suming man, went before
the board to register. He was refused on the ground that he was not
intelligent enough to vote. Before this colored man left the room a
white man came in who was so intoxicated that he could scarcely tell
where he lived. This white man was registered, and by a board of
intelligent white men who had taken an oath to deal justly in
administering the law.

"Will any one say that there is wisdom or statesmanship in such a
policy as that? In my opinion it is a fatal mistake to teach the young
black man and the young white man that the dominance of the white race
in the South rests upon any other basis than absolute justice to the
weaker man. It is a mistake to cultivate in the mind of any individual
or group of individuals the feeling and belief that their happiness
rests upon the misery of some one else, or that their intelligence is
measured by the ignorance of some one else; or their wealth by the
poverty of some one else. I do not advocate that the Negro make
politics or the holding of office an important thing in his life. I do
urge, in the interest of fair play for everybody, that a Negro who
prepares himself in property, in intelligence, and in character to
cast a ballot, and desires to do so, should have the opportunity."

While Booker Washington did not believe that political activities
should play an important part among the Negroes as a whole he did
believe that the exceptional Negro who was particularly qualified for
holding public office should be given the opportunity just as he
believed in the higher academic education for the relatively small
minority capable of profiting by such an education.

In concluding a letter in which he asks Booker Washington to recommend
a member of his race for a Federal office in Vicksburg, Miss.,
President Roosevelt said: "The question of the political importance of
the colored man is really of no consequence. I do not care to consider
it, and you must not consider it. Give me the very best colored man
that you know of for the place, upon whose integrity and capacity we
can surely rely."

The man, T.V. McAlister, whom Mr. Washington "gave" the President for
this office was of such character and reputation that the white
citizens of Vicksburg actually welcomed his appointment. Certainly
neither Vicksburg nor any other portion of Mississippi can be accused
of over-enthusiasm for conferring civil and political privileges upon
Negroes.

Booker Washingto