The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1904-11-19
WELL MEANr.woRDs FOR THE SOUTH.


WELL MEANT-WORDS FOR THE SOUTH.
indianapolis News independently
The Southern people must by this time realize
how far removed they are from the main current
of the national life With West Virginia, Delaware,
Maryland and Missouri all in the Roosevelt column
the people of the other Southern states must feel
that they have lost touch with the great political
forces of the day The country, and many OF
their own people, turned an absolutely deaf ear to
the imprisoned cry from the South to them
from the pers involved in the race problem. On
the contrary, they elected the whom the South
ern people looked on their bitterest enemy by an
unprecedented majority. In other words, the South
did not exert the shadow of an influence on the
election 1t seems to us that this is most pathetic
and distressing condition. Our neghbors beyond
the Ohio river are intelligent patriotic and consci-
entious They desire nothing but to their coun-
try great, happy and prosperous. But they honestly
believed that the election of Roosevelt would be
disastrous to their section and their fellowcountry
men simply refused to consider their case at all.
Now that the campaign over, perhaps we may
consider with some degree of camness Mr. Roose-
vets position the negro question. If we do this,
it seems to us that there will be little ground for
apprehension, We not thinking of the race
problem itself. which we admit is exceedingly grave,
but of the Presidents attitude toward it. The only
sins of which Mr. Roosevelt guilty in
viting Booker Washington to lunch and appointing
few colored men to office, which latter has been
done by every president since the war. That was all
Is not this slender foundation on which to base
an indictment of the president nciter of race
hatred? Truly it to We think that the
people allowed themselves to be dashed in to rage
by few bourbon politicians and inhamed newspa-
pers OF course, it not meant to suggest that the
South should have supported Mr.. Roosevelt, but it
is meant that it shouf have supported Judge Parker
just as millions of people in the North supported
him-that is, for national reasons. We do not be-
lieve that the president has the remotest idea of
setting the aga each other, nor do we be-
heve that he has given any reason for thinking
The News has never had any other wish than
to deal with the South in spirit of kindness We
have protested against certain iljudged efforts of
sentimental and ignorant Northerners to solve the
race problem The people of the North cannot ap
preciate the feeling of white people who live in
communities Overwhelmingly black. Nor is it easy
for them to understand the generalization which
participation in politics, under the lead of unscru-
pulous demagogues, has wrought among the ne
groes. We in Indianapolis know nothing of it, For
our negroes have been shameessly corrupted by
the politicians both sides So we have the utmost
sympathy with the people of the South. We believe
that they should be left largely to themselves to
solve the problem winch naraSSeS tneH Hey nave
spent millions of money for negro education They
have divided the school fund equally between the
races though the white contribute practically all
Of It. The burden resting the South is real and
heavy
But it may be that the people allow them
selves to be too much oppressed with it? Do they
not consider it too much to the exclusion of every
thing elsee Indeed have they not grown somewhat
hysterical concerning it? These questions asked
not for the purpose or with the thought of mnniz
ing the question, but rather with the intention of
suggesting hat in natonal affairs the South night
possibly, with entire safety, take more national
view Surely it must be n1ortifying to grave and
hgh-sprited people to think that they have practi-
catiy no influence in the councils of the nation. No
one cares how Southern state votes. The nation
has done nothing to exclude the Southern people
from national affairs. They have, seems to us,
gone voluntarily into exile. There is feeling of
hostility in the North There is nothing of that old
cry that solid south must be confronted by solid
North. The people Of the North simply go on vot-
in on national questions leaving the South to itself
And the sad and painful result is that the South is
now-only temporarily we hope-lost in the byways
of politics better day will Come, and we hope
soon. The South owes duty to the naton-namely,
that of giving it the benefit of its wisdom, intelli-
gence and conservatism in the task of solving the
great problems not of any section but of the whole
country We hope that it may soon take up this
great work But just now-and it is hard thing to
say-the South is, by its own action, practically
negligible quantity in national politics.