The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-18

Washington. Oct. 1L--(SpeciaL)- South ern Democrats contemplate with disquiet- ing foreboding the active interest which President Roosevelt is manifesting in the coming Maryland State election. In that State the Democrats have raised the race issue and thereby reused MT. Roosevelt to unwonted concern. Every turn of politi- cal and other affairs which touches the nothing else. Those who have studied the developments of his character as President have deserted in him an am- bition to excell all other statesmen who ton. He has gotten the fervent con- ffdence of every negro leader in the coun- try and he means to deserve the distinc-
 He burns not merely to emulate the great Emancipator but to give his name to the Afro-American as one man who could overtop Abraham Lincoln. There Tore IS he up and doing with all the power publican success in Maryland. He has had come to him every Republican leader of note afforded by the State and he has given them such a talking and imperious ly impressed by his earnestness He warned all that the success of the Democ- racy of Maryland meant a long-continued hold upon the State, as they would more in making the race issue by the adoption of measures which would so curtail the negro vote as to make Republican defeat a constant certainty.
 ,u No election in Maryland was eyer outcome. should especially concern the South. The opinion of Southern Demo- crats here is that should the Republicans win. 1t will be heralded as great triumph Of negro-magnifying adminis- tration. and then should Roosevelt be elected President he will leave nothing undone' to' bring about another recon structions in the South. even to the ex. tent Of bayonets at the polls to permit every negro citizen to vote.
 The President, it is said, will demon strate his unfaltering devotion to the cause of the poor down-trodden black man in way that will prove salutary les son to Southerners who have the temeri- ty to question the wisdom of his policy and .emanations on the race question.
 It is now regarded as certain that Mir Roosevelt intends to administer rebuke to Judge somerviile, chairman of the Board of Appraisers at New York Of that impending act former Senator Pugh, to whom President Harrison accorded the honor of selecting Democrat for the ap- praiser's place and who picked out Judge Somerville. Is fully convinced. Senator Pugh. early In Roosevelt's administra- tton, professed much admiration for him. who is inclined to policy that means great mischief to the South.
 Senator Pugh iS not alone in his view. It Is not mere partisan indulgence that Is provoked here by the unmistakable de- termination of President Roosevelt to con tinue to magnify the negro's importance and to exaggerate his alleged wrongs. It Is hard too for those of our people who have scrutiniZed the conduct of the Presi- dent to escape the burden of the con- viction that his avowed zeal for the negro is not an unmixed fervor of patriotism not an unalloyed aspiration of bene- flcience.
 Theodore Roosevelt. notwithstanding his pretense Of pride In his Southern blood, Is, In the deliberate opinion of many peo- pie. an intensely sectional partisan of the m statecraft can come out of the South. In his writings upon the statesmen of the counry, every President whom he has most unsparingly criticised was a Demo- crat and Southern man, from Jeffer- son to Polk. He himself has insulted> off ing freedom of speech. he the President who when militia officer in Cuba. vented the most bitter reflections upon the War Department. Therefore, 1t is believed by Democrats and especially Southern Democrats. that the election of Theodore turbance of the amity and closer-knit business relations that have grown up be- tween the North and South since the war that divided them.
 The importance of Democ:atic unity, in ltbis connection, cannot be underestimated. among Southern members of Congress who have lately come about Washington an invariable and tacit refraining from | exurberance over apybody's so-called Presidential boom. The feeling among Southerners is that it Is all too soon fore the election. A Congress Is to in-