible instance of human butch
cry in the annals Of mankind But
whatever 1t was, from any point OF
horror. its punishment as a crime be-
longed wholly TO Brownsville and its
county as a community.
The general government, and there
fore President Roosevelt and Senator
Foraker, could logically be drawn into
It only SO far as IL involved infractions
OF military rule and discipline. Con-
sidered In the latter light. It's national
Importance could never be very much.
There has already been more than
ten millions OF words official spoken
> and written over Brownsville. And
there has been from the first a con-
viction that If those numbering sol
diers had been white instead of black
the world wouldn't have heard one
tenth of per cent OF so much about At.
Mr.. Foraker and Mr.. Roosevelt
could both Of them forget the Browns
Vile case and In no wise shake their
public standing. The feeling Is that
the general public has already been
made 10 suffer much more than either
Brownsville or the Negroes.
Mr.. Plat, In the senate from New
York. Is threatening his personal
memoirs" He will go at the congenial
task OF talking about himself so soon
as the toga has fallen from his shout
ders.
Such a work as the personal recol-
lections OF Mr.. Plat ought to add To
the gayety OF nations. and folk who
dislike to be dreary all hope he'll soon
begin. He has In mind. he explains,
the setting forth In great elaboration
how politically important he himself
was hack In the early sos. when Mr..
Conkllng fought Mr. Garfield, and Mr..
Conkling, taking Mr.. Plat with him.
resigned from the senate. as cap-
sheaf to that battle.
Mr.. Plat would be but wasting his
aged energies were he to expand
nightly upon that incident. The
world very well understands 1t as II
IL. Mr.. Conlling was the big chief,
swatting the ball Of politics about the
party links. Mr.. Plat was his caddy.
Or Mr.. Conkling was the great swell
and beau OF the party and Mr.. Platt
was his valet.
Where Mr.. Conkling went. Mr.. Plat
then somewhat in his political teens
followed. He had to. Wherefore.
when M. Conkling. In superb pouf.
left the senate, and all under a mis-
taken impression that the country
would collapse without him, Mr.. Plat
was bound to follow him. as tail fol-
lows kite. That In all there ever was
to tell. And should Mr.. Platt enlarge
upon II, he would only prove how
much less thrilling a man is to others
than to himself.
Ny own advice to Mr.. Plat at this
pinch--and speak professionally
Is TO do his great work In and about
the name OF Mr.. Roosevelt Mr.. Plat,
than any other, had more to do with
making the political fortunes OF Mr..
Roosevelt while bitterly employed In
trying to pull them down.
Mr.. Roosevelt burst into Republican
politics back I'm the middle sos. just
after he'd left school He posed as a
Democratic aristocrat. Like Caesar,
be worc the purple carelessly; but also
like Caesar-he was exceedingly
careful to wear II. He would walk in
the Bowery. but 1t was always with a
Washington square air-always with
the tacit suggestion that there was a
pedestal somewhere TO the pat-icidu
rear OF him which he could in a mo-
lnent rcassume and where he really OF
purple right belonged.
Thus he went TO the Legislature.
thus he went from legislature to civil
service. to police, to assistant sec-e-
tary OF the navy. to war at the head
OF a regiment. to governor, TO vice
president, to president.
In all OF these positions, obstreper.
Gus, turbulent, unmanageable. Mr.
Roosevelt was the thorn in the side Of
Mr.. Plat.
Mr.. Plat. active as the head OF hiS
rarty In New York. sought TO dlsciplir q
the ebullient Mr.. Roosevelt. He repri-