101

NEGRO COMPLAINANTS
DISPLEASE PRESIDENT

SPOKESMAN OF COMMITTEE SE-
VERELY REBUKED BY WIL-
SON AT WHITE HOUSE

VOTES NOT AN OBJECT

Executive States to Committee That
His Actions Are Without Re-
Gard to Political Results.

Washington, Nov. 12.—Deeply offended
by the tone and manner of their chair-
man, W. M. Trotter of Boston, President
Wilson today ended an interview with
a delegation of negroes who called at
the White House to protest against race
segregation in Government departments
with a warning that if the negroes
wanted to see him again they would have
to get another spokesman. The Presi-
dent said he had not been addressed in
such fashion since he entered the White
House.

A fifteen-minute interview had been
arranged for the callers and the Presi-
dent received them in his office with
only his stenographer present. The
delegation formally complained that
Postmaster General Burleson, Secretary
McAdoo and Comptroller Williams of the
Treasury were enforcing segregation of
white and negro employes in their of-
fices.

Mr. Wilson listened to the statement
and then replied at length, explaining
that he had investigated this matter
himself and had been assured that no
discrimination had been practiced
against the negroes and that segrega-
tion had been inaugurated to avoid fric-
tion between the races, not to injure the
negro. He added that he was deeply in-
terested in the negro race and admired
it for the progress it had made.

Not Seekers of "Charity."

At this point Trotter and other mem-
bers of the delegation took issue with
the President. They asserted the negro
people did not seek charity or assistance,
but took the position that they had
equal rights with the whites and that
these rights should be respected. There
had been no friction, they insisted, be-
fore the segregation was started.

Mr. Wilson walted for the protest to
end. Then he told the delegation that
he could not discuss the matter further.
He closed with the quiet but emphatic
statement that Troter had lost control
of his temper and that he (the President)
could not be talked to in such a manner.

When the negroes left they said their
talk had been thoroughly disappoint-
ing" and that they would hold a mass
meeting in Washington next Sunday to
protest further against segregation.

Trotter said in his address that his
committee did not come "as wards look-
ing for charity, but as full-fledged
American citizens, vouchsaving equality
of citizenship by the Federal Constitu-
tion."

"Two years Ago," Trotter said, "you
were thought to be a second Abraham
Lincoln."

President Silences Him.

The President tried to interrupt, ask-
ing that personalities be left out of the
discussion. Trotter continued to speak,
and the President finally told him that if
the organization he represented wished
to approach him again it must choose
another spokesman, adding that he had
enjoyed listening to the other members
of the committee, but that Trotter's tone
was offensive.

The President told Trotter that he was
an American citizen as fully as anybody
else, but that he (Trotter) was the only
American citizen who had ever come into
the White House and addressed the
President in such a tone and with such
a background of passion.

Here Trotter denied that he had any
passion, but the President told him he
had spoiled the cause for which he had
come and said he expected those who
professed to be Christians to come to
him in a Christian spirit.

The negro spokesman continued to ar-
gue that he was merely trying to show
how his people felt and asserted that he
and others were now being branded as
traitors to their race because they ad-
vised the colored people "to support the
ticket."

This mention of votes caused Mr. Wil-
son to say that politics must be left out,
because it was a form of blackmail. He
said he would resent it as quickly from
one set of men as from another and that
his auditors could vote as they pleased,
it mattered little to him so long as he
was sure he was doing the right thing
at the right time.