The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-19

menu III o"CHlJ VI twenty -nNe years
The Democrats understand that the
I day will come in the lives of the com
ing generation when the negro ques-
ton will again become acute and
when another remedy must be pro-
yided
The amendment after 1902 will
make for better things and for more
! political independence. But it will
not close the mouth of any Southern
man to injustice to his section or to
evils that in Federal administration
in his own community that he will
not tolerate in his county or State
government,
The whole record of the Mckinley
administration will be discussed in
this campaign from 1.-The paramount
issue of Imperialism to the estab-
lishment of a harem at Uncle Sans
expense for the Governor of Sulu.
The appointment of Rathbone, a typi-
cal colonial officer, the vulgar corrup-
ton that follows i'll the wake of Han
ma, the dread evils of militarism, the
wrong of the gold standard, the rob-
berry of the truStS-theSe Will all be
discussed and criticized. The sending
of seven of McKinley's negro post Of
ficers to jail will not be omitted because
it may CRATE on the feelings of the
Charlotte Observer owner who holds
$500 job under Mckinley; the fact
that a negro is Collector of Customs
in Wilmington will not be suppressed
because it pains Editor Bailey; and
the presence of jim Young in the rev.
enue service viii not be forgotten be-
cause the Southern Railway organ,
The Morning Boast, is suddenly tired
of hearing talk of negro oftce-holding
since it's boss wants to vote for Nc
Kinley this year as he did in 1896.
These three and their Me Too's" will
have to hear it all. If they stick to
McKinley-they need not expect
Democrats to put sugar in their med-
cine to make it sweet. A Mckinley
Federal official is no better than But
Ter local official.
There are two or three papers that
are true blue" Democratic that fell
into the trap set for them by the boil
tiers. They got the impression that
somebody was proposing to run the
national campaign on the negro is
sue and prosecute the negro, and
they said that this was not wanted.
They are right if there was any such
proposition. The overshadOwing is
sue is imperialism and it will hold
that place in North Carolina as we'll
as in Indiana, and win in both. No
body except the Mckinleyites has sug
gested that the Democrats would run
a campaign on the race issue; but
Democrats have believed that Federal
negro officeholding is no better than
State negro officeholding. Anything
wrong about that? Nothing has been
done but to say that white folks ought
to stand together for the great prin-
ciples in the Kansas City platform.
The plan on foot to secure 100000 ne
gro votes for Mckinley, now that it
is exposed, will fail. 1t had no chance
Of success except by dark-lantern
methods.
If the Democrats take the bull by
the horns and talk plainly against ne
gro Federal office-holding, the Nc
Kinlevites will not organize the ne
groea thoroughly. but if they are
silent-that's what the Mckinleyites
want. And it is well to disappoint
your enemy.
This plan involves no persecution
or war on the negro. The policy of
this paper. as expressed in its issue
on the morning after the election, will
be adhered to honestly. We said:
1.-THE white people of North Carolina
are hostile to negro office-holding, and
they will not permit it's continuance.
They are also opposed to office-holding
by men who win by appealing to the ne
gro vote. But the Democratic party.
which now in public affairs has been
chosen to govern this State, is not hos
tile to the negro. He will find that no
prejudice no intolerance, no bitterness
engendered by the campaign will be per-
mitted to deprive him of full protection
TO person or property, to deny him ia
cilities to educate his children, or to
find here in the home of his birth every
proper incentive 10 thrift and good citi-
zenship. Many negroes have been made
to believe that the passage Of the amend
ment would be the beginning of war
upon them So far from this being the
case, they will find that when political
friction is ended, they can rely implicitly
upon the justice and fairness Of the
Democratic party"
Let us have peace-not the peace
of fancied security that wakes to find
that accepts as issues those proposed
by men who pretend to favor Bryan
while doing what they can indirectly
for Mckinley; not the peace that puts
traitors to the party on guard; not
the peace of death-but the peace of
grim determination and steadfastness
that marks an army that has expelled
its spies and camp followers, and in
which every man is ready to follow
his commander to victory or to death.
Let all voters in North Carolina come
out in the open and show their
colors to the end that the Democratic
phalanx may march to victory in No
vember, every man as true to the lead
ership of Bryan and Stevenson as
every Confederate soldier was true to
Lee and jackson.