The Washington bee., 1908-10-17
HE COMPLIMENTS
Mr.. FORAKER.

LultOI, / ne bee:
Permit me, through the columns of
your excellent paper, to say few
words to your colored readers.
The greatest friend whom the Ne
groes of this country have had in
public life since the days of the IL
lustrious Charles Sumner is Senator
Joseph Benson Foraker, of Ohio, who
came out in the open and espoused
our cause when we needed a friend.
He was our friend when we needed
one, and "A friend in need is a friend
indeed" We have not so many pow
erful friends in public life that we
can afford to sit silently and acquies-
emily by and see one asSassinated for
raising his voice in Our behalf.
What it has cost Senator Foraker
to be our friend is made manifest in
the powerful enemies he has made
for himself thereby, and, by no means
least among them, as you yourselves
must know, are President Roosevelt
and his heir apparent and proxy-can-
didate, William Howard Taft. SIM
ply and solely because Senator For
aker had the fair-mindedneSs and the
courage to espouse our cause in our
hour of need, MeSSrs. Roosevelt and
TAFT, though themselves living in
glass houses, have been quite busy, of
late, IN throwing stones at our friend,
Senator Foraker, for his timely es-
pousal of our cause. To revenge
themselves against him for his friend
ship for us, they sieze upon one little
transaction of the Senator's which
happened many years, ago, and seek
to use it now for the two-fold pur-
pose of unhorsing him, politically and
of stripping him, personally, and his
innocent family of an honored and
an honorable name.
The animus of MessrS. Roosevelt
and Taft is so shamelessly apparent
that, as Senator Foraker has well
said in his recent manly statement IN
justification of his course, 'No self
respecting Negro, reading what Judge
Taft says in this letter." the one
President Roosevelt had published
"and adding to it all that has gone be-
fore, can vote for him." Mr.. Taft
without feeling that he is making a
greater sacrifice than most men, white
or black, are willing to make" since
Mr.. Roosevelt's andMr. Taft's charge
of unworthy motives, on his part, was
in connection with matters that
every colored man who has any pride
of race holds of highest value and in
deepest appreciation"
But how was Messrs. Roosevelt
and Taft's revenge against Senator
Foraker for his friendly conduct to-
wards our race sought? BY taking
up the bloody knife of the red-handed
assassin of character, and seeking tc
plunge it deep into the very vitals Of
our best friend; and, then, they have
the brazen audacity and bold effront-
cry to further insult our intelligence
and outrage Our sense of loyalty by
asking our race to support them a
the polls in November. AS the Sen
ator suggests, we should not lose
sight of what had gone before Messrs
Roosevelts and Taft's joint-assaul
upon our friend; and some of th'
things which had gone before tina
ioint-assault were these:
The very man whose charges
against our friend Messrs. Roosevelt
and Taft thus appropriated to theii
own use was a candidate for tn
great office of Governor of New
York some two years ago. At tha
time, Mr.. Roosevelt's Secretary 0
State, speaking by Mr.. Roosevelt
authority, publicly branded Mr.. VIII
liam Randolph Hearst as publi
enemy and a monster of giganti
proportions; and Mr.. Roosevelt him
self implied, if he did not fatty charg,
that this same William Randolph
Hearst was responsible for the un
timely death of the late lamente'
William Mckinley, then the honorec
President of the United States.
And what was this charge agains
our friend? That ne had, many year
ago, acted as temporary attorney o
the Standard Oil Company. Their
was no secret about this connection
of our friend with his then client