The criticism that has hitherto met Mr. Washington has not
always been of this broad character. In the South especially
has he had to walk warily to avoid the harshest judgments,
--and naturally so, for he is dealing with the one subject of
deepest sensitiveness to that section. Twice--once when at
the Chicago celebration of the Spanish-American War he
alluded to the color-prejudice that is "eating away the vitals
of the South," and once when he dined with President
Roosevelt--has the resulting Southern criticism been violent
enough to threaten seriously his popularity. In the North the
feeling has several times forced itself into words, that Mr.
Washington's counsels of submission overlooked certain ele-
ments of true manhood, and that his educational programme
was unnecessarily narrow. Usually, however, such criticism
has not found open expression, although, too, the spiritual
sons of the Abolitionists have not been prepared to acknowl-
edge that the schools founded before Tuskegee, by men of
broad ideals and self-sacrificing spirit, were wholly failures
or worthy of ridicule. While, then, criticism has not failed to
follow Mr. Washington, yet the prevailing public opinion of
the land has been but too willing to deliver the solution of a
wearisome problem into his hands, and say, "If that is all
you and your race ask, take it."

Among his own people, however, Mr. Washington has
encountered the strongest and most lasting opposition, amount-
ing at times to bitterness, and even today continuing strong
and insistent even though largely silenced in outward expres-
sion by the public opinion of the nation. Some of this opposi-
tion is, of course, mere envy; the disappointment of displaced