The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-11-19
THE sourH,s ALooFNEss.


cover that there wasn't so much aloof-
ness in the South in the recent cleo
ton as they are trying to make out.
1t seems to give them profound pleas
ure TO make it appear that the South
| had no part in that election, that
her people didn't discuss the issues
| of the campaign and that the candi-
dates of only one party were voted
for.
For instance. the Philadelphia Ledger
! says: "A disheartening feature of re-
| cent American politics has been the
| continued aloofness of the South. In
other parts of the country the people
| divide according to the opinions pre-
vailing at the time, and the parties
contend for the mastery: the South has
remained solid and immovable. In
the recent election, when President
Roosevelt may be said to have swept
the country by popular reclamation,
the Southern states alone maintained
their attitude of dissent" The New
York World says: Last weeks politi-
cal earthquake seems to have shaken
the South into a thoughtful mood, and
the result is an interesting variety of
more or less novel reflections"
Let us take up the comments of the
Philadelphia paper, in which it is stat
ed that the South stood aloof In the
recent election, and maintained an at
titude of dissent to the action of the
rest of the country The inference
from this is that there was no division
of the vote In the South. What are
the facts? Here In Georgia, for in
stance was there not more nearly
even division of the vote than in Penn
sylvania, the state in whieh the Phil
adelphia Ledger is published? We do
not know just what the vote for each
of the tickets in Pennsylvania was, but
we know there WAS a very small vote
for Parker and an enormous vote for
Roosevelt. What was the vote here
in Georgia? According to the best es-
innate obtainable at present 1t was as
follows: Parker 1891, Roosevelt U.s.
1856, Watson 1880. From these figures
it appears that Mr.. Roosevelt receiv-
ed not quite a quarter of the whole
vote cast, that Watson received almost
as large vote and that Roosevelt and
Watson together received not quite
half of the vote.
What we would like to know is this:
Was Pennsylvania vote as well scat
tered as was the vote of Georgia? In
proportion to the vote cast didn't
Roosevelt get a larger part of the vote
of Georgia than Parker got of the vote
of Pennsylvania? We think he did,
though we cannot say until the official
figures are published. And we VEN
ture to say that Watson got a larger
proportion of the vote of Georgia than
he did of the vote of Pennsylvania.
And if the vote of each of the other
Northern states is examined and COM
pared with that of Georgia, we think it
viii be found that the people of Geor-
gia divided in the recent election about
the same extent as did those Of most
of the Northern states. We cannot
speak for the other Southern states at
present for the reason that their COM
plete returns have not been published
yet.
But Pennsylvania and Georgia fur
nished sufficient data for the purpose
we have in view, which is to show that
the Philadelphia Ledger and other
Northern papers have been INDUCING
in comments respecting the attitude of
the South in the recent election and
criticising her for aloofness without
taking the trouble to find out the facts.
Surely it isn't for such a hide-bound
Republican state as Pennsylvania to
criticise Georgia for not turning in
and casting her vote for Roosevelt.
simply because Pennsylvania and the
other Northern states gave their cleo
toral votes to him. 1t is by no means
certain that Roosevelt will make a
better President than Parker would.
and, on that question, Georgia is Just
as well qualified to hold an opinion as
Pennsylvania. 1t is true Of course
that, with the exception of one state.
the South stood solid for Parker, but
then didn't the North stand solid for
Roosevelt? Taking Georgia as a SAM
pie the Southern voters divided as be-
tween Roosevelt and Parker about as
evenly as the voters of the North did,
taking Pennsylvania as an indication
| as to how they voted.