To-day he stands
as the one recognized spokesman of his ten million fellows,
and one of the most notable figures in a nation of seventy
millions. One hesitates, therefore, to criticise a life which,
beginning with so little, has done so much. And yet the time
is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter cour-
tesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washington's
career, as well as of his triumphs, without being thought
captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to
do ill than well in the world.
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.
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