The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-11-14

VI lIe SDulntIH SldltS,lleu
4 v n of intelligence, enterprise
and active capital; the
kind of men who take hold when new
projects are to be put through; in
other words the aggressive, public
spirited class, have for a number of
years been growing aweary of the
hare Drained national management of
the Democratic party, with its free
trade, free silver, income tax antics
and it's silly opposition to expansion,
and but for one thing, which has been
held as a club over their heads, wouE.
ere this, have broken over into the Re-
publican party, where they naturally
belong. The restraining influence has
been their exaggerated fear of negro
domination; and the necessity, under
which they have fancied themselves,
for keeping the white vote solidly Dem
ocratic in order to maintain the whip
hand over the black vote, which, none
too fortunately, has been. in most
southern communities, solidly Republic
can.
the readjustments in home politics in
evitable in consequence of the recent
birth of the expansion issue which is now
formally adopted as Republican creed,
will tend, among other things. in the
direction of calling these vigorous and
progressive elements of the southern
white population into the ranks Of the
expanded Republican party and thus
gradually accomplish the extinction Of
sectionalism in our political life, so far
as permanent party demarcations are
concerned? Or, stated in another way,
can the younger element which is in
Producing into the southern states the
quickening influences of industrial de-
velopments whereby the whole COM
plexion of that section must soon be
transformed, long be contented with
the moss back political ways and means
which now dominate the solid"
strongholds of the Democracy; or will
inherited prejudces and traditions give
way before the compelling demands Of
business?
In the Chicago Times Herald, our old
friend, Walter Wellman, in his charac-
teristically informing manner, goes
over this fascinating subject at great
length, giving not only the fruits of
his own extended observations of
southern conditions, but also present.
ing the opinions of others who have
given study to the matter; and the
conclusion which he reaches is that the
south is on the eve of a political break
up which will end for all time the Sec
tionalism for which it more than any
other region has for generations been
noted The reason which convinces
him of this is that the southern cotton
manufacturer cannot we'll look to Re-
publican administrations to find for
him a profitable market for the sale
of his surplus cloth without sooner or
later falling into political sympathy
with the expansion policy of those
administrations and therefore voting
the Republican ticket. When the
South gets something more important
to occupy its mind than fixing up
schemes whereby to deprive the negro
of his ballot, the race question will
not keep sensible whites out of the
Republican column any more than it
will put the negro under any response
bility TO dodge the Democratic ticket
if his spirit moves him to embrace It.
Ex-Minister Barrett, himself a Demo-
crat, says that in the near future
Eastern Asia, under the American ex-
pansion policy will supply the market
for all the cotton the south can grow
and all the wheat which the west can
spare from home necessities. If this
! prediction shall come true the political
/ disintegration of the south will be in
evitable.