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Dr. Roundtree ........2.

knew this (and you can find it out if you are to), I am firmly convinced that
you would never have written such stuff as the letter herein referred to. Have
you a son? If you have, and he is old enough to understand these things, I
would almost bet my hope of heaven that he is having the time of his life trying
to keep from obeying an impulse to choke his own daddy. There is alive in many
minds in this country the idea (which I am unable to say is shared by me) that a
member of the Roman Catholic church ought not to be Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States; that a member of the Roman Catholic church ought not
to hold such an important place in the innermost affairs of the nation as the of-
fice of Secretary to the President. Do you think the son of Chief Justice White
(if he has one) or the son of Secretary Tumulty would approve of the writing of
any letter to any person, if such letter purported to command the shutting of the
door of hope in the faces of all members of the Roman Catholic church, to the
end that they should never hold political office in any place where Roman Catholics
were not admired? Pssh[??]---the question needs not answer and especially does
it need none from Dr. Roundtree.

Behold here the expressed opinions of white men on the subject of hold-
ing office. I quote from the minority report of the Comittee on Elections
No. 2, submitted to the House of Representatives August 10, 1912:

"The franchise," the report concludes, "is the most sacred gift of a free
government to its people. Next to that franchise, THE MOST PERFECT GIFT OF
LIBERTY IS THE RIGHT TO HOLD OFFICE." (Capititalisation is my own.)

Thus the record as written by white men speaks and it speaks for all
races and for all time. The right of one sovereign citizen to say to another
sovereign citizen "You are not wanted," is limited by the fundamental rights
each citizen has in the premises. It goes just that far, and not one whit
farther. The Negro citizens of the United States are a part---and a large part
---of the sovereign public in this realm and so long as "truth crushed to earth
will rise again," just so long will every man be denied the right under the Con-
stitution to say to his fellow citizen, "You are not to aspire to the higher
things of life, because if you do I shall dislike you."

When you send such commications as your letter of the 15th to men
high in the affairs of the nation; when you advance your own selfish, niggardly.
servile, "hat-in-the-hand", "jim crow" ideas and say "you believe the more thought-
ful Negroes throughout the country agree with you in accepting (what you call) the
President's (no offices for Negroes) policy as being the proper course to be pur-
sued for the Negro", you perform an overt act toward robbing the young men of the
race of their birthright and it marks you as an eneny of your own people,
deserv-
ing from that peopie, a greater damnation than was visited upon Benedict Arnold.

1 am, with very great sincerity,
Your humble servant,

(Signed)

JAMES C. WATERS, JR.,
1339 T Street, N. W.

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