The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-11-18
ORDERS negro OUT
PRESIDENT WILSON REFUSES TO
HEAR INPRUDEKT SPEAKER
Committee DISMISSED

Negro Becomes Personal Against
Wish of President-He Talks
About Votes and Wilson Informed
Him That it Mattered Little How
He Voted-President Incensed.
Offended by the tone and manner
Of their chairman, w. NJ. Trotter, OF
Boston, President Wilson Thursday
ended an interview with delegation
Of negroes who called at the White
House to protest against race segre-
CATION in government departments,
with warning that if the negroes
wanted to see him again they would
have to get another spokesman. The
president said he had not been ad-
dressed in such fashion since he en-
tered the White House.
A ffteen-minute interview had
been arranged for the callers and the
president received them in his office
with only his stenogFapher present.
The delegation complained formally
that Postmaster General Burleson,
Secretary McAdoo and Comptroller
Williams, Of the treasury, were en-
forcing segregation Of white and ne
gro employees in their Offices.
Mr.. Wilson listened to the state
ment and then replied at length, eX-
planning that he had investigated this
matter himself and had been assured
that no discrimination had been prac-
ticed against the negroes and that
segregation had been inaugurated to
avoid friction between the races, not
to injure the negro. He added that
he was deeply interested in the ne
gro race and admired it for the pro-
greSs it had made.
At this point Trotter and others OF
the delegation took issue with the
president. They declared the negro
people did not seek charity or assist
ance, but held that they had equal
rights with the white and that these
rights should be respected. There
had been no friction, they insisted,
before the segregation was started.
Mr.. Wilson waited for the protest
to end. Then he told the delegation
that he could not discuss the matter
further. He closed with the quiet,
but emphatic statement that Trotter
had lost control Of his temper and
that he (the president) could not be
talked to in such a manner.
When the negroes left they said
their talk had been thoroughly dis
hot
hold mass meeting in Washington
next Sunday to. protest further
against segregation.
Trotter said in his address that his
committee did not come ''as wards
looking for charity, but as full-aedg-
ed American citizens, vouchsafed
equality of citizenship by the federal
constitution.
.aTwo years ago." said Trotter,
.'you were thought to be a second
Abraham Lincoln" the president
tried TO interrupt, asking that per-
sonahties be left out of the discus
sion. Trotter continued to speak,
and the president fnally told him If
the organization he represented wish
ed to approach him again it must
choose another spokesman, adding
that he had enjoyed listening to the
other members of the committee, but
that Trotter's tone was offensive.
The president told Trotter that he
was an American citizen as fully as
any one else, but that he (Trotter)
was the only American citizen who
ever had come into the White House
and addressed the president i'll such
a. tone and with such q background
Of passion. Here Trotter denied that
he had any passion, but the president
told him he had spoiled the cause for
which he had come, and said he OK
pected those who are professed Chris
tians to come to him in a Christian
spirit.
The negro spokesman continued to
argue that he was merely trying to
show how the negro people felt, and
asserted that ne and others were now
being branded as traitors to their
race because they advised the negro
people ito support the ticket"
The mention of votes caused Mr..
Wilson to say politics must be left
out, because it was q form of black
mail. He said he would resent it as
quickly from one set of men as from
another, and that his auditors could
vote as they pleased, it matter little
to him, so long as he was sure he was
doing the right thing at the right
time.
The president spoke frankly, say
ing that if the negro people had
made a mistake in voting for him
they ought to correct it, but that he
would insist that politics should not
be brought into the question because
it was not political problem. With
some emotion he declared he was not
seeking Office, and that man who
sought the Office of the presidency
was fool for his pains.
He spoke of the intolerable burden
OF the Office and of things which he
had to do Which were more than the
human spirit could carry.
Emphasizing that he did not care
in the least for the political consid-
erations involved, Mr.. Wilson urged
that he wanted his auditors to under
stand that it was a human problem
and not political problem. While
the American people wanted to sup
port the advancement of the negro,
the president was sure that, as prac-
tical men, everybody knew that there
was a point at which friction is apt
to occur. The question must be
stripped of sentiment and viewed in
it's facts, because the facts get the
better of the individual whether one
desired it or not.
The president said he thought his
colleagues in the government depart
ments were not trying to put the ne
gro at a disadvantage, but simply to
make arrangements which would pre-
vent friction. He added that the
question involved was not a question
Of intrinsic qualities. because all had