The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-18
THE LILY WHITES"
In Alabama, Where They Originated,
 Their Cause is Dead.

In Alabama, Where They Originated, Their Cause is Dead.
 The movement to create a white mans republican party in Alabama was buried with more or less ceremony Wednesday. It was tender and dain- ty thing. and now it Is dead. with few to stand as mourners at the grave.
 It is well, perhaps. When the move
 ment started, the white republicans in Alabama did not know what was ahead of them. They imagined that MT Roosevelt, having announced his policy as that of the late President Mckinley, there would be acquiescence in, if not direct support of, the plan to enlarge republican activity in the south by in viting the assistance of southern white men who were no longer in sympathy with the policies or the democratic par | ty. Doubtless 1t was considered that the negroes, having been disfranchised or having refrained of their own accord | from seeking registration, could now be disregarded in the making up of a party. The negroes being eliminated, there would be no obstacle to the ad- hesion of many southern men to the
 republican party.
 The inventors of this plan overlooked
 one important factor-the negro vote in the northern states. It is probable that they had in some sort the private en- couragement of MT. Roosevelt. The confidence with which they announced their programme and the aggressive
 ness with which they held 8 conven-
 tion and barred out all negroes would | indicate that there was such an under standing. MT. Roosevelt soon woke up to the new feature of the situation, however. Tn short, he heard from the
 negro vote of Ohio, Illinois and other states where a few thousands of ne-
 groes, voting one way or the other, can throw the state for or against the re- l publican presidential candidate. He very soon developed into a most ardent | negrophile and began that course that has earned him the grateful praise of the negroes of Kansas and Massachu-
 setts. Naturally, it followed from this that the so-called lilly white'
 movement in Alabama must be l IIOW upOt1s IL DS SI | wise thing to have the republican par | ty become a consideration in the south, | but practically-and especially so far as affected Mir. Roosevelt's political chances-it was not to be thought of. | Thereupon began the campaign for the reblacking of the Alabama party. There was and could be no question of
 the standing of the party in Alabama.
 It was strictly regular; the convention
 had been duly called and was held un- der the direction of the state chairman.
 The trick to be played was that of cap
 turing the individual members of the
 organization and reveal to their aston
 ished gaze the disastrous effect of per sistence in their effort to make re- spectable party in 1his state-the dis astrous effect upon the negro vote in
 Ohio! A commission was appointed to
 do the capturing, and so we'll was it's work performed that nineteen of the
 thirty-four committeeman were brought
 over to the Roosevelt column, and sev-
 eraI more were scared in when they learned that the majority had capitu- lated.
 Chairman Wellman was still holding
 out at last reports. He is probably one
 of those conscientious men who be-
 lieves his party is something more than
 mere political machine. He has
 called meeting oS the committee for
 May 12. All the members will attend,
 Including the twenty-odd who have
 surrendered, and on the 12th they will
 rise up and slay Wellman politically,
 as the senators arose and slew Julius
 Caesar in the Capitol at Rome
 And that will be the end of the white
 mans republican party in Alabama!
 Play requiem by Grleg! Drop the
 curtain!
 When 1t is raised again, behold the
 apotheosis of Theodore Roosevelt!