EDITORIAL






            HUNTING BIG GAME OUT OF AFRICA.

          IN 1908, Theodore Roosevelt was hunting big game in
          Africa; in 1912 he is hunting big game in the United
          States.  Then  he  was  hunting  lions  and hippopotami,
          the biggest things in Africa, now he is hunting the Presi-
          dency, the biggest thing in the United States.  Then he
          was despoiling the African jungles to secure skins of
          animals in the interest of science; now he  is skinning
          Africans to rob them of political power in the interest
          of "social justice."
             The crack of his rifle that brought down the wild
          beasts of Africa, was no more pitiless than his repudiation
of black men of the South from an organized effort to secure political
justice. Mr. Roosevelt hunts office in much the same manner that he
hunts lions; any amount of slaughter is justifiable so long as it will give
him enough specimens for the purpose he may have to serve. When Mr.
Roosevelt burst forth from the wilds of Africa he came home to receive
a thunderous salute from the muzzles of many guns down the harbor,
and a triumphal march up Fifth Avenue, New York, to the accompani-
ment of waving banners and the welcoming shouts of many thousands.
Since  then  we  have  had  from  him  "The New  Nationalism,"  "The
Right of the People to Rule," and a proclamation of "Political and Social
Justice," for all. But when the Negroes, who are of all men, the greatest
sufferers from political and social injustice, apply to this Deliverer to be
taken under the protection of his banner, he simply bids them to be recon-
ciled to their fate, commits them to the guardianship of their oppressors
and bids them suffer on.
    Theodore Roosevelt has spent some time in Africa, the ancestral
home of the black race, but he has never spent one second inside of a
                           140




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 29, Num. 2

Editorials

Volume:  29
Issue Number:  02
Page Number:  140
Date:  10/1912