The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-07-19
CURRENT COMMENT.

The following from The New York
World IL highly significant at this juno
ture: The World wishes to retract
anything it has said in regard to the
passing OF Mr.. Bryan from the leader
ship of the democratic party. Mr.. Bry-
an has not passed. He seems to be
stronger than ever. At Kansas City
in 1900. with a unanimous convention
behind him, he succeeded only in die
tating the platform n the candidate.
But at St. Louis, with more than two
thirds Of the delegates against him he
has succeeded in debating the platform.
This is a far greater achievement, and
the prince of populists may we'll chuckle
when he thinks Of the abject homage
that was paid him by conservative
de~mocracy's overwhelming. but white
;ivered, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Times
Union.
On n great argument the republic
can campaign managers were basins
their plan until Judge Parker's start
ling telegram of asst Saturday utterly
changed the political situation. That
argument was that with a platform ST.
lent or evasive with regard to the fl
rancial question, and with a candidate
presumably ready to do anything the
Iarty leaders told him, the democracy
could not offer to the people any guar
antee that q change OF administration
would not endanger financial and BUS
iEess stability. That we are making no
mere conjecture is proved by an edi-
torial which we take from The String
field CMass.) Union of last Saturday:
How does anyone know whether Judge
Parke is safe and Sane?' That is,
how does anyone know whether his
views Or national affairs are SOUND
and healthy and whether, if the oppor-
tunity were his. he would carry them
out safely and conscientiously? Judge
Parker is known to be a man Of ex-
cellent character and habits, and judg-
ing from his calling he probably pos
sesses d judicial mind. Aside from this,
what is known Of him? His most init
mate friend, David Bennett Hill, does
not even know what political opinions
he holds.-Norfolk Landmark.
A writer in the July Atlantic discuss
es at length the relation of the south
toward the negro. and in the course Of
ills remarks says: Observation-Disclosures
of the negro is bad for the south. 1t is
bad fo- it, in the first place, on account
OF the harmful effect produced by it on
It's black labor. 1t makes a large pro-
portion Of its laboring population rest
less and discontented with their civil
n social condition, n it will keep
them so. It makes it well-nigh impos-
sible for this restless and disconnected
labor class to make the most and the
best Of themselves with the limited op-
portunities aoffrded them, with the So
! tial and political restrictions imposed
by law upon them On the contrary,
politics has been the negro's curse. The
wholesale acknowledgements of the ex-
l slaves of the south was about the
greatest curse that the northern south
baters could have visited upon the negro
race. No good could have come out CT
it, for it was done in malice and re-
yenge toward southern whites. If, at
ter the war, the negroes had turned
their %ettention to the improvement OF
their condition rather than to politics.
they would have saved themselves much
trouble, and their lat would be
far better today; and this they would
have done if hey had not in the be-
] ginning been clothed with the right CT
observation-disclosures Times-Dispatch.
There is nothing in the result of the
republican n democratic national con-
ventions or in any of the facts or phases
of the political situation to indicate that
the presidential campaign en- which the
country is entering will be character
lied by intense or even great excite
ment. In the first place. neither party
has presented an issue on which it will
be possible to arouse deep feeling.
Neither the republican platforms ref
erence to reduction of representation in
states that have disfranchised large
numbers of citizens, nor the democratic
denunciatfon of the policy of protection
will greatly stir the masses. AS to the
former, it is understood to be the sense
Of the country n equally the desire
Of tine north and the south chat there
shall be no revival Of S~ectionalism.
The republican party has long recog-
nized the fact of the demise of the
fifteenth amendment, and there is no
intention on the part of the republican
leaders, to take any step toward apply
ing the penalty provided in the four
teenth amendment for excluding citi-
zens from the ballot. Thus far, all de-
cisions of the supreme court touching
this question have been discOuraging
to the radical republicans. Hereafter
the states Will he left free, as they were
before the reconstruction era, to decide
who shall and who shall not be trust
ed with the ballot. This is the almost
universal sentiment. Public opinion
the ruling power in this republic, has
practically nulliied those provisions Of
the war amendments hat were intend
ed to make voters out of the freedmen
This sentence dominates all the repuS-
lican states.-Washington Post.