The Washington bee., 1910-04-23
NoR.RichaTdA, BaNiRper
A NOBLE MAN AND A GOOD
RECORD.
What Robert Lewis Waring, Author
Of GAS We See It." Has to Say OF
the Attack, by Golfers Weekly,
Upon Hon. Richard A. Ballinger,
Secretary of the Interior.
Editor Washington Bee:

Your readers will ind IN COllleT !
Weekly of April ?, 1910, two articles,
each containing a most unWaTTanted
and ridiculous attack upon the Sec
retary of the Interior, Hon. Richard |
A. Ballinger, captioned respectively, |
Slippery Dick and the President
and "Ballinger-Shyster,' both highly |
commendatory OF Collier and his |
methods of enlarging his clrcula-
ton
The first article, slippery Dick !
and the President" editorial page, IS |
from the pen of some person more
or less Skilled in the maligning OF
persons who live in an atmosphere
not @Collierized. an atmosphere not
pregnant with the filth from which
Collier drew life and upon which he
seems to exist.\
For the benefit of those Negroes
who NAV not have heard of this dis
seminator of scandals and senseless
TRADES, who does not hesitate to
blast mems regulations by 1nnuen-
does, | will explain what undertaking
sheet this IS 1t is the medium
through which DR. William Z. Chan
cellor sought, in a moment of peev
ishness. to publish to the world the
untrue statement that One-fOurth OF
the Negroes of this District are idle
and vicious, a statement the Doctor
borrowed from a speech delivered by
one of our eminent JurlstS IN the city
of New York, when that JurIst was
casting about for some means to keep
the wolf from his door and had de
cided 20 sell his people, well knowing
he could not maintain himself and
family in the practice of law, which
statement has since been repud1ated
by Dr. Chancellor. Collier, true to
his environment and teaching, was
only too glad to fill his columns with
this abuse of the Negroes of this
city, but absolutely refused to accept
for publication a statement based on
statistics, gathered and compiled by
white men, disproving the Chancellor
article; who also, IN great glee, pub
lshed Dixon's defense of The Clans
man" but again refused to publish the
Negroes side OF that question. and
who now. in the Infamous slippery
Dick and the President article, at
tempts to pose as a friend to the
poor man" To further show the
class" of this sheet | will remind
your readers that this article, Slip
perry Dick and the President which
reads-"Our eminent ruler treated IL
as a merely casual detail that the
man who was selected for him as Sec
rctary of the Interior etC.-thiS sluT
aimed at the President of these Uni
ted States, IS an editorial and voices
the character of this editor. Again,
TO show the cOntemptibleness of this
valuable paper, we quote his own
words: The attorney first establish
eS a confidential relation with a man
and then, having this advantage, pro-
ceeds to sell him ont" This sentence
might have read: "A great % journal
publishes ar untruthful TRADE about
a people, then refuses its columns for
their defense" We quote further.
Among honorable attorneys it sim
ply isn't done this should read
among honorable newspapers It /
simply isn't done. 1t is the unpar-
donable crime"
But what does Collier know about
decent journalism? Nurtured in an
editorial room reeking with lies and
innuendoes and the nauseating odOrs
of scandals well paid for.
Who is Richard A. Ballinger? Our
answer IS, scion of one of the old
tdlitiAaNo llOW last pdoSilASs VIII Ndll
see something good in a NegrO-who |
measures a Negroes worth by the
same standard of worth by which J
other men are measured family !
free from the faint of copperheadism,
a faint which has ever characterized
the Golfers. We wonder whether or
not the fact that the senior Balm
ger was an abolitionist of the most
pronounced kind. and later a Colonel
of a Negro regiment hasn't much to |
do with the attacks upon the son who |
seems TO have inherited the fighting |
qualities that gained the father his |
promotions from private to his final |
mastering out of the service as a Col |
Onel, at the close of the war But |
aside from all this-has this Collier |
TRADE any semblance of truth? Col |
lier finds that Richard 4. Ballinger
left Alabama and went to Port Town !.
send. Washington, "As far from Ala |
bama as it was possible to get and
remain in the United States" the |
contemptibleness of this inference, in |
nuendo, will be apparent in the face of
the following facts: Richard A. Bal |
linger graduated from Williams Col ]
lege, Massachusetts, in the class of
1884. Studied law, and was admitted !
to the practice of law at Springfield, !
H., 1896 He first opened a law
office at Kankakee, I'll. Was appoint /
ed City Attorney for Kankakee,
served one term, after which he took |
up his residence at New Decatur, |
Ala. At New Decatur he was also |
appointed City Attorney, COLLIER |
neglected to state this fact) After
serving one term as City Attorney !
he moved to Port Townsend, Wash |
ington. having discovered that New
Decatur, then peopled by a few
Crackers" ''Niggers" and lean mules, |
was no place for a young man with |
both brains and ambition. At Fort |
Townsend Mr.. Ballinger became the
law partner of brother-in-law OF the |
late President Harrison, John \ |
Scott. The firm of Ballinger and Bal