Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-05
The Virginia Campaign.

Representative Hay of Virginia. promi-
nent member of the present House and a
candidate for reelection. Is quoted as fol-
lows respecting the campaign in that state:
The insistence of the President that the
republicans shall have contests in all the
congressional districts in Virginia will be of
great help to the democratic party, as 1t
will stir them up to more activity than has
heretofore characterized them in congress
sonal elections in off years. 1t will have
the further effect of aligning the people of
the state with the democrats Mr.. ROose-
welt is not popular in Virginia, owing to his
arraignment of confederate soldiers an
archists and to his bitter denuncatiOn Of
our people in his Arlington speech. to say
nothing of the Booker Washington dinner
You think. then. that this will mate
rally affect the yote?'
Yes Mr. Hay replied. If the people
of Virginia believe, as they will, that Mr..
Roosevelt is responsible for the present re-
publican activity in the state. they will be
glad of an opportunity to rebuke him at
the polls. The lines having once been
drawn. the hope which some republicans
indulge that large number of white men
will join the republican party will not be
realized
Mr. Hay undoubtedly speaks by the card
He knows his party and its purposes. He
knows the people of Virginia. He laughs,
as indeed all candid democrats of his sec
ton do, at the talk about building up
republican party in the south on the real
issues of the day. That army of democrats
scheduled to pass over to the opposition
now that the negro has been disfranchised
will not Mr.. Hay is very confident, ma
terialize. There will be no change at all. And
why? 1t is charged that Mr.. Roosevelt
characterized confederate soldiers an
archists. and it Is remembered that Booker
Washington has been a guest at Mr.. Roose-
velts table. These then are the issues in
Virginia this year, and on the strength of
them the democrats will be united and VIC
torious. Undoubtedly.
1t will avail nothing to reply that the
Presidents Arlington speech admits of no
such hideous Interpretation as is here put
upon It; that he has appointed a distin-
guished ex-cOnfederate soldier to the fed
eral bench In Alabama, and in doing so rec
ognized a democrat over republican appll-
cants; that In one Of the books of which
he Is the author he rates General Lee as
one of the greatest soldiers produced by
the Anglo-Saxon race. Nor will 1t avail
anything to reply that Booker Washington
is one of the leading figures in intellectual
America. and has sat at table with the pick
of his own country and of Europe. The
lower south Is solid. not on the money is
sue, not on the tdriII ISSUE, not on the issue
of expansion. but purely and entirely on the
race issue, which she raises herself and
keeps alive for her own purposes.
1t is not to be supposed that Mr.. Roose-
welt does not understand so plain situa-
ton. He cannot in reason expect more
from this years campaigns in the south
than the simple exhibition of the fact that
the elimination of the negro vote has left
the democratic strength in that section I'M
impaired. and that the old negotiations with
Tammany Hall for national control have
been resumed.