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Show were too hasty in making the negro a fall-fledged citizen. i - . - - ' ... , It wag too great a change from slavery to citi-taishiby citi-taishiby and it turned the negro's head. It was not his fault. He was the victim of conditions. Had suffrage been granted gradually asfltness for it was ehowo, the negroes of the United States would have been far better citizens today than- they are. We are speaking of them as a race'. We do not think President Roosevelt wijl appoint ap-point any more to Federal office. '.He will make a great mistake if he does. In the case of Crum the President .could not recede from the position he had taken, but the opposition, he encountered in the Senate and the various manifestations of public sentiment sen-timent North and-South -should deterNhim from a repetition of his error. . . , Ntgroes in Office. Dr. Criini, a colored man, has been confirmed by the ijenate as Collector of the Port at Charleston, H. C, after long delay. IJe has been holding th? office by virtue of recess appointments by the President. The confirmation is the end of a long and bitter truggle between the President and the members of his own party in the Senate. Mr. Roosevelt has won a nominal victory, but we think he has had ample opportunity to learn that his course in ap-ointing ap-ointing colored jersons to Federal office, especially especial-ly in Southern communities, does not receive popular pop-ular commendation. Undoubtedly Dr. Crum is a highly intelligent and respectable colored man, and competent and worthy to fill the position, but it was a mistake for President Roosevelt to appoint him. In such cases It is not the individual, but the race that must be considered. Politics has been the curse of the negro in this country. It has caused him to form false ideas of Lis importance and station, ideas which in almost every instance have been harmful to him. Dr. Crum ill pot be changed by being appointed, but the other and more ignorant members of his race will be changed. They will imagine that they are eligible ,to positions which really are above them. The appointment ap-pointment of any negro to office In the South can worjc nothing but injury, and such appointment are not greatly to the taste of any community. The negro 13 not ready for politics and office, As a race, the negroes must first learn the great lesson of industry. If the negro ever gains office it must be through merit and not merely because he has a Tote. There's the rub the vote. Had the negroes not been granted the franchise at the close of the Civil war there would be no race trouble now. Politic . is at the bottom of all of It. We are bearing the r-'j'den Imposed upon us by the politicians who . |