The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-13

in the hands of the representatives of civilization in the South.
 The next President. if Republican. will probably be supported by Con- gress which might try to pass laws to separate Congressional elections from State and local elections in the South, and to conduct those Congressional cleo tions under the scrutiny and control of Federal functionaries. Republican in their politics and Republican in the pur- poses for which they would be chosen, and which they would be expected to carry out. Such President and such q Congress could also exhaust the re- sources of constitutional or unconstitu- tional ingenuity to square Congressional representation with suffrage, instead of passing 1t upon population. We know that recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court have checked attempts in that line, but those very decisions have been based upon the fact that the actions were not brought on the right grounds, and have been at suggestive pains to point out on what grounds they should have been or might have been brought.
 A Republican President with a rabid Republican Congress behind him, ot put ting himself behind a rabid Republican Congress, could easily take that hint and could thereby unwittingly renew. the passions of the Civil War, in the North against the South, and. in the South against the North, by flooding the chan nels and conduits of political action with such passions. The Northern Democracy would resist that attempt, but if the Democracy were kept out of national power. the attempted resistance might possibly be ineffective.
 Mr.. Roosevelt is not without human nature. The South has no liking for his recent upstirring of the negro question, by the forced appointments of represen- tatives of that race to offices with which Southern whites have to transact about all the business which is done. On the other hand. MT. Roosevelt is in no mood to relish the unfrie ndly disposition of the South toward his recent action, and. should he be elected, he will have the warrant of that election to continue and to augment the policy which the South resents, by vindicating or vindictive action, on his own account, because of that resentment
 These considerations are very practical ones and they should appeal to the South, in very practical manner. They should constrain the editors, the statesmen, the political managers and the rank and file H the Southern Democracy to overcome their prejudices, not to exaggerate their preferences and to moderate their ob- jections. What they want is a Demo- cratic administration. What they want Is Democratic President. What they do not or should not and, indeed. must not want, Is action on their part to pro- duce the nomination of Democrat who
 
 nomination of a Democrat who can be elected: In short, they want a Demo- crat who can be elected and, if they line up Tor one who cannot be elected, they VIII be chargeable with the result, if not with the intention, of bringing about renewed Republican control of the na- uonal Government, under circumstances to make that control more anti-Southern m It's trend and spirit than any other Republican control has been since the terrible period of Reconstruction. For the South the question is not the Demo- crat 1t prefers, but the Democrat who can be elected; 1t is not the Democrat whom It likes or dislikes, but the Demo- crat who can carry enough States, out side Of the Southern group, to be elected. It Is not whether they liked or disliked the last Democratic President, whom they helped to elect. but whether he was than any Republican President ever was or ever can be. in circumstances which make 5Republicanism a sectional party and essentially an anti-Southern party,
 We are not talking in the language of compliment or courtesy or hattery or evasion. We are talking in the language or practical, straightforward and candid consideration of things as they are. Inose things should impel the South to substitute reason for resentment thought for feeling, sense for resentment. refiec tion Tor emotion and judgment for the gratification of personal susceptibilities. me SouIn Knows that, whatever MT Cleveland's successes or failures were ne three times boiled more votes than his opponents, and was twice elected and that. whatever the merits or demer- its Of the Democracy were. when 1t broke away from Clevelandism it was defeat ed. The South cannot but . also know that MT. Cleveland could be elected again, were he nominated by his party, and that probably no other Democrat certainly no anti-Cleveland Democrat, could be. The question for the South then, Is not Bryanism, for that is i'm possible but CleveIandism or RooseveIt- ism. The North can stand either. But the South. with only the opportunity to choose between Clevelandism and Roose- veltism. will have to make its own choice as to which it can the better stand, or as to which of the two 1t would rather have. It behooves that section to put on its thinking cap and to choose, betimes, accordingly.