The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-26
IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHER

general at inc Soutn, ana IS not Wholy satisfied with the way the South treats the negro. Yet he adds
 While travelling in the South I met some of the finest men and women l ever knew. I found the people of the South mourned the assassination of their hearts, and when his name was mentioned many would bow in honor to his memory.
 "The admirable letter of Mr. Rice, re- gently published in The Record-Herald should be read by Senator Bacon and his constituents"
 The Indianapolis News, an indepen- dent Republican newspaper, conducted with unusual ability and fairness. as- sures Senator Bacon that he is altogether mistaken as to the attitude of the people of the North, and cites | the two elections of MT. Cleveland, | largely by northern votes. as proof , that the North does not refuse to give success to the Democracy because 1t hates or distrusts the party whose | leadership Is largely composed of Southern men.
 Many other important Northern news papers echo these sentiments. Naturally a few letter writers and | editors use MT. Bacons interview as a text for discussion of the broad ques- | tion of the solid South, the negro. suf- | frage and representation. Except in a few instances these do so without I | of i'll will or of any other feeling to- | ward the South than a wish that the people of that section would emanci- pate themselves from the negro-domi- | nation prejudice and take their stand | on all national questions according to | the merits of those questions and not remain eternally "solid' because of the | 'nigger."
 The Coldwater (Mich.) Republican . puts it this way:
 1 'What Senator Bacon and other Southern gentlemen who realize that l they are out in the cold ought to do Is to become Republicans and cease to sup | port free trade and other absurd Demo- cratic doctrines instead of hoping the North will come to their views of public questions. They can get into the band wagon If they wish to-"
 The Kenton (Ohio) Republican says | that while the North is determined to defeat Parker, its determination rests | on other grounds than antagonism to | the South, and adds
 ''The solid South allies itself with | the Democratic party on account of the old sectional feeling and because from l that party they receive aid and com 1 fort during the war. The hatred and prejudice are all on the Southern side of Mason and Dixon's line"
 In the course of an extended and strong editorial article The Richmond
 Qnd) Item says:
 "The South is not ostracised; she simply has refused to associate with | the North or the Republican party be- cause of prejudice and they have con | cluded to leave her alone. Under the economic policies of the Republican party, enacted by that party and op- posed by Democracy, the South has been developed. She is no longer the section of one product. Under these policies her iron mills rival those or | Pittsburg; her textile mills are getting | the former business of the New Eng land mills; her coal mines are being | developed; her wealth of timber is be- l ing turned into cash; her fertile fields i are being made to produce crops that compete in the market with the pro ducts of the Northern farmer. She has | entered into successful competition with ttS North in almost every field of com iaercial. industrial and agricul-
 tural activity, and has done so@directly
 because of Republican policies, made
 possible by the vote of the North.
 Despite this fact the South refuses to support the Republican party. She
 persists in biting the hand that feeds | her. She insists upon voting solldly against her benefactor. Can she then North for resenting this exhibition of
 prejudice, this continual display of sec
 tional feeling?
 '"rhe South excuses itself on the | ground that the Republican party be-
 lieves in negro supremacy The South does not really believe this. There is no negro supremacy in the North. There
 is no mingling of the races socially in
 the North, there Is no social equality
 The claim that Republication is
 synonymous with negro supremacy and
 social equality between the races is
 the creation of Democratic leaders who
 see in it a means of keeping the South
 solid for Democracy and themselves in
 power The race question Is halluci- | nation in the South. It is an issue
 of their own creation. It exists only in their imagination"
 Without quoting further, either from letters or editorials, it may be sald,
 think, that the question raised by Sena-
 tor Bacon has been fairly answered.
 The people of the North as people
 bear no resentment toward the South
 on account of the war. They are not
 unwilling to see Southern men in the
 national government, But they do
 think the South stands in it's own
 light by consistently refusing to be-
 come rational" as to national affairs
 that is to say, by subordinating every
 thing else to the race issue. If a lew
 Southern States would go Republican
 or Populist or Prohibition, or anything
 but Democratic, for a change, merely
 as evidence that public opinion In that
 section can divide on something besides
 the 'nigger," that would be the end
 of sectionalism in the United states.