Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-13
Ambassador in Novel Declares
Himself Ashamed of Native
Section.
SCOTS OLD CONFEDERATES
Diplomat Finds No Objection to
Marriage of MuIattoes and
Whites, Article Asserts.

Aroused over statements Walter H.
Page, Ambassador to the Court of st.
James, made in his book, 1.-The South
erners," in which It is declared he
abused and derided Southerners
through a false portrayal Of them,
the editors of Neale's Magazine in
their July issue question Mr.. Pages
ability to represent the American peo-
pie. The sharp criticism of the Am
bassador, who is a native of the
South, is the first offering in the pub
lication and is entitled Ambassador
Page No Southerner"
The novel The Southerners" first
appeared as a serial in the Atlantic
Monthly and was written by Mr..
Page under the pseudonym of Mich
olas Worth. Besides the, review of
the book there is editorial comment
in Neale's Magazine questioning Mr..
Pages Americanism. one paragraph
Of which reads:
But Ambassador Page seems to
hold the American section in which
he was born and reared-a section
that comprises about one-fourth the
area and nearly ONE fourth of the
population of the United States-to
be un-American because sectional We
are all Americans-unless Mr.. Page
be an exception-and worthier Amer
leans because of our affection for the
ward, borough, city, county and State
in which we live"
Looked Down on BY All.
Some of the criticisms of Mr.. Page
in the review of his book follow:
I'VE found that Nicholas Worth,
the professed author of the book, was
a man whose environment in the
South had evidently been among per-
sons who were not recognized in that
section as typical-in fact, who had
no social recognition whatever but
who lived to themselves and were
looked down upon by whites and
blacks alike.
There are scenes in this book that
are so coarse that we will not bring
them into this review. 1t is sufficient
to say that they were used to vilify
the white race.
Nicholas Worth and his kind new
err stood socially high in the South;
he was no gentleman; his associates
were not gentlemen; his antecedents
had a defective sense of the differ
ence that exists between right and
wrong.
Nicholas Worth holds Confederate
veterans in utter contempt, and
throughout his book Confederates are
roundly abused, and he also abuses
their organization and other Southern
patriotic bodies, such as the Daugh-
tiers of the Confederacy Nicholas
Worth denies that there was any in
tellectuality among the women Of the
South. He frequently speaks Of the
lack of culture Of all the people
among whom he was reared.
Ashamed of Section.
Nicholas Worth, the Southerner,
is ashamed Of being a Southerner. He
holds that there is no negro social
problem. He does not find objection
able the marriage of a mulatto girl to
a white man. He meets the negro
woman on the terms Of equality.
He says that he found his intel
lectual emancipation at Harvard. He
H.,
any sort of home in the South-un-
less in the home of some negro; or,
should we say that he seemed quite
at home when among negroes?
Throughout the book Nicholas
Worth continually dwells on his intel
lectual superiority to the people of the
section where he was born. He
praises his own scholarship as if
amazed that a skull so small as his
had the capacity for storing away so
much erudition. AS an evidence Of his
extraordinary knowledge. he says:
Yet not a man or women who alluded
to scholarly diversion knew even
the Greek alphabet, nor (sIc) had any
desire to learn it.
THE book now becomes important
because of Mr.. Pages position as the
Ambassador of all the American peo-
pie to Great Britain. In London the
book is being hailed as true express
sion Of the South, for Mr.. Page was
born in the South, and they naturally
suppose that a Southern President
appointing a man of Southern birth
has appointed a representative
Southerner."
FARM HAND WINS SIS BY