The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-03
BIDS THE SOUTH LEAD
COL. HARVEY TELLS IT TO TAKE
 Ue, ARK OF COVENANT.
Has Been Modest Too Long-Nerthern Democrats, He says, Seek Now 10 Follow, Asking only 'More
 FOrbeafances"

Special to Baltimore Sun.
 Thk prfnciple speaker at the annual
 banquet of the St. Andrews Society here tonight was Colonel George B. N. Harvey, editor of Harpers Weekly, who. contrary to . custom long ob- carved bv inc chief guests at such din- ners, made . political rather than historical address. He was, however. vigorously applauded. Governor D. |C. Heyward and other men Of promi- hence were among the guests: Colonel Harvey spoke of the over whelming defeat of the Democratic party as likely to prove In the end a blessing. Its most potent cause he found in a deepseated conviction in the minds of thinking men that the par ty had not in recent years demonstra- ted a capacity to govern wisely and we'll With this Colonel Harvey agreed.
 The West and the East. he declared,
 have had their opportunities in control of the party for forty years and had failed. He eontinued:
 But while the East and West have alternately carried the party down to | defeat, what has the South been do- ing? You have taken whatever has been offered to you and with hard | ly wry face. If free silver was ten- dered, you swallowed that: If the gold standard, you took that; protection or free trade. a, radical or conservative candidate, big navics or little navies, big sticks or mellow flutes. whatever
 grist came to your mill was accepted so long as 1t bore the party label. Is the Time Not At Handf
 You are sometimes referred to and, I think, unquestionably' are in some | respects a masterful and intoller- ant community. but was such patient bending to the yoke as this ever be- fore exhibited by free and enlisht- ened> people7 I am aware Of the local condition which gave rise to and per haps made necessary this abdication of authority even in the councils of the party created by your ancestors. l'but I ask you ff the time Is not now at hand to come back into your own, to claim the opportunity exercised so Hong and so ydisastrously by others, to reassert the broad statesmanship of the past and to blaze the way for a return to sturdy principles of the fa- thers''
 Colonel Harvey spoke at length of the; great material prosperity of the South and of the change which had been wrought in the attitude of the North toward the South. The former now desiring not to interfere. but to help. He pointed out that the recent defeat of the Democratic party was not without precedent, telling of past reverses and saying:
 History affords no reason there fore for believing hat the Democratic party is dead or Is going to die, but when such an organization, through force of circumstances. becomes as I have depicted it-perhaps without jus tification--as an aggregation of odds
 and ends. shreds and patches,s the work of rejuvenation must begin at the bottom. The only foundation on which to build. if the approval of the American people Is to be obtained.
 is moral force. I maintain that, in
 the election which has just taken place and whose general result has been regarded by many with despair.
 such a beginning has been made "Le.son for the Future"
 The election Of Democratic Gover-
 nors in several States which gave MT
 Roosevelt their electoral votes and in
 several other States a great excess of
 votes for Republican candidates for
 Governor were declared by Colonel
 Harvey to be due to the raising of
 moral issue.
 Herein lies the lesson for the fu- ture." he said. "Henceforth let every
 issue be a moral issue, and let us
 have no further appeals or catering to
 
 patches. Of all things let us not
 arouse the resentment, just or unjust.
 of our countrymen by refusing to rec
 ognize the personal integrity of an
 opponent
 You are the mainstay. the living
 reality of Democracy So many of us
 in the North come SO near being Re-
 publicans in practice ard so many of us in the West come so near being
 Populists in theory that the leader
 ship rightfully belongs to the only
 section of the party which has kept
 the faith without suffering contami- nation, and under whose direction in
 the past the people enjoyed their greatest growth. tPir widest prosper
 ity
 The time is fitting. The blight of
 half a century Is off the South. You have your manufacturers, your mines. your agriculture. your railroads. your
 steamships. your happy homes. your Christian spirit-you have all we have and more, because you have our re- spect and sympathy to a greater de-
 gree than we have yours. We ask
 you to take up the ark of the cove
 nant and bear it to victory as of old.
 We seek now to follow, requiring only
 more forbearance which is the first "A