Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1922-03-04
FOUR
PRESIDENT HARDING DOUBLE
CROSHES -HIMSELF.

United States Is not only tho highest
position in the gift Of the American
people, but it Is the highest as we'll rs
the most representative III the world;
and the man who fills this exalted po-
sition is required both by tho Constitu-
tion and the expectation Of the people
to be man large enough in heart and
soul to know no faction, ra"J, creed or
religion, but to he truly ,he reprcsen-
tative Of every element Of people enter
ing into our cosmopolitan population.
Tho President is expected to stand
true to form and to he able to issue
justice and right to all men, to he Il
little above craftsmanship, to possess no.
hatred, malice or prejudice but TO
have an impartial mind, and be prcsl;;
dent Of all the people. IN short. to he
the embodiment OF Abraham Lincoln,
breathing his soul in his everyday con
duct Of the administration Of public
affairs.
The rule Of fitness is to ibp the stand
ard by which the president is expected
to measure governmental officials and
O steady, even-handed enforcement Of
tho law 80 far rs lies In his constitI-
tional power, ought to be his policy.
He is to administer the government
that Lincoln lived and died for, for tho
people, Of the people and by the people.
The least thing the people can expect
of the President Is to be consistent, IL
TO neither contradict, stultffy nor
double cross himself.
Sunday morning, when the people
awoke and read his address before tho
Lincoln Society Saturday night, in
which he appealed for party harmony.
party loyalty and tho integrity Of p>r.
ty organization, they were ut loss to
reconcile the utterances OF Politician
Harding with the conduct of President
Harding. In his campaign before the
election, Candidate Harding made a
strong appeal for party responsibility.
party sponsorship. party loyalty, and
uttered on more than one occasion that
he believe in government by parties;
but when he became President, he did
not live up to the doctrine enunciated
as candidate for President. Instead Of
tryii:3 to preserve party harmony and
party organization, it has been his pol
icy Is President to disorganize, create
confusion, discriminate and array race
against race, class against class. He
has done the unheard Of and the un-
precedented thing.
The proceedings inaugurated in
Georgia and wherever the colored
mans politica interest was involved
have been the most high-handcd, dicta
toriai and arbitrary In the politi ,al
history OF our country. In the state OF
Georgia, the Republicans. following a
precedent Of fifty years, In 1920 elect
Ell Republican organized organize
ton and seventeen delegates to the
Chicago Convention. These delegates
thereby making the organization that
elected them regular and so
stamped by the highest political
authority in the party-the National
Republican Convention, from whose de
clston there is no appeal. This same
convention nominated Mr.. Harding
md the organization selected by SAT-:
convention elected him president
and the organization In Georgia, whirA
was stamped US regular, but which
was outlawed by Mr.. HaTdtng after
his election, contributed in every way
possible to mr., IN election 1t gave money,
time and means.
But forgetting that he had said III
his address Of acceptance, II believe in
party sponsorship In government, be
leve in party government as dtstlngu'
ished from personal government, indi-
vidual, dictatorial. autocratic or what
not" he proceeded to outlaw the Or
ganization in Georgia, because 1t weS
most largely constituted Of ccolored men
by setting up rump organization: by
coming into the state and selecting
from Washington a group Of white
men who had never affiliated with or
professed to be Republicans and destg.
mated tlAsm as committee OF one hun
dred THE committee was presided
over by q Mr.. Miller from Minnesota,
who was aided and abetted in the con
spiracy to dethrone, disorganize and
disrupt the party organization In the
state by Joe Healing Of Indiana. Bill
McGinnis Of Ohio, and Charles Hous
ton of Tennessee.
The people, when they read OF the
President's conduct In Georgia and Ills
policy OF disruption by encouraging
lily whites to exclude all Negroes from
party council, will take with grain o.
salt all Of his sayings in Washington
Saturday night about party govern
ment, party loyalty, and that he would
rather see some Of the old time party
loyalty than to have the party polio!
that we have sometimes nowadays.
Mr.. Harding will easily go down II
history as a party wrecker, as a disor
ganizer,, as a Discrimination agains
American citizens because Of thei
race or color. Mr.. Harding has mad
bold and has alienated ninety eight pc
cent Of the Negroes in this countr,
from the Republican party. His polio
Of discrimination, OF prescription ant
his declaration that he would not ar
, point any Negroes to office becaus
they were Negroes. and his failure t
recognize Henry Lincoln Johnson-th
only colored member fthe Nationa
Committee, in dispensing patronage i
this state-has taught the Negro tia
he must make new political alliances
Mr.. Harding has not hesitated to 81
he wanted white leadership in part
affairs and the Negro must take
back seat; he must not try to be
white man, but must make the YER