The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-07-07
THE REPUBLICAN, PLATFORM REVIEWED
Chairman Williams Dssected 1t and Showed Its
Weakness

PRIOR 10 JHelI time. Ine RepuDllcan
party came into power in 1861; this
clearly fixes the period in which COM
parison between the Republican and
Democratic tariffs and their conse-
quences must be made Since that
date, there have been half a dozen
times of great depression in business,
which were accompanied by enough ex-
cltement of the public mind to be call
ed Danics."
OF these periods of depression and said:
Five Periods of Panic.
Here are five periods of panic of
which the record is entirely complete
and all but the earliest of which are
within the memory of very large
number of experienced business men.
Everyone Of them occurred under a
Republican tariff. Not one of them
followed a Democratic tariff for the
conclusive reason that no Democratic
tariff was in existence from the first
to the last. If they were caused by
tariff at all-and the tariff had much
to do with them indirectly-it must be
that they are caused by Republican
tarlf. Aesop's wolf who was not more
mendacious or more silly than the
writer of the Republican platform.
Amen, say !. Remember that the
author of the Republican platform is
or pretends to be an historian. This is
true no matter which of the two re-
spected parties are guilty of it, the
President or Senator Lodge. The voice
was undoubtedly the voice of the Mas
sachusetts Jacob. but the hand may
have been the hand of the presidential
Esau. But both knew these facts"
Anti-Chinese Agitation.
Discussing the matter of Chinese
exclusion legislation. Mr.. Williams de-
clared that the difference between the
two parties when they vote for Chi
nese exclusion is this: Democrats vote
N accordance with the traditions and
principles of their party. Democrats,
as rule, make no disguise of the
fact that they want to retain this
country, as far as possible as home
for the white man and a nursery for
his civilization, and that they desire
as far as possible to have homogene-
Gus population, SO that when they vote
to exclude the Chinese they cast a
Democratic vote. Republicans voting
the same way antagonize the profess
sions which they themselves make in
connection with other racial questions.
Ihey profess, as a party, to believe
that men are equal and ought to re-
ceive equal government and social
recognition, regardless of race. When
the Republicans have voted for Chinese
exclusion they have cast a good vote,
wise one, but undoubtedly an un-
republican one. Certainly if it be wrong
to discriminate at all because of race,
If the professions of adherence to the
doctrine that all men of all races are
equal be sincere, then the men making
a profession cannot vote to prevent a
yellow man from earning a living by
the sweat of his brow in America the
right to earn a living being a much
more sacred and inalenable and Cod
given thing than the statutory privi-
lege of voting or the social privilege of
lunching with you"
Meaning of the Suffrage Plank.
Whether or not the suffrage
is unconstitutionally limited is a
matter for the courts to deter
mine. The real object of the Re-
publican party in so far as that plank
is concerned, however specious the
phraseology in which it is clothed, is
to reduce Southern representation with
out reducing that of Massachusetts and
Connecticut or other states wherever in
the South the negroes are disfranchis-
ed, not as such. but because of igno-
rance, by an educational qualification,
or because of any other right reason,
in any other constitutional way
Let not the business interest of the
country deceive itself; let those con-
trolling it prepare, if Roosevelt is
elected on this platform for another
period of uncertainty, unrest, business
disturbance and race war in the South
ern States, instead of that peace and
prosperity which both races now en-
joy and which has been rendered pos
sible only by home rule and by white
supremacy. Let not the South deceive
tgnl CIT IL.
were sincere in it's proposition to re-
duce Southern representation on the
ground of Acknowledgement or pretend
ed unconstitutional limitation itself it
would accompany that proposition with
another, to wit: The proposition to
repeal the Fifteenth Amendment. 1t is
not the white man. as white man,
who is injured by a recurrence to the
tendency of force bill days-he can and
will always maintain himself-it is
business. commerce, manufacturing,
agriculture and the negro himself.
commercially and industrially, the
white men of the South will not be
much more injured by this sort of
agitation than Northern people will
be.
A New Period of Reconstruction.
This is but the entering wedge to
new period of Southern reconstruct
ton. 1t is the beginning over of the
old scheme, revived for political ad-
vantage to retain as a Republican as
set the solid negro vote In Indiana, H.
linois, New York and other like-con-
ditioned states-this time without
price in money paddy disturbing all
over the Southland peace and order;
by demoralizing reviving industries.
unsettling business and labor, disin-
tegratlng society, and as a remote eff
rect, II successful hybridizing the race
there and Africanizing its civilization.
That is the ultimate significance of it
ALL If. indeed. II be not merely "a
voice in the Wilderness crying our
empty promises to the negro voters i'm
the South. l wish l could only be-
lieve it that. l would believe it but
for the opinionated and super-stren-
uous character of the man in the
White House
In keeping with all this consider the
negro Santo Bambino scene in the Re-
publican national convention: the wild
alteration of My little Alabama Coon.
or was 1t Georgia Coon? Why was it
thus pre-arranged. and by whom?
Why were the two little white girls
placed on the same platform with the
little negro boy to march around with
him carrying flags? Who pretends
subtle, symbolical meaning of II all?
Is II A meaning which any white Re-
publican dares to put in words? Or is
il a meaning to be guessed at and to
be left to negro orators. speaking to