The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-23

d
lty of the delegates favored a plat
form entirely eliminating the money
question. Though some believed, d..
did, that the Kansas City platform
should be reaffirmed, and that the
party's position on the question of bl-
metaliSm, without being emphasized.
should be maintained, the convention
decided that the fight should be maue
upon other NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. upon
which the party was united. There was
no declaration against bimetalism. that
proposition having been voted down
by a decided majority in the commit
tee. The position OF our candidate,
though strongly opposed to bimetal-
ism, does not necessarily control the
party's action beyond his own admin
iStratiOn.
l have thus stated the history of
the money question during the last
eight years in order to show why those
who voted for bimetalism in recent
campaigns can this year vote for a
Democratic candidate known to favor
the gold standard. Although the ad-
vocates of bimetalism believe as firmly
as ever in the principles of the dou-
BILE standard, though they believe
that their principles have been vim
dicated by the improved conditions
that have followed an increase in the
volume of money, and though they
believe that bimetaliSm will again be-
come popular when the demand for
money overtakes the supply, yet they
recognize that the question is not only
not paramount but, for the present,
of diminishing importance. They also
recognize that, even if the question
were more acute than it is, they could
not hope to secure the restoration of
bimetalism by voting any other ticket.
Either Judge Parker or President
Roosevelt will be elected, and Presi-
dent Roosevelt is as hostile to the use
of silver as standard money as Judge
Parker can possibly be. Though the
Republican candidate enthusiastically
supported his party in 1888, when the
Republican platform denounced Pres
ident Cleveland's effort to demonetiZe
silver, and again in 1892, when the Re-
publican platform declared that the
American people from tradition and
interest favored bimetalism. and still
again in 1895, when his party was
pledged to promote international BIZ
metalism, still he loses no opportunity
now to proclaim his love for the single
gold standard and his adherence of
any return to the free coinage of sill
yer. On the money question, there
fore, the free silver Democrats. having
been defeated in their own convention,
have nothing to hope for from Re-
publican victory. They have not the
same reason for leaving their party
that the silver Republicans and Popu-
lists had for supporting the Demo-
cratic ticket in 1896.
The same may be said of other eco
nomic questions Wherever the sup
porters of the platforms of 1896 and
1900 feel that the Democratic platform
or candidate this year is unsatsfac-
tory they find the Republican plat
form and candidate still less satisfac-
tory. There is no reason, therefore,
why they should express their dissat-
isfa!ction with their own party by
casting in their lot temporarily or per-
manently with the Republican party
But though the Democrats who We're
loyal to their party in 1896 and 1900
have their views upon the money
question and upon other economic
questions, they are also deeply inter
ested in the new questions that lave
been forced upon the attention of the
public by eight years of Republican
rule. | shall speak later of the cues
tion of imperialism, which absorbed
a large share of our party's attention
in 1900.
President RoOsevelts Triple RESPONSE
bility.
President Roosevelt is responsible
for the. prominence of three issues
which the people are considefir@.
First, he has done more to embtter
the white and black races against
each other in the South than any or
even all of the Presidents who have
occupied the White House since the
Civil War. Whether in insisting upon
the appointment of colored officials
over the protest of white patrons of
the office he has been actuated by a
desire to help the colored people, or
by a desire to make political capital
among the colorei voters of The
North, is immaterial. 1t is certain tndt
he has raised an issue which has
thrown the Southern States into anx-
iety and alarm. His attempt to over.
ride the wishes of the whites in va
rious Southern communities has made
the entire South fearful that a second
term may still further estrange the
races and plunge that section of the
country into the horrors of race
struggle. The entertainment of Pro-
fessor Booker Washington at the
! White House has been construed bv
many as an attempt upon the part of
the President to raise the question of
sociaf equality, and this has further
aggravated the race situation in TIE
South. If the President intended TO
raise that question with. view to Se,-
Ting it in favor of the black man II
means the arOuSlng OF Il feeling which
will seriously interfere with the calm
consideration of industrial ard eco
nomic problems. IT, on the other
hand, the President did not intend to
force upon the public the consideration
of the question of social equality it was
exceedingly unfortunate that he did
anything that could bear that con-
struction. The people of the North,
where the dominance of the white
race is not menaced and where the
blacks are comparatively few in num-
Der, have no conception of the condi-
tions which prevailed i'm the South
during the period of reconstruction,
and it is therefore difficult for them
to understand the feeling of the
Southern people. The Democrats of
the North. who both desire ana need
the cooperation of Southern Demo-
Gratis in resisting the encrOachments
of plutocracy, are vitality interested in
removing the race issue from national
politics, so that the party can make
an aggressive fight for industrial and
economic reforms.
President Roosevelt has not only
disturbed the South by the creation
of a race issue, but he has offended
the sentiment of the entire country
by the substitution of staggering,
war-like spirit for the pacific spirit
which has heretofore characterized
orr national administration. We have