The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1904-03-23
THE REPUBLICAN Meeting.

The Republican meeting held
here Thursday evening cOnsi-
dered as a Republican meeting
might fairly be denOminated a
success, and yet it would take an
optimist Of the Mark Tapley Or
der to draw any representation
from it that the Republican can
didates will develop any strength
in this parish. There We're pos
sibly two-hundred people pres
ent, but the majority were Dem
Ocrats who went to hear both
sides of the question:" but lacked
a whole lot of being convinced
that the Republican party had
anything to offer to recOmpense
a desertion of Democratic princi-
Piles. And it wasn't the fault of
the speakers, for they did their
best to make the Republican
party attractive. Gen. Behan in
particular tried to show what a
munificent government the Re-
publicans had given us, in the way
OF levee construction, a few har-
Dor improvements and an Occa-
siOnal public building, but he ne
elected signally to say a word
about the inequalities of prOtec-
ton which he seems to look upon
as the only thing" how it builds
up one section at the expense of
another, and worst of all is the
father of the rObber trusts which,
like monsters, are devOuring the
substance of the people and
crushing them down into indus
trial slavery. He forgot all about
the trusts, and he forgot to men
ton that Attorney Gen. Knox,
had failed to prosecute them un-
der the Sherman antitrust law
and that when he was finally
pushed by the governor of Min
nesota into a prosecution in the
Northern Pacific Merger case,
that he fastened to assure the
trusts that the government was.
MT going to run amuck." In
deed, Gen. Behan couldn't afford
to touch the trusts to whom the
Republicans are committed: and
he never mentioned d word about
the notorious POst-Office frauds,
nor the 500, 600, 900 expense sad
died on the taxpayers in the
PHILIPPINES, and the attempt now
pending in Congress to fasten an
additional ST., 100000 to the al
ready $15O,OOO, 900 pension fund
as a vote getter for the people to
pay. No, Gen. Behan didn't al
Jude to these things, nor a few
others that could be mentioned,
because, you see, they might have
spoiled the pretty picture he was
trying to draw.
However, there is one thing
that Gen. Behan does deserve
credit for, and that is his desire
to eliminate the negro from the
Republican party; but it is such
Don Quixote notion that it can
hardly be. taken seriously. AS
long as the negro has a vote he
will be Republican and a menace
to the South, and it is useless for
a Southern man to blind himself
to that stubborn fact. Promise
nor persuasive arguments can al
ter the reality, and until the fif-
teenth amendment is repealed
the chivalry of the South will have
to cling together and fight the
party that invites the negro vote,
regardless of all other considera-
tons.
What may be in the future no
one knows, but to-day the Repub-
lican party is the friend and
champion of the negro. Men
high in the party offer him pOliti-
cal and social equality. A Re-
president who will be
the nominee of his party at the
November election, has dined a
negro in the White House, has
forced q negro collector upon the
people of Charleston. has de-
prived the people of Indianola,
Miss, OF mail privileges for a
year, because they would not
submit to a negro postmistress,
has appointed negroes in various
parts Of the South against the
of the white people, and