Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-09-17
ROOSEVELT AND THE NEGRO

support, he is wOefully deceived There is no one
subject on which the Roosevelt record is tainted
and offensive to this sections sentiment as that
Of the negro and yet. curiously enough it is with
this very issue that he seeks to trap Southern
votes So impudent and two-faced a game was never
before attempted in national politics He drives from
his Chicago convention all the negroes who hail from
the South. but at the same time he opens wide his
arms to all those who live in the North. If "Rastus
hoes cotton or mops floors this side of the Mason
and-Dixon line, Mr.. Roosevelt will have none of him,
for then he is political drawback; but, if like Jack
Johnson he wears diamond and rides in an automo-
bile in the East, Mr. Roosevelt welcomes him as
patriot and desirable citizen 1t is this dupliciy,
this Observation-Disclosures and hunting-with-the-
hounds that makes the ThirdTermers course in this
connection so cheap and disgusting
There are people, and good people, who sharply
censure the South for its political attitude toward
the negro. They contend that our protective sur
frage laws are unjust They continually exortng
us to apply their own theories toward the solution
of problems with which we struggling frst-hand
and as best we can We necessarily differ with the
gentlemen who hold such views, but nevertheless we
can respect their right to their opinion, and we
do credit them with sincerity But what can be said
for the politician who sraddles this issue in both
the North and the South cousining the in one
section and kicking him in the other?
Such tactics will command as little respect from
Southern whites as from Northern blacks.
There would be no reason to recall Mr.. Roose-
vets record on the negro or to bring this subject up
had not he himself invoked the race question as
ruse to get votes in the South. But since he has
adopted such a scheme it is thoroughly pertinent
that the Southern people his present profess
sions by his past performances and judge of his sim
certify by his deeds rather than by his words. On
this record, what claim has the Third-Termer upon
the suffrage of Southern Democrats?
Certainly since the days of Reconstruction there
has never been Republican president who antagon-
lied the Souths sentiment in this regard persist
emily and so fagrantly as did Theodore Roosevelt
Nor has there ever been Republican president who
went further or stopped lower for Southern negro
delegates to national conventions when he needed
them to maintain his own steam roller.
1t was Roosevelt who doggedly retained the negro
Crum as collector of the port at Charleston over the
protests and appeals Of the white citizenship of that
community
1t was Roosevelt, avowedly the President of all
sections, who dined Booker Washington at the White
House. receiving him on the most intimate terms of
social as well as political equality.
It was Roosevelt who shut up the postofnce at
Indianola Miss and denied the people the rights of
the United States mail because they would not toer
ate a negro postmaster.
II was Roosevelt who only short while before
the Republican convention at Chicago bidding
mightandmain for the support Of the negro delegates
1t was Theodore Roosevelt who stood few weeks
later before his own ThirdTerm convention and,
with his arms around two negro politicians from the
North, proclaimed them "the equal Of every white
man within the sound Of his voice"
Such is the record Of this pumed and spotless
knight who would now appeal for votes to the
chivalry of the South.
Such is the politician who would ask the Demo
Gratis of this section to against their own party
and against a leader sprung from their own soil in
order that he who time and again has insulted the
South, might have a third term, II not life term,
in the Presidency.
But Southern folk have longer memories and
warmer blood than Mr. Roosevelt surmises; and they
have sharper wits than he evidently gives them
credit for They have no wish to nurse ohenses but
when he himself brings up the discussion
they cannot forget all that he has done. They
cannot forget that in his day of power he sub
iected them to one negro appointee after another
until it was truly said of him that he was trying TO
Africanize the South Atlantic coast" They cannot
forget his vicious and unjust attack upon the mem
DRY of Jefferson Davis. Nor can they be deceived by
his present political play when, the Lynchburg
"a.
negro as his mothers folks talked about all negroes
and talks about the Northern negro as his fathers
folks talked about all negroes"
Mr. Roosevelt's conversion on the matter of negro
delegates from the South is too suspciousy sudden
One naturally asks whether he would ever have taken
this position had he succeeded in capturing the Re-
publican nomination, he violently strove to do.
Interestingly enough he realized the need OF
new party until his personal ambition to rule the
old one had been defeated Strangely enough ne
never awoke to the corrupting influence of the col
ored delegates from the South until he found that
thew would no longer serve but would embarrass his
politcal plans In 1904 and in 1908 they suited him
well enough In those days there was apparently no
federal Office in the South he was not willing to
give them for their influence. They suited him well
enough in his primary campaign for the regular nom
nation and today fond as ever OF the negro
delegate in the North. In short, when Mr.. Hoose-
~o.zE&F, CO,Yf