Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-08-03
WHAT ROSSER THINKS OF THE
PARTIES.

PARTIES.
Gen. Thomas l.. Rosser OF Georgia.
a prominent figure in railroad building
in the northwest in early days and one
of the old time southern democrats,
regards the democratic party rs having
outlived its usefulness and the repub-
lican party as the party of progress
and advancement. General Rosser
was II of the chief surveyors in the
marking out of the line of the North
ern Pacific when it was first projected
and built. His letter to Governor
Roosevelt after the lattcr's nomination
for vice president stated his sympathy
with the support of the New Yorker,
and now in another interview General
Rosser announces tina. he has left the
democratic party and Joined with the
republicans, giving these as reasons
therefor:
In the first place. | will state that
politics is not my means of livelihood.
| have never asked for nor held a po-
litical commission, and am under no
obligations to any political party. l
have experienced no change of heare
toward Virginia or the south.
II am proud of the ugly scars which
now carry, received on the battlefield
in attestation of my devotion and sac
rifice to their cause, when issues were
tried by ball and bayonet. and l love
them both now as dearly as l did when
their flags.
No n can deny that the north
has p%rospered under republicanism.
nor is there any denying the fact that
the south has 0 ]prospered under
democracy.
Mature has blessed the south with
a soil and climate superior to tina. OF
the north.
Then. shall We be expected 10 adj
nit that, under like conditions, the
south is not equal. to the north in a fair
field OF business competition?
My experience, which has been ex-
t%ensive, will not allow me to admit it,
but on the contrary | deny it.
II have taken a great many southern
young men to the northwest, where
conditions were less favorable to him
than to the man born in the higher TAT
ltudes, and these southern lads have
risen to the highest rank in every field
of business they have entercd-many
Of them are now leaders.
Il regard the republican party as the
only national party now in the field.
1t is enterprising, aggressive and pat
l1otlc: it has on hand and unfinished
a great work in clearing off the debris
left in the fields by Spain after the
war was over, which both democrats
and republicans put us into.
The work is being done sa~tisfac-
torily, and there should be no change
in the chief executive as long as this
important work is going on.
President Mckinley is a wise, ex-
perienccd and patriotic Christian
statesman, and me only complaint
urged by his opponents is that 4.is
place is wanted by another man.
Gov. Roosevelt is the highest type
of American manhood. He is able,
cultivated and well prepared for the
duties which will be assigned him as
vice president of the United States.
The best blood of the south fills his
veins, as his mother was one of the
Georgia's fairest daughters and of a
family wholly southern and distin-
guished in the service of the state in
peace and in war.
But my friends say the democratic
party is essentially southern and all
southern men should support it.
"ls Mr.. Bryan southern? Is Mr.,
Stevenson southern? Is Mr.. Bryan a
democrat? If so, what sort of a demo-
Crat?
"Janus-faced, he is accepting the
nomination of the democrats, but fac
ing and smiling n way at the popu-
lists and the other at the silver repub-
licans.
MI. Bryan anu his party Of fusion
carry no hope for the south. Virginia's
vote is not required to elect Mckinley
and Roosevelt, nor is the vote of the
south.
THE north will easily elect him, but
honestly, sincerely and periodically
pray that the scales may soon fall from
~~