The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-09-10
40 DANGER or sEcTToxAIIsm
ar THE WEST.


list orators hare persuaded some Eastern
journals TO speculate shetner the rapid
march Of the West 10 supremacy involves
any probable sectional Jealousy and rival
ship like the old-fine hostility between
North and South which finally ended in .
great civil war
Up to the organization Of the Republican
party the old South was not Solid South
against Solid North. In 1895 Harrison
carried Delaware. Georgia, Kentucky. Ten
nesses snd Maryland. In $50 Harrison
carried Delaware, Georgia. Kentucky.
louisiana. Maryland. Mississippi. North
CaroIina and Tennessee. In 1s4s, when
Taylor. a native Of the South and a Louis-
lana STAKEHOLDER. was the Wing candidate.
AIahama. Arkansas, Mississippi. Missouri,
Texas and Virginia east their electoral
votes for q Northern Democrat. Lewis
Cass. Even as late a. 1852 Kentucky and
Tennessee held aioof from the Sonth and
voted for the Wing candidate. and il was
not until 1855 that tho South, with the en-
eeption of Maryland. voted solid with the
Democracy. Before 1855 New England
was divided; Maine and New Hampshire
generally went Democratic. while Yer
mont and Massachusetts, were invariably
Wing. The only overmastering interest
that has ever in our history made any
great section OF the nation politically
''solid" has been slavery. and the solidity
of the South is likely to be broken within
the cert ten years.
The present speculation is whether .
new sectional division will arise to
supplant the old. When the Solid South
begins to crumble az it's edges In the
yirginias. shall We see the great West
gradually becoming solid against the East.
1t is pointed out that the South, despite
its great riches. yet undeveioped, cannot
hope to keep pace with the West. 1t has
fertile soil, bland climate. vast mineral
and timber wealth, but the DRIFT of the
bulk Of the exodus from the East. as well
as from Europe, Is to the great West. The
Northern bred man, whether he comes
from Europe. or from the old states of the
East, does not like the climate nor the DO
iitical or social life OF the South. There
fore the great West is sure to be strong
enough In the near future to rule the East
and the country. if i. cares to draw a Sec
tional line.
The argument Is plausible. but 1t is not
profound. for II does not take notice of the
fact that number of the old states of the
West have become SO strongly united to
the old states of the East by commercial
and financial interests that while nomin-
ally Western states they are really East
ern states in social sympathies and COM
munity Of business interests. In this way
the real commercial and business heart OF
the older states Of the West Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois. Michigan and Wisconsin, beats
so strongly with the old states of the
Atlantic sesbosrd that potential sectional
ism is impossible between East and West.
The West will never faunt the banner
OF sectionaIism In the face of the old states
Of the East The really powerful states of
the West are children Of the East; have
always had the same institutions; are
bound to IL by the ties Of the same social
sympathies. political traditions and asso-
Citations. The West has no great material
interest like slavery to make it antagonis-
tic TO the East. The East is anxious that
the West should do well. since. when ii
does well. the East finds employment for
its capital, and the West Is anxious the
East should do well. go that 1t will have
money to invest and courage to invest IL
There was, perhaps. a time before the
great transcontlnental railways were built
when the Pacific states were in some
danger Of drifting away from the Union.
had q good opportunity presented itself,
but with the building of those great lines
OF quick transportation which make Seat
tie as near New York today as Boston was
to St Louis, when Ames built the frst
mile of the q Mon Pacific. this danger, if
IL ever existed. has disappeared. never 20
return. The capital of the East aud the
West from Boston 90 Seattle 10 mingled
in vast business interests that forbid any
serious sectional ground. and the Atlantic
seaboard Is always likely to remain, di-
rectly or indirectly. the great purchasing
market for the commercial West
There are no questions OF sentiment, no
questions OF economic business conse-
quencs upon which a solid West could be
maintained against the East or course,
Populists like Waite make Wild threats.
but Popnlism Is rspudiated by the busI-
ness classes OF both parties as thoroughly
at the West IS at the East. The uncsged
insane, the unclaimed freaks, eranks and
chariatsns howl about "the robber barons''
Of the East. but the vast mass of the West
eEn people believe that tho Populists in
elude the most dangerous of all "robber
bsrons." the barren Of intellect"