are here at Washington with these Negro officeholders at your back. Find out for us just what this revolt is, how far it goes, and what good men we can get to swing the darkies into line‚ÅÝ‚Äîsee?‚Äù
“Very good,” the Senator acquiesced. He called in a spectacled man with bushy eyebrows and a sleepy look.
“I want you to work the Negro political situation,” directed the Senator, “and bring me all the data you can get. Personally, I’m at sea. I don’t understand the Negro of today at all; he puzzles me; he doesn’t fit any of my categories, and I suspect that I don’t fit his. See what you can find out.”
The man went out, and the Senator turned to his desk, then paused and smiled. One day, not long since, he had met a colored person who personified his perplexity concerning Negroes; she was a lady, yet she was black‚ÅÝ‚Äîthat is, brown; she was educated, even cultured, yet she taught Negroes; she was quiet, astute, quick and diplomatic‚ÅÝ‚Äîeverything, in fact, that ‚ÄúNegroes‚Äù were not supposed to be; and yet she was a ‚ÄúNegro.‚Äù She had given him valuable information which he had sought in vain elsewhere, and the event proved it correct. Suppose he asked Caroline Wynn to help him in this case? It would certainly do no harm and it might elect a Republican president. He wrote a short letter