The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-04
MANY VIEWS Oh TIE ROOSEVELT LETTER Underwood Scores Colonel
 on Trust Question IS A POLITICAL MOVE Clayton Delivers Speech Urging Haste in Impeachment Trial of Judge
 Archbald-Dent Speaks
 on Roosevelt
IS A POLITICAL MOVE
Ny c. E. STEW ART

By c. E. STEW ART
 Washington, August 3.--(Special)-lt is not believed by southern representatives in Congress that Rooseyelt's straddle on the negro question will prove very effee- tive, or will materially contribute to the realization of his ambition to build up strong party in the south with the ulti- mate hope of wrestling some of the south- ern states from democrats
 Mir Underwood declares that Roose- velt's inconsistent position regarding the negroes of the south and the north creat- ing different standards for the race ae- cordlng to their geological location, is en- tirely in line with his declarations on other public questions.
 MT. Roosevelt" said Mir. Underwood, never loses an opportunity to assail the trusts. and yet his campaigns have all been backed by and financed by the big gest trusts in the country down to and including the one he is now engaged in; he iercely eritlcises the bosses, and he has associated himself with the big bosses in the country and sas openly used them wherever and whenever he could to for ward his own personal and selfish ends Tt is so patent that the policy as ad- vocated by Mir. Roosevelt toward the ne- groes in the south is a political moye and is not sincere or consistent, as to insure the fact that it will be discounted and will fall flat in its general effect upon white voters of the southern states Representative Burnett declared that the white republicans of Alabama and the southern states would want some very strong evidence that the colonel is sincere in his position with reference to the negroes In the south.
 They will remember" said Colonel Burnett, Just what happened right after Alabama adopted her present constitution which effectively eliminated the eolored vote in tho state"
 The Alabama Convention
 "It was a fond and cherished ambition of republicans of Alabama to build a white mans party for they realized that in no other way could they ever hope to compete with the democratic party. Roosevelt, then the President of the Unl- ted States, sent his envoy. Senator Prtch- ard, to confer with the leading repub- licans of the state and instructed them
 
 Pritchard made an address along these lines before the most enthusiastic and representative republican convention the state ever held and which body actually refused to allow the negroes to even look on from the gallery They were termed the lilly whites and the real honest, conscientious republicans of Ala bama were very sanguine of building up a strong party and indeed the prospects appeared most hattering
 What happened? Why, In less than six months Roosevelt, nagged by Booker T. Washington and the negroes from the north, had reversed himself, as he has frequently done on public questions and was cutting off the heads of office holders who had participated insthe lily white convention.
 q am of the opinion, therefore, that many republicans of Alabama will be from Missouri on the colonels negro policy in the southern states and that they will have to have iron-clad evi- dence of good faith before they fall for it
 Representative Dent declared that Roosevelt was too recent a convert to white supremacy in the south for even the followers of the third -termer to take his declarations seriously,
 He is simply playing one end of the string against the other" said MT. Dent. lie cannot fecOnclle ms pres ent position with his past utterances and acts His theory for building up party in the south, based upon the elimination of the negro from south ern politics and the embarrassing of the negro in the northern politics, Is inconsistent and not calculated. to in spjre confidence in his motives. Active participation of the negro In politics Is just as distasteful to the white men i,, q if iG In the gOtIth and the rights of the northern negro over his brother of the south is not clearly defined by MT. Roosevelt and no Iegmitimate reason advanced why one should be admitted and the other excluded from full fellowship in party councils"
 Blackmon's Views
 When asked what he thought about MT. Roosevelt's recent position on the negro question, Representative Black mon said:
 'T would not be surprised at any thing that MT. Roosevelt would do or say. I do not believe that the white people of the south who have dealt with this perplexing question for so many years will take kindly to the position of MT. Roosevelt to eliminate the negro politically in the south and hold on to him In the north.
 Mir Roosevelt says in effect that the republican party for 45 years has under taken 10 ssta blish Itself in the south by ehe negro vote and this has failed. Now Ae proposes to use the southern white man for the ultimate benefit of the ne- gro. can not believe that the white men of the south will follow the cratic and undehned views of Mir Roosevelt, especially In face of his past negro policy, so well known to the people of the south who have hae ample reasons for remem- bering them.''
 Representatives from other states are equally positive that Mir Roosevelt has not helped the bull moose cause in the south by his recent manifesto in regard to so lthern negroes.
 Clayton Speaks. on Archibald