The Washington bee., 1908-08-29
Mr.. NEWSOM ASKS SOME
QUESTIONS.

= - - L L - - -
Exceptions to the EmpireStateLeague
Meeting - Rev. Lee Called to
Account.
Editor The Bee:
In re the ratification meeting held
by the Empire State Republican Club
at True Reformer Hall on last Sat
urday night, wish to say that we
heard just about what was expected
from such a gathering - ridicule, vi
tuperation, and abuse of those Ne
groes who do not think as they do,
politically.
One of the letters of regret sent
by an invited speaker was positively
insulting - it accused Revs. Wal
dron, Corothers and others of lying !
None of the speeches contained any
thing new: a rhetorical rehearsal OF
the record of the Republican party
up to about fifty years ago was about
the sum of what was said. What
they had to say of the Roosevelt Re
publican party was purely apologetic
and invariably ended with the plea,
Give the grand old party one more
chance" But little, if anything at
all, was said concerning the attitude
of the Republican candidate, Mr..
Roosevelt, or the leaders of the new
Republican party, toward the colored
troops, the Negro voter or the voting
franchise; and the greatest applause
elected by any of the speakers was
when the name of Senator Foraker
(the man whom the Republican can
didate is industriously trying TO undo
in Ohio)) was mentioned This
name, the most magical and inspir-
ing one of all, was frequently used
by the speakers to conjure with,
though it had no relation to their
subject at all it has, through the
methods of the Republican candidate
himself and his sponsor, been effec-
tualIy and permanently divorced
from the campaign. And, though the
name was ingeniousIy linked with
the subject by each speaker, in order
to popularize and enthuse, it was evi-
dent to everyone that the. hearts Of
the speakers were not in their sub
ject, the speeches having a suspi-
cious ring to them. (Read The Stars
a la minstrel show report of Sunday,
the 23rd inst.) No man can be a
true friend of Senator Foraker who
will not resent, in some emphatic
way, the snub and ill-treatment ad-
ministered to the Senator by the Re
publican candidate and his lieuten-
ants in Ohio. r.
I have four questions which | IN
vite any of the speakers at that
meeting, or any others advocating
| the election of Taft, to answer. They
are fair and honest questions, and
the voters Of this country are very
much concerned in the satisfactory
| answers to them. They are these:
II. Judge Taft, referring to the
| Southern disfranchisement laws, in
one of his speeches to a Southern au-
dience, says they "are step for
ward" in another, speaking of the
! Negroes, he calls them "a class oi
| persons SO ignorant, and so subject
to oppression and misleading, that
; they are merely political children
not having the mental stature Of
| manhood ;" in still another he says,
their voice in the government, even
when not suppressed, secures to then
- ben,ll." WHAT do Regisr-l Yer
non, Editor Simmons, Mr.. Napier
| ct al. think of that? Do they take
these statements as being polite tc
them, or as insults to their intelli-
/ gence and manhood? Do they con
s;der a man who speaks so disParag-
/ ingly of hem or their race worthy OF