The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-02-26
Stand Fast in the Faith.

To the Editor of the NeWs and Courier :
| As to the strength of the movement look
| ing to the formation Of q respectable Re-
| publican party in, South Carolina the
writer has no means of knowing, but
| wishes to present q few more observations
to those who are tempted to change their
! allegiance, to which he asks their careful
| consideration. Attention has already
been called to the immense burden placed
upon our people by the operations of the
Mckinley tariff law and the millions of
our hard-earned money that has been
poured into the pockets OF the protected
manufacturers of the North. Compare
lively little of this money was paid by the
wealthy classes, the larger portion of it
coming from the often unremunerative
toll ofthe poor man, bearing most heavily
on the colored part of our population, the
verY people over whom the Republican
party have shed 30 many hypocritical
tears, but never. even in its most violent
exhibitions of grief, forgetting to make
pay tribute 10 those who ave wa1ed fat
at the expense of the toiling millions of
farmers and laborers,
With these facts staring him in the face,
and there Is absolutely no way of refuting
them, 1t Is difficult to see how any native
citizen of South Carolina can bend his
neck to the yoke of Republicanism and
help to fasten the letters on bis own limbs.
To call the Republican party progressive
is the veriest nonsense, unless it can be
shown that it was an evidence Of progress
on the Chinese when they built their
great wall
Some have openly avowed that their
only reason for joining tbs Republican
party Is for the purpose of putting down
Tillman In this State. A very little re-
Election ought to show them that 80 far
from hurting Tillman their detection will
very probably be turned IN his ad advantage,
and they will have sacrificed their po-
litical principles in vain, to say nothing
Of the folly and weakness of allowing
Tillman or anyone else to drive them out
Of party to whom their allegiance is 80
manifestly due. MI. Tillman, to quote
from one of his speeches, is looking for a
light from the West, and If this declaration
means anything it clearly points ont that
Just as soon as the time is oppo-tune he
will go ever openly to the Populist party.
He cannot by any stretch of charity be
called 8 Democrat, m he will TT very
nicely into this so-called Third Party.
When he crosses the very small Rubicon
that divides him from that party be will
unquestionably take a good many of bis
followers in South Carolina with him,
moi by any means all of them, for great
as may be their love for him they love
the Democratic party more, and will
stand by it to the bitter end.
When the Populist movement gets
fairly under way we will have three
parties in the State, and the fight for
supremacy will be a hotiy contested one.
The duty of the Democrats in this con-
IN x1o;, tD n m IL ~ 81, ~ onf
aud that duty Is to stand as firm as a
Greek phalan1 and present an unbroken
front to both Republicans and Populists.
These two parties will not be long in
finding out that neither of them Is strong
enough to carry the State alone, and it
will be comparatively easy matter for
them to join forces, each trying to make
q catspaw of the other, against their ON
mon enemy, the Democrat, just as was
done in. North Carolina. When this
fusion Isl made then those who went to
the Republicans to get rid of Tillman will
find themselves being dictated to by the
very man they profess to desIise 30
heartily.
They will then want to come back, but
it is iusl: as we'll for them to understand
that there will be no fatted calf killed for
the return of lot of prodigals, whose
sorrow will not be for the act itself, but
for the consequences of that act.
It is very far from the intention of the
writer to be unjust, but If the Democrats
had triumphed in the recent elections is
it probable that anything would have
been heard of in the way Of forming q
decent Republican party in South Caro-
lina2
AS for the Populist party the man who
joins it Is simply embarking on a vessel
without rudder, compass or chart, and
with no means of propulsion except such
as is furnished by shifting winds and
tides, which will, If it Is ever heard Of
again, find some port in the mythical
land of nowhere, and not one of its crew
beable to tell where they came from, how
they got there or what they want:
W. D. WOODS.