The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-18
BY wAY Or REJoINDER.

ed virginian-Pilot- We "sorter' like our contemporary, for there Is good in 1t when it can be'pumped out. Ii has much of the bumptiousness which attaches to many virginians who think their com- monwealth the pinnacle of creation and It's people just little bit better than any other inhabitants of old earth. That, how ever, Is pardonable. for State pride is a good thing even though 1t may be over worked on occasions.
 But our contemporary kicks because we mildly intimated that it Is cratic, and 1t denies the charge as vigorously as if we had accused 1t of being an original organ of gold-bugism. Listen to its dis claimer:
 l It is not to the taste of The Virginian- Pilot, if 1t is of The Advertiser. to bow l before dusty shrines and humble tooth- less prayers before ancient and wizened ICleveland as the apotheosis of Democracy l nor Hon. William J. Bryan as the evan- gel of the coming utopia. But 1t sees some good in both and some bad in both | and because 1t can see and refuses to be | blinded therefore is it cratic in the eyes | of every Pharisee who glues his eyes to l the soles of his sandals nor will have l any wider horizon, tickling his vanity the | while that whatever lies beyond Is not | worth having.
 | Perhaps The Advertiser ought to feel crushed. but it really doesn't-probaly because we fail to see what The Pilot is driving at. We are not lowing before any shrines, dusty or otherwise, and we don't known what "toothless prayers happen to be. They may be the invocations of some new sect, but we know them not. And we confess. further, that we do not understand what manner of man that would be who "glues his eyes to the soles of his sandals" for that would be an acrobatic feat just a little above our ability. We have heard of people who were so cross-eqed that they could look at the backs of their necks, but we doubt if even one of them could see the soles of his feet while he was walking.
 But the aninaus of The virginian-P Pilot diatribe lies in the fact that we failed to agree with its contention that the Southern Democracy should insist on talk ing the lead in the party councils in fu- ture, and both dictate its policies and its candidates, and it wants to know if It does not speak for the good of the De- mocracy will the esteemed Advertiser point out what is for the good of the na- tional Democracy?" Then 1t adds:
 |. Is the Advertiser for turning absolute leadership over to the New York Democ- | racy which Is conglomeration of Tam manyite, socialist and corporation tool! Is 1t for the same old policy of cringe that has made the voice of the Crokers and Hills of more account In national | conventions than the voice of the section that casts the Democratic electoral votes, and has despite the assertion of The Ad- vertiser, remained true throughout to the fundamental principles of Democracy. | principles that lie deeper than issues of | tariff or of currency? Would The Adver- tiser have Southern delegations go up to the convention once more with the legend on their backs?
 ! There really isn't any call to grow hys- terical over the situation. We have no desire to turn the party over to the Cro- kers, Hills or any other New Workers un- less we can be made sure that they will prove much safer leaders than those who have been dominating the party for some thing like a decade. The first thing to- dc is to get away from them and their infiu- ence, and then we can see the way to install safer leaders. We are not at all enamored of the leadership of the Hills and the Crokers, and see little reason to suppose that either of them will lead in the next campaign. The first thing for Democrats all over the Union to do Is to firmly and unequivocally repudiate the Populistic doctrines of Bryan. and of the Chicago and Kansas City platforms, and repudiate all and singular the men who still adhere to those doctrines, whether such men live in the North, the South or the West. When a man wants to thor oughly cleanse himself he first takes off his old clothes, bathes himself and puts on other garments. If the clothing he has before worn suits him better he will put 1t on-
 That is about what Democracy must do. It must divest itself of the un-Dem- ocratic garb 1t has been wearing. wash itself clean of all Populistic theories and then clothe itself with real Democratic covering. The suit of 1892. with slight en. largement. will be both fitting and invul. nerable. and in it there will be strength and safety.
 The Advertiser is not tied to MT. Cleve. land, or to any other man, but we tel our contemporary, as we have told 1t be. fore, that the party must take up and fight for the Democracy of Cleveland olney, Whitney and others of their way of thinking. or make up its mind to again go down in defeat. Whether the leader and the leadership comes from the East or the South is not a matter of so much importance as that both shall be of the right kind. There was a time when the South led Democracy along right paths and when 1t can again do that We shall see its domination. but not before. There should be no more leadership to political destruction.
 The Republican Party has now virtually settled its policy in Alabama. It will be a digntfed, business-like and patriotic policy. It will do its own bosslng and Teddy can whlstle.-Huntsville Tribune
 We'll you may be correct but we shall know mora ahout if aFter tba oa+iono,