Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-04-27
SOUTHERN POLITICS.
Reason Why the People Are Not Well Up on
National Questions.

Reason Why the People Are Not Well Up on
National Questions.
Naturally, the Baltimore Sun and the
Charleston IS. CO. News and Courier,
along with Senator Ben Tillman, are
bitterly opposed to the expansion ideas
Of Senator McLaurin Of South Caro-
lima, says the Richmond News.
The south Carolina fight will be Of
peculiar interest and Importance, and
the methods of the contestants are al
ready indicated by their published ut
terances. Senator McLaurin discusses
issues of worldwide and national i'm
portance logically, clearly and calmly.
Senator Tillman, as is his custom, flies
into passion and resorts to personal
abuse and the nasty insinuations IN
which he is an expert. He has never
yet faced an opponent with direct
charges made face to face, man fash
ion. His method is to hint and sneer,
and with infection and expression OF
face and gesture convey the accusation
he does not dare to utter.
In two generations the people Of the
cotton states have had no opportunity
to consider and discuss economic ques-
tions. For many years they were oc-
cupied with slavery and secession, for
many years later with reconstruction
and the color line. Speakers and writ
ers who have gone before them with
questions Of tariff and finance and for
eign policy have failed to arouse their
interest, have found themselves appeal
ing to minds trained to consider other
things. For that reason those people
have been ready prey for any quack
who appeared with a glittering and
shallow theory on any of these mat
ters. Now for the first time in fifty
years a Southern Democrat will go be-
fore audiences Of Southern Democrats
and secure hearing inside the organi-
zation for the new and broader ques-
tions of the day.
In Maryland, where the people are
more trained in Federal questions and
matters beyond their local conditions,
the Baltimore Sun has been emphati-
cally repudiated, it's old leadership has
been lost and it represents only beat
en- and discredited element. That ex-
cellent newspaper tells us, on the au-
thority Of The News and Courier, that
McLaurin is supported in South Caro-
lima by nobody but a few representa-
tiveso Of manufacturing interests. Those
few representatives Of manufacturing
interests are the men who have built
and are building a wonderful develop
ment. They have but few hundred
votes among them, but they have pro-
vided employment for many thousands
of working people and home cash mar
kets for the cotton and minor products
of thousands Of farmers. It Will be
brought home to the working people
and the farmers that they are as vital
ly and Immediately interested as are
the few representatives of manufac-
turing interests in having American
trade and markets and spheres Of In
fuenced broadened, that If we limit our
spheres of trade and influence to our
own continent we limit the demand for
their labor and products.
The position of newspapers like The
Sun and The News and Courier toward
manufacturing interests is curiously
inconsistent and silly. These newspa-
pers print columns on the need of the
South for more manufactures. When
q new industry is proposed or offered
they Duff and blow and hurrah. AS
soon as the industry is established in the
South they begin to regard it as pub
lie enemy, especially in campaign years,
and to oppose violently every political
measure the manufacturers favor to
broaden their markets and build up
their enterprises.
This is not real Democracy, for de-
mocracy is always honest, consistent
and sensible. It is Organism and Till
manism, disregard of the real, solid
business interests Of the people and
the development Of class and sectional
prejudices to secure jobs for men who
live by politics. The politicians lead,
for their own purposes, an unthinking
and uninstructed crowd follow the pol
iticians, and the newspapers follow the
crowd.
The McLaurin fight promises discus
sion by a broad man Of broad issues
before the Democratic masses OF the
Southern states. 1t promises vast up
heaval in the South which will carry
the Democratic party back to real
Democratic principles, vitalized, ener-
gized, modernized to meet new condi-
tionS.