The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-26
St. Clair McKelway Brings &
 Message from North to South

 question, and we hope you have also As to you thls supposition may De wrong or premature. but we have learned Tn hard school of experience ana 1T suher- ing that cheap money desrades Lot only and moral standing among | the nations of the world. To their opin- ion\ we cannot be indifferent. With their general welfare our own IS pound Up. we have also learned, and we hope Fou have. that periodical business uncertainty | business prostration. And we iave aiso learned that he should be regarded | ike fix wSo s. Would d" gamble with the interests or fears of business for political purposes or for political effect While bearing the | ills we have rather than flying to others | which we know not of. the sanity Of the North and we hope. the sanity of the | South, would retire from the field of ex- | pertinent the attempt to harmonize in | single enactment of mammoth proportions of infinite intricacy the theories of any political party or the avarice Of any two in combination. We would like to sub | stitute bipartisan or non partisan com | corps of experts on economic subjects for a system of competition responding to the greed of contributing and recouping mo nopolies or to tho intellectual indigestion of anemic visionaries. Our business laws should be hodge-podge neither of hys- terics nor of hypocrisy. The dictionary Is too small for the mind of a child. The ramitied needs. the multitudinous inter ests and the diversified resources and act ivities of our people are too large for set tlemen on partly lines. The effort to sat isfy the wants and the notions the views and the dreams. the hunger and the appe- tite of combinations and sections by po- litical legislation have freighted wltn scandal and clogged with confusion more than one endeavor to make the streams or revenue run up hill. to stimulate trade by destroying markets. to reduce the cost or living by taxing necessarfes and to pro
 mote the content of the poor by letting md we hope, yours are aroused with us. GO the nonsense, and worse, or all tnis sort of thing. We may have to postpone any new method of business adJJustment till after the national convulsion ot lso4. But after that task, from the very irie- ton of two schools of opinion independent | men should deduce & plan to secure Jus. | such Legislation as will bring revenue u | needed figure and as will for the rest of the matter let well enough alone. we have been beset by theories and we have | been confronted by contentious. We pre- | fer the conditions we know to the theories | we do not know. the devils which we have | to the devils that may desire to nave us Agreements outclass Differences. | If have touched upon public subjects. | I have tried to do so without onense. NO thinking of them. No gathering called in | the name and cause of education can well keep it's mind from them. No company from an extremely practical portion Of the land can greet the representatives Of the great State of Virginia without con l seriousness of the common needs of com mon nationality. From what have said have purposely left out the party nouns and the party adjectives which have on men, otherwise sane the incenslng erect | of red rags on the horned and believing | terrors of field and of plain. My country l men, if we leave the quarrel words out or | our contests or out of our contentious, | out of our speeches and out of our Journ- | alism. we will go far toward finding out that the things wherein we agree vastly l outnumber and immensely outclass the | things whereon we differ. Take. for in- | stance. the lspsed question of bmetalism: | That was great and mouth-hlnng word | with us well as with you l never knew of a human being who was against 1t. if international agreement made 1t pos
 sible, or who could tell how such agree
 ment could be brought about We learn
 ed that If we went at 1t alone the nooler
 metal rose to premium and It's parity | with the baser would become barren ideality. We learned that if We under
 took it In conjunction with other nations
 they must be nations of our own class
 and that such nations refused their CO
 operation. We could not undertake It of
 ourselves. We could not propose 1t to
 our peers among governments without
 drawing their respectful declinatfon. our
 policies had been better. our lives had
 been sweeter. our friendships had been
 finer had we left such quarrel words as
 Silver Craze, Gold Bugs, Coin Clippers
 Plutocrats. Bloated Bondhoiders and
 Roaring Repudiators out of the conten-
 ton. Take any other of the subjects, for
 instance, by which with wind and tongue
 demagogues have divided our people. Re-
 cur for a moment to the tariff. The con
 cern of it must be revenue Tor the Gov
 ernment. An auxiliary consideration of
 1t must be the wage of the people. The
 first must be enough. and the second
 must not be reduced. It logically follows
 that duties must conserve and preserve
 rates. That rule followed out would pro-
 duce a business tariff which it would be
 a satire to baptize with any party name;
 as much of q satire as 1t would be polit.
 ically to christen a civil or criminal
 code.
 Tn the same way take up Civil Ser
 vice Reform It is based on the propo-
 sition that public business Is business,
 and that 1t is not more or less with the
 word public put in front of it than with
 that word left out, From this it follows
 that as for all business competency,
 fidelity and intelligence should be a con
 dition of appointment and a security of
 tenure, SO in all business should merit,
 experience, capacity and character de-
 serve and obtain promotion. Should our
 governments apply to their business the
 sanity the justice and the enterprise
 which lowered into such Southern re-
 suits as the Atlanta. the Nashville. the | anu the NeW OTIednS EApO-
 sitions. making them splendid successes
 of art. skill, labor and cooperation. mixed
 with brains. we should almost reach the
 tn. eshold of the golden age which is
 the desire of nations. What stands in the
 way of this is something of which we
 have no right to be proud and yet which
 we have no power to deny We realize it in the silence of our consciences. We
 admit it in the candor of personal inter.
 course. It is the barbarous theory that
 politics is war. that offices are spoils
 and that elections are a motley alterna.
 ton of eviction and of loot. But for tho superiority of our national character tC
 our national contentious. this theory
 would be carried from controversy into
 conduct. That done we could almost dis
 pense with all officers except sheriffs ana
 receivers. plead for the debates of pol itiCs and for the arguments of journal ism, the sanity of spirit which maintains the credit of our Republic. and whicl gives to it's service the stability. solidity , and morality which should be questioned only in the caves of Sicilian bandits O. on the decks of pirate ships in Chimes seas.
 Need of Candor and Liberality. 'I might run the gamut of all ques tions by which. since the war, South ant l North have been at times divided. an' I by which they have been divided within I parties as well as between them. M object, however will have been accom- = plished If have suggested to the friend 3 with whom 1 came and to the friend 2 | that we have made here. the fact tha 1 We all really agree rather than actual . differ on matters of vivid and vital con Q cern to our commonwealths and to ou U argues. Too little of our debate debates r | Too rnI1ch of our contention is abou