The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-07-13
Some issues of the Campaign.

the race question. AS to the race
question-though its prominence as a
campaign issue may be desired by
some, it will be deplored by true pat
riots whether Northern or Southern
Democrats or Republicans. When
President Grant said: Let Us have
peace" he raised more enduring
monument to his fame than the mem
ory of his campaigns, and when Will
liam Mckinley took up the same work
be endeared himself to people which
his sympathy and patriotism had re-
united beyond all expectation. It
remained for Roosevelt to destroy
in large measure the mutual confidence
between the North and South that Nc
Kinley had so painstakingly and
broadmindedly raised; and it is now
for the Republican party, no longer
under McKinley's beneficial guidance,
to attempt to again disrupt our coun-
try on partisan, sectional and color
lines The disruption can be accom-
piished, bnt it will inevitably entail
the overthrow of the Republican party
and retard the settlement OF the race
question for years. AS John Sharp
Williams well said-the whites have
no real ground for fear. It is the me-
groes of the South, the business and
the peace of the whole country that
will suffer from any such return to
reconstruction methods.
So much for the race issue. As to
all the prosperity that we have had
since 1896, the Republicans take sole
credit and announce with unctuous
self-satisfaction that for the future
they will stand pat.'' What is
standing pat?'' To quote Mr.. vii
hams again, it is ga shibboleth,
which maketh them known-one to the
Others shibbole.h drawn from the
gamblers table: fStand pat, a pre-
cept born Of cowardice and fear to
move" But on what do they base
their right to this battle cry? Surely
the Republicans can and must take
the blame for the Sherman bill, but
the repeal belongs to the Democrats.
The Republicans can justly have the
blame for the extravaganza Of Harri-
sons administration, but not the credit.
for the economy of ..Cleveland's. It
was Republican Congress and Presi-
dent that unsettled our money ques--
tion, and a Democratic Congress and
President that put us Individually and
forever On gold basis.
So much we may say of human effort
and intelligence, but low about pros
perity? Surely not even the effrontery
of Roosevelt's blind conceit would
claim Republican crdit for bountiful
crops at home and scanty crops abroad
for the increase in the price Of wheat
from 4S to 70 cents. and for, the conse-
ouent influx of wealth with work for
the idle hands and food for empty
mouths. Nor can the Republican
party "point With pride" to the
enomcus incease of the gold output in
South Africa and Alaska. These are
causes that lie beyond human control
These are makers of prosperity that are
given and withheld without regard to
votes or platforms, and SO far as hu-
man interference can take credit, the
praise lies with the Democrats who
prepared the way by putting national
finance once and for all on sound
basis.
This much, however. the Republican
party has done, and for this it should
answer. It has taken advantage of
great prosperity to bind yet heavier
burdens on the laboring man. 1t has
by special legislation more strongly
entrenched protected industries which
prey upon the defenseless American
consumer. It has allowed widespread
official corruption to grow rampant in
the government departments. 1t has
through President Roosevelt added un
necessary millions to an already cor
rupt pension roll, and that, too, by an
unheard Of usurpation of executive
authority. It bas made fainthearted
attacks On illegal combinations for the
purpose of creating tie impression OF
trust busting"
All this and more it has done and
; by so doing it has welded the unor
ganized and Oppressed Democrats into
an opposition that will prove to Mr..
Roosevelt that neither be nor his poll
cies are desired by the American pso-
pie. Richmond Times Dispatch.
Spartanburg, July l1.-Henry Jones,
the negro who killed Constable G. W.
Jones near Easley last Thursday night,
has been captured and is now in jail
at this place. Mr.. F. A. Metcalf OF
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