The sun., 1903-04-13
ENRAGED ON NEGRO QUESTION.
THE SOUTH ABLAZE WITH ANGER
FROM END TO END.


Republican Party-An That Has Been
Abandoned--whites Welded Once Moro
Into . Solidarfty-Nstional Questions
IEnored--The Only Issue Now Is the
NeEro-Patient Work OF Years Undone.
NEW ORLEANS, April I2.-Not since the
davs imme diately following the Reconstruc-
tion era has the negro question been under
discussion with 10 much heat and passion
throughout the South as at the pre- sent
moment. In the railroad trains. In the
hotels. wherever men arc thrown together.
il i- the one topic which, whether they
be acauaintances or strangers, inevitably
comes TO the front.
Within five days here in New Orle ans
the two leading morning newspapers. the
Times Democrat and the Picapunc, have
dc votc d in ono way and another from twelve
TO fifteen columns to the subject. In Mis-
sissippi, where a Senatorial and a Guber-
ratorial canvass are In progrt IS, II is one
Of the hot issues of the campaign. It's
starting point there il regarding the dis
,ribution OF the education fund among
the whites and the blacks. From that
roint Of departure ths whole que stion OF
The nc gro as a political factor and as a
thrr al to existing social conditions radiates
in all directions and with varying degrees
OF heat in proportion 10 the temperament
Of the orator and the audience.
This sudden outburst In the South II
all a matter Of q few months development.
In Stafs where by constitutional provision
tho nc gro IL practically disfranchised d it
was to all intents and purposes a dead issue.
II was so dc ad an issue, in fact, that in
manufacturing communities and in parts
Of the South where the industrial devt lop-
me mt was greatest. there was more or kss
une asincss among the old line Democrats
as to the ability OF that party to hold tho
South together much longer as the compact
political unit 1t had been in the past.
The elements Of political disinte grafton
in the Southern States were busily at work.
Those OF the South's business men who
brought themselves to vote for Mr.. Bryan
at all. did 20 with repugnanoe and with tho
conviction that he would be defeated. any
way. no matter how they voted. Many
others voted directly for Mr.. McKinle y:
still more did not vote at all. In South
Carolina the editor Of one Of the we'll
known papers said. no longer ago than
last fall that he had been right up to the
point Of putting Republican at the head
OF his editorial page.
Il knew there would be howl he said.
II knew would come in for lot OF abuse.
also knew that a great deal OF the talk
would be mere wind and that would only
be openly doing what a large number of
the best people in the community wanted
in their hearts to do. I was tired of being
a political hyprocrite. of nominally sup
porting party when in reality was against
nearly evsrything In nstional matters which
that party stood for
The fact that tho peril Of the negro bal
lot was out Of the way had cleared the
ground, In a word. for the discussion of
national matters in the South on their
merits. That fact and the personality of
President Mckinley were disintegrating
factors in the political South which were
pregnant with near at hand and far-reach-
ing consequences. It In impossible for one
who has not been about in the South since
President MoKinley's death to realize the
here is held, His journey. in company
with Mrs. Mckinley, through the Southern
States was such progress as had not been
made since the war. II was the belief
here that it was the one great ambition
Of President Mckinley to make his admin
istration mark an era in the matter Of bring
ing the American people TO a point where
old war lines: where they would divide
upon national questions along lines OF
honest differences OF opinion and not along
lines Of geography. II was believed here.
furthermore. that MIR. Mckinley, in this
ambition. was actuated by broad principles
II - tte,.. nj hy ~ f,.o
motives.
The time was near at hand in a word
when the great mass OF conservative bus-
ness men in the rapidly developing South
ern States would be ripe to break away
from old political traditions and preju-
dices. One more Chicago or Kansas City
blance Of Bryan. would have done the busi-
ness There would have been a uniting of
conservative men South and North. There
would have been a Southern as we'll as a
Northern wing, Of the Republican party
The South and in the North.
There was Just one thing that would
surely and inevitably prevent such re-
suit in the near future. The one hope
Of holding the South together as the old
ominous. threatening solid South, always
a menace, in times OF Democratic lapses
into socialism and demagogery, to busi-
ress interests both South and North. the
one thing that, beyond peradventure, would
keep up his old danger line was sonnet hing
thai would set the Southern States afiame
again on the negro question. On that point
the South was raw to the quick. After
Ter years OF misery In wading out OF the
muck and mire OF reconstruction, whatever
suggested that dark era was sure to set
flame going that would instantly weld
the disntegrating elements into one solid
mass again.
That thing essential to continued Demo-
cratic solidity and fatal TO Republicanism
in the South was supplied, and now. when
in the ordinary course OF events the negro
as an acute irritant would have been nearly
eliminated, this spring Of 1903 finds him
again an issue burning in all the Bout hern
States as he was in 1874 when his wild de-
bauch Of political power was brought to
an end
The entire negro question. with all it's
useless, end-in-nothing controversies, its
bt,ernesses. its damaging Consequences
TO the negro himself-all this is opened
afresh.
The clock has been put back by fifteen
years, said to-day a former resident OF this
city whose home now is in New York Il
knew in a general way before l left New
York what the state Of feeling must he
here in the South. where ] was born and
raised; but must say was not prepared
TO see how completely the people here are
stirred UP. how deeply. they are moved.
II IS a most deplorabie thing-deploraose