The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-01
MIR. Roosevclt~ Sectional Policy.

Chattanooga Times.
North Carolina Democrats in their
convention Friday rebuked the Roose-
welt platform race plank in a way that
fair minded, right thinking people
North and South. The implication in
the Roosevelt platform Is that the ne
gro is being prosecuted in the South.
This is not stated in plain, open, manly
fashion, but limited at and coVertly
suggested by sneaking innuendo. AS
an answer to the SANDER the North
Carolina Democrats voted down, at
most unanimously. resolution de-
manding a division of the scnool fund
between the races on the basis of tax
alton. How small and little does lnIs
action make the Presidents attempt at
petty revenge appear to the American
people.
If there was any manhood in tho
negro leadership in the Scum; if there
was any appreciation among the negro
teachers and preachers for favors re-
ceived from the Southern whites by
their race, this race issue falsely raised
in the Republican platform would be
repudiated and denounced as IT should
be, and that, too, In language that
could not be mistaken. The Thought
full, conservative negroes of the South
have an opportunity now to rebuke tie
conscienceless office hunters who in or
der to promote their own fortunes and
advance their own ambitions stand
ready to revive all the bitterness of
race prejudice, to relSlndle the fires OF
sectional animosity and to undo all
that has been done during the Cleve-
land and Mckinley eras of good feel
ing to bring about practical solution
of this the most dangerous problem
with which the American people will
hereafter have to DO
If for no other issue tnan this, raised
almost In criminal wantonness, Mr..
Roosevelt deserves to be beaten. No
man has a right to the loyal support
of American people who proves dis
loyal to the peace and tranquility OF
a large and deserving section of his
country by uselessly threatening them
with punishment they do not merit.
The Republican party is responsible for
the conditions in the South that rem
dered the franchise laws complained of
necessary, and now that party proposes
to apply the knout to a self-respecting
people for doing the only thing letr
them to do for their protection and
their happiness. Happily all the W.T.
ter feeling on this subject had been
nearly quieted during the concilatory
regime of the late President Mckin-
ley. The hope had been fondly ex-
pressed that Theodore Roosevelt. the
man who has prided himself that he
was IAN American'-and not New
Englander or a Northerner-would con-
tinue that policy and thereby herme..-
cally seal the sectional breach so that
there would never again be any physi
cal signs that it had ever existed.
But this course has been violently, al
most viciously, contrariwise, and by so
doing he threatens his country with an
issue the full scope and significance or
which he, in his impulsive, laundering
fashion has In his ambitious hunt for
power and authority seen fit to disre-
gard. 1t is an issue wholly unjusti-
fled, as the action OF the North Caro-
lima Democrats forcibly proves, and
American patriotism ought to make
Theodore Roosevelt sick of this bar
gain with disorder and sectional hate
when 1t has an opportunity in Novem-
Der. Strenuous partisanship is all
right, but that kind of partisanshlp
that arrays one State against another.
stirs up the animosities of sections and
invites lawlessness and disorder ought
to be rebuked by the people who love
their country. North and South, and
who honestly and truly desire to see
ours a government of one people. one
country and one nag. In our judg.
ment this manifestation of the Roose-
welt spirit if not promptly checked and
rebuked by the American people Will
prove more disastrous to our national
peace. more surely destructive of hap"
piness and prosperity than would fol-
low even the triumph OF Organism.