Omaha daily bee., 1919-01-07
COL. ROOSEVELT
NEGROES FRIEND,
SAYS MINISTER
Rev. Samuel Barrett Pays
High Tribute to Ex-Presi-
dent; Nation Needs More
Men With His Courage

Rev, Samuel Barrett, pastor OF St.
Paul's Baptist church, speaks OF ex-
President Roosevelt as the negro'3
greatest friend in an article written
following Mr.. Roosevelt's death.
The article is as follows:
I'm the death of EXPIRE siden.
Roosevelt the American nation in
general, and the negro race in par
ticular, loses its strongest indvid
ual force for unauthorized Amer
icanism and one of the greatest
champions for right and justice the
negro has had since the days of
Garrison, Phillips and Sumner, His
attitude toward the social, economic
and political problems of the negro
is one of the brightest pages to me
in his remarkable career.
Really Great Man.
"And it makes him really great;
for any man in great position who
will conscientiously, and not for the
plaudits of men, champion the cause
of the oppressed, yes, and perse-
cuted, in the face of an intrencned
anti-feeling; yes, who will stand; as
it were, alone and not follow the
rabble, lifts himself at once out Of
the ordinary and Immediately be-
comes great Men like Roosevelt
who work for human uplift never
die. Right and justice, with him,
as it related to the negro, were 10
mere idle words, no classical phras-
es, but were part and parcel OF his
very makeup. His very soul hated
wrong and injustice, and when he
said, All men up and not some men
down. it was to hin a strong moral
and spiritual reality.
Entertained Booker Washington.
When he entertained Booker T.
Washington, a man who gave his
life for his race, and in trying to
bring about more friendly and toler-
ant feeling between the races, the
whole country went into Mysteries
because they said he was putting
his seal of approval on that Amer
lean bugbear, social equality. To
the avalanche of criticism Mr..
Roosevelt opened not his mouth.
He knew that if man like Mr..
Washington, rising as he did from
such an humble beginning, could
build up such an institution in the
south as Tuskegee and be of such
p.~ctical help to his race that he
vas worthy to dine with the presi-
dent of his own country.
Appointed Colored Postmistress.
Il remember on one occasion he
appointed a colored woman to post
mistress in small town in Missis-
sippl, and when they refused to &C
cept her, he closed the office and re-
fused to open it during his admins
tration. He appointed a colored
man, Charles w. Anderson, by
name, to the collectorship of the
city of New York, and Mr.. Ander-
son held that office up to and during
the first administration of Presi-
dent Wilson. He nominated an
other colored man, DR.. Crum, to be
collector of the part of Charleston,
S. C., and although the senate held
up the nomination continuously,
President Roosevelt never withdrew
the name. The auditor of the navy
was a colored man, the register of
the treasury was a colored man, the
recorder Of deeds was colored
man, and all these men were ap-
pointed by Roosevelt. Mr.. Roose-
welt believed, and believed rightly,
that if a man paid taxes, bore arms
in defense of his country, as the
negro has done from the revolu-
ton to the world war, in a word
citizen, he ought to be allowed to
vote.
CONDEMNED G9mpers.
when that awful crime occurred
in East St. Louis, ILL.,, when colored
men and women were slaughtered
because it was said they were strike