The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1901-04-25
SENATOR McLAURIN'S SPEECH.
An Able Defence of His COurSe-HiS
Conception of Work for Southern
Statesmen.

Statesmen.
We publish in full below the address
of Senator John L. McLaurin made at L
banquet of the Southern Manufacturers
Club in Charlotte last Thursday evening.
His subject was: "Our present condition
in the South and our duty for the future.
We have no apology to make for con-
suming so much space with this address,
as we believe our readers will welcome IT.,
for the Senator's course has been so per-
sistently misrepresented by the politi-
clans and few newspapers:
I desire to make statement OF some
what personal nature before proceeding
with this speech, which intend to deliv-
er tonight. A certain newspaper CORES
pondent in the city of Washington has
persistently spread the report that was
coming to Charlotte to make speech
which would launch new party in the
south. The report is absolutely false If
| had any such intention good taste would
prevent me from taking advantage of an
opportunity of this kind. am content
to advocate within Democratic lines the
policies which believe to be best for the
South, and when / can no longer do this
I am ready to retire to private life.
In the South we are today realizing
some of the dreams of its far-reachins
statesmen and business men of fifty years
ago. With prophetic eye, they saw the
industrial and commercial possibilities OF
our highly favored Southland. >.~
With an advance of thought that is
really surprising, they suggested enter
prises of wonderful magnitude for its up
building and commercial dominance
From 1888 to 1860, conventions were held
to voice the demands of dcepseated
public sentiment for industrial progress
The story of these movements is chronl'
cled in South Carolina publication
which, under the name of Debow's Re-
view, did for the old South what the
South today.
The same spirit which enabled our
fathers to leave the field of defeat with
nothing but their courage and their char
acters left, still lives in the South, and
inspires you today in your great under
taking.
The plans of the great southern busi-
ness men and statesmen of fifty years ago
are no longer idle dreams. Postponed by
a cruel war which destroyed our social
and industrial system, and which for
wears reach cooperation in national un-
dertakings almost impossible, such men
har O + ~
dreams actual living realities.
WHAT WARS SETTLED.
Talk about the New South" the name
is a misnomer. 1t is the same old spirit
revived which sixty years ago made the
South the dominant power in this nation
"a position of which nothing but war
could have robbed her. What we need
now to again attain that proud eminence
is the same broad conception and the
same comprehensive grasp of the true
situation. The last twenty years have
wrought an industrial revolution in the
south, which must find expression in our
social and political life.
The time is past for the discussion as
to whether this government is to be one
consolidated in its structure or loose
aggregation of (so-called) sovereign
States. The civil war settled that.
1t is useless to discuss the question OF
whether this is to be a purely Theoretical
Democratic government or an expanding
and giant Republic. The Spanish wal
settled that. Why not then accept con
ditions as they are and make the most OF
themf
The agitation of such issues only serves
to sidetrack broad American doctrines
and should not be made party questions
because they grow out of actual political
and economic conditions, which it is be-
yond the power of either party to change
I care not of what political faith the oc.
cupant of the white house might have
been; for, if a true American, mindful OF
the honor and dignity of the nation, the
results of the Spanish war could not bt
widely different from what they are today
Why should our people be the only
ones to close their eyes to what is going
on? Why should we move along in the
same old ruts and insist that politica
policies and old traditions, long since
dead, are vital living issues, and depend
upon them for the salvation of the South:
LESSON OF .
The triumphant reelection of Mr.. Nc
Kinley in the last campaign is full of sig
nificance. 1t is stubborn fact confront
ing the Democratic party today, suggest.
i've of reproachful remembrances and
fearful menaces. What reflection that
this new Democracy did not carry a
State where the issues were discussed and
Judgment passed by the people upon
them on their merits. Of course with RS
it has been impossible to decide elections
upon issues. 1t has been simply a ques-
ton of white supremacy. In the north
and the west, dissolved into factions,
tainted by the errors of republicanism
and the follies of populism, the party
could not withstand the tide of popular
opposition excited by unreasonable criti-
cism of the conduct of a forei gn war, and
by the vicious and incendiary appeals
made during the last month of the cam
paign to class hatred and prejudice.
Fundamental principles We're lost sight
of, and in an insane effort to secure party
success at any cost, the attempt was made
to combine socialism, populism and sec
tionalism, with nothing but the sentiment
and traditions of Democracy. The real
Democratic leaders of the senate for the
past three years have been Allen, Teller,
and Pettigrew, all of them able men, but
one Populist, one high-tariff Republi-
can, and the other, / do not know what.
All of them opposed to State banks of
issue with proper safeguards, and most
other things we need in the South. This
was called the New Democracy" in con-
tradistinction from the old, and some of
it's leaders stated that its creeds were rev.
olutionary and were SO designed to be.
To SOW discomfort with Industrial con-
ditions and distrust Of the governing
power; to array class against class, in the
hope of securing fancied social and in
dustrial equality, is to my mind the first
step in revolution. The South is the
American end of America In no section
is there so small foreign element, so
much conservatism, and so pure a pa
triotism. What a political paradox then
it is for our people to be the allies of pro-
fessed revolutionists elsewhere.
WHAT THE MCKINLEY VOTERS FEARED.
1t was not the pure type of Southern
Democracy that the balance of the coun-
try feared in the last presidential election.
They knew that properly interpreted this
was conservative and safe. 1t was well