Smyrna times., 1896-04-08
THE SITUATION IN THE SOUTH.
All Parties DemOralized.

A. K. Mcclure, who is travelling in
the south thus writes to his paper the
Philadelphia Times: The race lines
could not be a perpetual issue when
politics appeals to the cupidity and
ambition of men. With the jarring
conflicts of ambition finally came uni /
versal industrial and business depres /
sion, and both political parties have
been torn from their old mOorings. /,
! While the South does not produce /
/ dollar of silver, the free silver craze
! has swept it like wildfire, and instead
of two great parties in the South, to-
day there are three distinct political
organizations, and it is doubtful under
present conditions which would carry
the majority of the Southern States.
The Pcpulists have rent the Demo
cracy in twain, and the Republicans,
long under dogs, with nothing to hope
for in politics but to fashion. auction
delegations to national conventions
and to obtain the Federal offices when
the party succeeded to power, are
ready for anything that promises to
win.
Hitherto the South has had but one
party at a time that suffered from
general decentralization, but any intelli-
gent observer who has studied the
5 present political conditions of the
; South would be compelled to lie awake
/ at night to determine whether the
l Democrats, Republicans or the POpu-
= lists of the South are plunged most
, deeply into the mire of decentralization.
+ There is not single State in the South
e under present conditions that is GER
4 tain to vote for the Democratic candi-
i date for President next November.
The majority of them, or all of them,
: may thus vote, but a united South al
: the next election is quite improbable
r and it is certainly among the possibili
t; ties that between the Republicans anC
II the Populists, all the Southern States
e may be lost to the Democracy.
d The Republicans have been kicked
L and cuffed as a helpless minority fOl
l. for many years, and the Democrat
n are so greatly demoralized on the issu'
Y. of cheap money that a very large pro
le portion, if not a majority of them, to
Of day would perfer a Republican Presi
lie dent to a Democrat who maintained
le sound financial system. Tbs cOndi
st tion may be improved before the meet
h, ing of the Democratic National Con
+, vention, but there is great need of in
re prOvement to give reasonable hope O
continued Democratic supremacy
to the reconstructed States.
lie The first expression of Souther
" sentiment on the money issue will b
a given by Alabama within the ne1
on month, when the Democratic Stat
ue Convention will nominate the cand
a date for Governor and other Stat
lat officers and elect delegates to Chicago
in The issue between RepresentatiN
ty. Clarke, the sound money candidat
on and Captain johnson, his free silv,
by competitor, is SO sharply defined thi
ole the convention must give a positi7
ng expression one way OF the other. If
or shall be for sound money, the Sout
ern States will be halted in the presel
or tendency to a cheap money tidal wav
he while if the convention shall decla
ses for free silver, it is more than probab
in that all the Southern States, with Il
lge single exception of Kentucky, W
I'M, send cheap money delegates to the n
the tonal Convention.