The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1896-06-18
THE SOLID SOUTH IS BROKEN.
FREE SILVER AGITATION ALI
LEGGED To BE THE CAUSE
The Race Line Erndicated and New
Adjustments Formed by Class Fcol-
ing-The Result Likely to be u
Republican South.

Adjustments Formed by Class Fcol
ing-The Result Likely to be q
Republican South.
A. Is. Williams in the New York Tribune.
After an existence of nearly TWENTY
years tho solid South" has disap.
peared from political conditions and
calculations t and become only a NOM
ory. The indications are that it will
never be restored, but if there is solid
South again it will probably bo solid
Republican South. These statements
are not based on the Republican victo.
rles two years ago in kentucky, North
Carolina, Maryland and other South
crn States. The year 1891 was Il tidal
wavo year, and an ''otf" year, and local
and temporary causes might have
brought many OF its astonishing politi-
cal results The solid South was not
broken when Malone carried Virginia
anu II there wore not other and deeper
reasons that are found in the returns
OF the last election, the destruction OF
the most formidable, the most danger
Gus and remarkable and the most ap-
parently impregnable combination OF
American political history might be
yet regarded as only q remote posi-
bility.
THE BREAK COMES SUDDENLY.
AS it is, however, every obscrvant
man who studies conditions in this part
of the Union intclligently and careful
ly must know that the break is q fact.
1t has come strangely and suddenly.
The causes are old, but the effects al G
new and unexpected. Five years ago
nobody would have predicted or imag-
it has been. There have been no roal
party lines in the South since the war
| The lines have been drawn between
| the races. a white man was q Demo
| crat, q neglo was q Republican, with
| the exceptions on both sides unimpor-
tant. 1t seems that that division, wide
as the difference between black and
white, founded deeply in inherited, in
born prejudices and instincts, could
never be lost, forgotten or ignored.
The political position Of the negro and
to be hopeless. The confidence of the
white man in his own power of cohe-
sion, and the consequent continuance
| OF his absolute supremacy, seemed to
! be built on a certainty.
Yet the negro has been wise without
suspecting it, and the Democratic party
in the South has committed suicide
without knowing it, has elaboratcly
and deliberately and with much pains
andcingenuity dismembered and stab
bed and poisoned itself, with the delu-
sive idea that its strength was being
made invincible and it's rule eternal
Events are bringing Il beautiful illus
tration Of the operations of the laws
In morals and in politics paradoxe.
yield symmetrical and satisfactory re
suits, ,wrong-dOing develops punishment
for the wrong-doer and compensation
for the wronged. The negro has fount
his salvation in obliteration, for the
more his vote was chopped down, the
more complete his disappearance, the
fiercer the quarrels, the wider the
divisions among the whites became
AS danger from without lessencd the
discord within increased.
THE RACE LINE RUBBED OUT.
The whites themselves DESTROYED the
race line by crushing the negro out o
politics, and the negro aided in the
| work by permitting 1himself to be
crushed. The Democratic leaders
smashed their own and favorite spook
l-"nigger rule"-with which thew SO
long terrified the ''unterritied Democ-
racy' and held its ranks unbroken. So
the race line was rubbed out, and i'm
mediatcly an older, stronger, deeper
line has been drawn-sbetween the
whites themselves this time. 1t is the
line Of class, of caste, of social and
business differences. The great free
silver movement in the South is only
the form, the name, OF it. The sub
stance of it, the reality of it, is in the
jealonsies, the antagonisms, of class.
| have studied the conditions in sev.
eral Southern States very carefully
during the last few weeks NV oppor-
tunities have been ample, and my con
clusions are deliberate. I have heard
men and women Of all shades OF opinion
talk in varied surroundings and cir
cumstances. Half tho men who arc
shouting for free silver do not know
what it means and dc not care. They
shout for it because it is the shout OF
their class, the battle cry of the poor
and obscure moving to war against the
rich men and the 'aristocracy," the
pitchfork with which the farmer NAV
prod and disigure and punish the mer-
chant, lawyer and banker and all aifl-
lated and associated interests and indi-
viduals.
GROWTH OF CLASS FEELING.
The class feeling has long been latent
in the South, but it has been smothered
by many conditions, and there has been
nobody to develop it. Men who rose
from tho ranks Of "thc common pco.
pie" by power of intellect and energy
were so few and scattered that they
werc quickly and easily absorbed by
their new surroundings, and the fcroc-
J ity OF any rcsentmcnts they might hold
against the upper classes" was soon
melted to genial conservatism. But it
is different now. Glass hatred has be-
como passion, its bitterness made
more intense by long repression, it's
expression and development uxuries
because they are new experiences
The South Is prosperous. Nobody is
suffering, and comparatively few are in
debt. Take man for man, the proper.
tion OF independence and prosperity is
greater among the farmers than in the
towns and cities The demand for free
silver coinage in this section is not the
result Of II deliberate desire to repudi
ate debts, nor is there apparent any
general belief that it will make any
body rich or improve the condition q
the country. The average Is to mar
will tell you he is for it because re
longs :or 'rclef," but he cannot OF
will not say what kind Of relief it IL
| n, frnpo ~ hat bp bonos N bo ,