The age-herald., 1902-02-20
LET THE SOUTH ALONE.

From the Washington Post.
 If Mir. Crumpacker needs any one thing more than another at this time 1t Is protection from hls fool friends in the newspapers who are daily telling him that his project in connection with the Souths Congressional representation Is a boon to the Republican party. Right here in Washington, for example, an af- ternoon contemporary of ours has been talking to him thus:
 Could anything be plainer than that if the South should be forced to pay the constitutional penalty for making her election laws mere contrivances for regis tering Democratic ma1orities she would revise those laws in the interest of fair play and just dealings? Her machine politicians will hold on to their unlawful power as long as possible and put up a complaining mouth at all talk of taking 1t away. But let it be taken away and their advantages for negotiating with Tammany Hall for control of the na- tional government impaired, and in order to exercise as much influence in Congress and the electoral college as possible. they  men whom they now exclude. The best thing that could possibly happen to the South, as to the whole country, would be her rescue by the means proposed from the machine influences that now dominate her."
 We shall not discuss the so-called "con- stitutional penalty" referred to. That touches a few Southern States only and cuts no figure in the general proposition.
 As a matter of fact, the chief sufferer under the application of the Crumpacker idea is Louisiana-Republcan in feeling
 at this moment and sure to be Republican
 in fact at very early day If Congress
 will keep Its hands off and let the fer
 ment work. We are perfectly aware that the election clause in the new Louisiana
 constitution is illegal and indefensible. It has been so denounced by Senator Me Emery, by ex-Senator Caffery by the best lawyers and the most enlightened news 1 papers in the State. But the evil will not be remedied-it will be merely intensified by reducing the representation. The | Democratic machine will, in that case promtply redistrict the State, and the
 hope of a Republican apotheosis will l perish. North Carolina and Alabama
 have both followed the example of Lou
 isiana and incorporated the grandfather proviso" in their election laws. Both,
 therefore, may be smitten, by MT. Crum- | packer, should his resolution carry. And
 yet Alabama and North Carolina will in-
 evitably send Republicans to Congress if only statesmen who know nothing at all
 about social and political conditions at the South will stop meddling and confine their activities to matters within the range of their information and experi- | ence.
 The Mississippi and South Carolina statutes are unassailable. There is noth-
 ing to take hold of in Georgia or Florida Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas and the Vir- ginias are outside the question. This proposed interference will not extend be- yond Louisiana, North Carolina and Ala bama-the three Southern States in which
 the Democratic machine is already disin- tegrating, and where the intelligent tot. CTS must soon divide on economic issues if only Northern doctrinaires and anna teurs will let them be.