The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-21
SOUTHERN MAN
FOR PRESIDENT.
Laps. ID. McCord of Tennessee Give.
Reasons for Selecting One.

serious detrment of the South. One re-
lates to Expediency and the other to
Sectionalism. The argument of inexpen-
ency has sufficed now for half century
TO prevent even the suggestion of South
ern man for President. 1 will make. If
appear hereafter. for it is the Lords
truth, that the "expediency" shoe is now
shifted to the other foot. It will be fatal
to the party longer to repress the South,
The younger generations coming on are
disinclined to ally themselves with a par
~ that promises them nothing and Is dis
inclined even to insist upon them having
the equal privileges of American citizens
I am not ready just yet TO go into that
question until more facts appear, and I
ask the reader again TO postpone his de-
cision until l am heard
The other argument has been potent
also In depressing even claim for the
South's equal pro rata participation in
governmental affairs Whenever any one
has had the temerity to speak of the
manner in which the South is almost to-
tally excluded from the benefits emolu-
ments, and honors of official affairs, there
are a thousand voices raised to cry him
down for promoting ectional bitterness
I am now presenting in some detail the
figures showing the true state of the case
and l was quite sure, in advance. that
the other fellows who are getting il all
will seek to make 1t abortive by imput-
ing to me a wicked motive to stir UP sec
tional strife. They have succeeded until
now, and they have made US keep our
mouths closed all these years, lest we
rifle them while they are fastening their
eternal hold on things-getting all the
good things moved north of Mason and
Dixon's line, filling all the Offices with
their men, and fastening them in forever
with civil service rules. There are posi-
bly, men yet at the South who will dep
recate mentioning these things. They pre-
fer to give the other fellows all the earth
rather than hurt their feelings by men
tioning it.
If it Is a question of section the East
has made it so by taEing everything for
that section. From their viewpoint II is
not sectional greed to seize everything
in sight, but it is the wickedest kind of
sectional prejudice to speak of It,
1t is high time to have some common
sense about this thing. The figures given
are taken from official sources and if they
make a case that can be contorted into
sectional meaning, the men who made the
figures did it. The mention of these
things is not conceived in mercenary mo-
tive nor asserted complainingly The
man who would accuse the South of sordid
motive or selfshness in the face of the
enormous amount of money she pays into
funds from which she derives no begefSt,-
is either ignorant or knave. The gov
ernment has paid in pensions since 1851
the almost incomprehenSible' sum OF So
562 94Ol0. If Adam had setgin to count
that, and We're stiH living, he would Be
at 1t still. The amount disbursed at the
Knoxville agency, the only one in the
South, indicates that the South gets about
per cent. of that returned to it. Even
that goes largely 40 men who have moved
in there from the North. II she had been
paid in pensions in proportion to popula-
ton, she would have had one-third of this
instead of one-twentieth. But she has
never murmured and has never claimed
anything. IL is right that it should be
as it is, perhaps, and I have not counted 4
it into the sum of the account between
the North and the South.
'Saddled, as she is, with this enormous
burden from which she asks and gets
little benefit it should entitle her to at
least just consideration in other matters.
There is some reason for the disparity
in the matter of pensions, grievously
enormous as it is. but there is no longer
any excuse for excluding the new gener-
atoms coming on from an equal share In
tA4e bChIAAtS vi
The total populate of the country is
74,6lO,523, and of the South, 25,1o 304. 1t
is a little mare than one-third. and if
we take that as basis, the South should
be entitled to one-third the benefits. The
right to pro rata participation is recog-
nized by law and practice everywhere
and the Civil Service Commission is
based upon that in theory, although the
fact is violated. Congress itself is based
,fs,4g,
population. Congressman are given docu-
ments, seeds, etc, in proportion to their
constituents. States are allotted cadets
in the national academies, pro rated on
population. Every department is sup
posed to dispense patronage to states
pro rated on population 1t is the recog-
nized, legal, just basis. 1t would not be
fair to dispense it according to wealth.
although it might be just to reverse that
rule. Poor people need 1t more than rich
ones, and if any difference is made it
should go to the poor man. Does the
South get her one-third?
The South has not furnished a Presi-
dent since Polk was elected in 1874. She
should have had four Zachary Taylor
was an army man all his life and be-
longed to no section; besides. he died
early, and Northern man was Presi-
dent at last.
but once in thirty-six years. Andy John
son was elected during the war, but II
was no concession to the South that
prompted 1t.
Let II rot be assumed that the con-
tention is made that the presidency should
De parceled out on a pro rata basis. 1t
is exactly the reverse of that. The South
should not be accorded the presidency
oneIthird the time because she is the
S1urn l,a1f aha ~
y ell the time because she is the South.
me latter is the fact. and this IS not
calm for sectional recognition, but a
protest against sectional ostracism.
There have been 1875 cabinet officers
since the war. only II of whom were
southern men, and nearly all of these
wore Just over the line, and some of
lhem not to the manor born. She should
nave had Al under the rule. These are
oHices of great dignity and power, and
me South lost not merely the difference
oetween II and Al men. but the immess-
uFaOle difference in patronage and benefits
lAey would have accorded her. These
men have many Thousand Offices TO be-
STOW. The payroll in Washington alone
Is E24,so9. SSH. The South since the war
has rad
The Secretary of State. out OF &C.
Secretary OF the Treasury 2 out Of q.
Secretary OF War. ? out oA-22.
Secretary Of Interior, 2 out OF 10.
Secretary OF the Navy, out Of 49,
secretary Of Agriculture. ] out of