Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-09-27
M'aINLEY SOUTHERN APPOINTMENTS

South, was probably the worst, but not
the only bad and injudicious appoint
ment, he has made in that section.
Indeed, the President, by his insulting
appointments, has stirred up to a full
flame again that indomitable Southern
spirit which rises against negro domi-
nation, which kept the South solid for
quarter of century against the Re-
publican party. And it was only be-
cause of the quieting of this spirit of
recent years that the South has been
inclined to divide politically between
the parties.
The Baltimore Manufacturers Rec
ord, which is in no sense a political
journal, and very rarely has a politi-
cal opinion to express, publishes a
communication on this point which is
of interest because it is written from
an entirely business point of view.
The writer, Mr.. Edward Ingle, quotes
several Northern Republican papers on
these appointments of Mr.. Mckinley,
among them the Pittsburg Manufac-
turer, which has shown
that the great social bug-bear of. the
South was working out its own solution.
and that it would have been done long
ago but for the agitation by politicians
and carpet-baggers who used the negroes
for their own ends, fiattered them by
promises of social equality and profted
by their credulity. The respectable white
element of the South looks with horror
upon the idea Of social equality, and with
good reason. Those unfamiliar with con-
ditions in the South may call it preju-
dice, but that does not alter the case"
adding: "A recent illustration was the
appointment of a negro barber to the
position Of Collector of Internal Revenue
for the State of Georgia. 1t was a great
mistake. There was every indication that
the Empire State of the South would at
the next election declare for the Repub-
Hcan party and protection, but white
supremacy is the first consideration. The
better element considers the appointment
OF a negro to such a position a direct slap
in the face, and it will not be forgiven"
There is the whole thing in a nut
shell" says the writer in our Balti-
more contemporary, land from a North
ern authority. Whether to meet obli-
cations for a past nomination, or to
arrange the lines for a subsequent one,
the deliberate disregard of public SEN
timent in Georgia and of common de-
cency in Louisiana cannot be regarded
IN any light but as deliberate pur-
pose to restore the condition, when
Democracy meant white and Republic
canism black, and will be felt equal
ly in New York and Massachusetts as
in Maryland and Louisiana. It's effect
will be as far reaching as ever" The
Record writer adds:
In the first place, nothing can have a
more baneful paralyzng effect upon a
community than the realization that there
is dead line beyond which no energy
may go. The fifteen or twenty years sue
ceeding the war were marked by such a
situation in the South, the result of sell
fish politics and a manifestation of long
range philanthropy approaching insanity
in its intensity and in its disregard of
consequences The climax of buncombe
and hypocrisy was reached in the So
called force bill. The advocacy of that
measure brought the evil consequences
of the ruinous policy straight home to
the business men of the North and West
interested in the South, who realized
what they meant, and their protests upon
practical grounds were the endorsement
OF Senator A. P. Germans efforts, as
friend of the South to sheve the bill
Since then capital in the North has &C.
CURED greater interest than ever in
the preservation of the sta bility of the
South, and the last national campaign
was significant in that it demonstrated
that as the shadows of a positive dread
disappeared the whites of the South
could divide inteligently upon national
questions as they had done at earlier
periods and could thus prepare the way
for cultivation of the larger national
spirit so beneficial for ALL
But should there be a persistence in
the outrageous policy which is now pur-
sued, the South. in self-defense. will
suits of last November. men who are
obAc ~ itoU INC SISiS VI the times can
not escape the conviction that the day is
not far distant when this North will be
in absolute need Of the latent. real con-
servatism of the South to maintain its
institutions in safety.
What this implies may be compre-
hended by reference to the fact that the
South. which is free from the foreign
revolutionary elements SO patent in other
sections, was most prompt in sustaining
President Cleveland at the time of the
Chicago trouble of three years ago, and
views with alarm for the North the spec
tacle of the Pennsylvania militia substi-
tuting almost every year actual service
in the field for its annual encampment..
a South made solid by the suicidal
pressure of the dominant party at present
in the North could hardly be depended
upon in the time Of stress at the ballot
box, or otherwise to save the North
which had permitted that pressure.
Business interests will be the first 70
feel the effects of a success again of
radicalism in the North. Business inter-
ests should call a halt upon the party
which owes its existence to-day to their
aid in the time of extremity.
In brief. the degenerating plan now
formed means the subordination of the
intelligent work of material advance
ment to the preservation of the purity
and integrity Of fhe r-b;+o