The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1909-03-18
PRESIDENT ELIOT'S VISION
IS CLOUDED BY RACIAL BIAS
Raen in Scholarly Speech Shows Narrow Vision Of Man Who
Said, 'Sirsh Present Same Race Problem to East That
Negro Does to South"

Of the states. his grandfather or pos
Sibly granduncle. was amaSsing hu l.
dreds OF thousands of dollars in the
clothing or dry goods business. oubt-
less preyfng on the needs of the strug-
Cling and impoverished patriots of
those troublous times. He died worth
about one million dollars. a fabu Gus
business interests it is easy to APP
preciate that his sympathies were tory
My research has not been extend d.
but have not been able to find where
DR.. Eliot'S ancestors in Revo u ionary
times We're anything but tories and
British sympathizers, although now he
belittleS the Irish. who fought in gr a
numbers both for the creation and
preservation Of the Union. and no d'i
them UP as a menace and a peril.
When independence had been won. and
possibly 1T may have been time to con-
ciliate we find this ancestor in 1898
giving $4,000 to help build the frigate
Boston. and believe this and a small
sum to Harvard Univers ty w re the
sum total of his public benefactions.
Besides the valiant Irish so diery.
just note some OF the Irish names on
our country's roll of honor in the early
years of our national lie Commander
Jack Barry. father of the American
navy. Generals Knox. MONTGOMERY and
Sullivan and the heroic figure of Mad
Anthony Wayne. whose father moved
from England to County Wicklow. Ire
land and there observed the effects of
English tyranny.
Not only have the Irish race furnish
ed q valiant soldiery and brave gen.
erals during all the wars of our re-
public, but it has supplied presidential
timber of the finest KIND. In the first
instance let me recur to that grand
patriot. President Andrew Jackson.
Both of Jackson's older brothers were
born in Ireland. and less than two
years before Andrews birth the fani y
had come to South Carolina from Car
rickfergus. County Antr M Ireland.
Jackson was ambitious and persever-
ing. He was genuinely Irish in being
impulsive. quick tempered and devoted
to his mother and her ideHas. Jackson
himself said. THE memory of my
mother and her tea ching were after all
the only capital had to start in Hfe.
and On that capital he raised himself
from obscurity to the most exalted
position in the country. Already tn ?
forces of national disintegration had
begun to appear. and he clearly show
ed the states their duty to the Union.
He showed. too. in his own splend
personality that humble b nth was no
bar to the presidency. He made one
Of the three great presidents of the
nations first century and his name can
be appropriately linked with Washing
ton and Lincoln.
George Washington. our first i'm
mortal president. was a guest in at
tendance at a feast of the Friendly
Sons of st. Patrick in New York CITY.
and Acknowledged in well chosen words
the nations debt to the patriotic ser
vices of the Irish.
And a number of our presidents. while
not so purely Irish as Jackson. have
Irish blood coursing in Their veins. and
are proud to acknowledge the strain.
Who knows but that DIR. Eliots
marked hostility to ex-President Roose-
welt is because of Mr.. Roosevelt's Oft
made announcement that he is linked
to the Irish with ties of blood
Allow me to quote the exact words
ago before the Boston Press Club in
the city of Boston. and tn s is prac-
tically the home city of DR.. Eliot, these
words must have grated on his sensi-
tive nature. He said. "Your papers
call me an Anglo-Saxon. I never knew
quite just what that term means. but
since I ar1 an Anglo-Saxon. I can de-
fine it now. I am half Irish and half
Dutch
do not wish to invite invidious
comparison. but I do not hesitate to
range the name of Mr.. Roosevelt along
side that of DIR. Eliot. Rooseveit's
of the nation and of the world 10 e
after that Of DR.. Eliot will have been
forgotten.
DIR. Eliot's statements in regard to
racial intermarriage arealso not in ac-
cord with the facts. : In the first place
the so-called Anglo-Saxon is but a sue
oessful blend of original Brito1s. Ro-
mans. Saxons. Danes and NormanS,
and it is this blend that makes an i'm
provement in type. All races funda-
mentally are composed of mixed r7cIal
ingredients. but nations, that represent
mixed populations in a, marked degree
are superior to those which have pre-
served their comparative purity of
type. In Italy institutions have been
founded during the last century for
Cretans. the inhab tantS of an is and
in the eastern Mediterranean. with the
result that a new order of men has
been brought into existence. a race of
semi-idiots. In Switzerland and GER
tain other European states young men
who have certain diseases have been
exemept from war service for a CEN
fury. The sound and vigorous boys
have been sent out to die VIII lie these
weaklings are allowed to free'y repro
duce themselves. The Napo comic wars
reduced the Frenchmen's stature four
to- five inches. and it viii take France
centuries to regain her average.
In this country the condit 'ons are
quite dissimilar. although there have
been a number of gloomy foreboding
torian. Lord Macaulay. has written
that our form o government cannot
permanently endure because it has
within itself the seeds of it's own de-
cay. The publicists and statesmen of
Europe foretold the dissolut on of the
sta ties. and predicted that even though
conquered the South would never come
back as an integral part of the Union.
These predictions were justified
based on previous experience of man.
kind Hitherto governments have sup
pressed the masses of the people and
have proceeded on the theory that it
was necessary to have a govern ng
class of superior intelligence to guide
the destinfes of the nation. For the
first time in the worlds history the
United States has chosen to be guided
by the conscience and wisdom of the
plain people: by the sense and direc-
ton of the mass of average men as
the supreme governmental power
In this mass of average men. con-
stituting the ruling power in the state.
the Anglo-Saxon. represented by DIR.
Eloit. is almost submerged The typi-
cal American. now and for many years
mast is a hlended product. with the