The Columbus weekly dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 1902-1905, 1905-06-01

chise which has proved q failure?
Probably in the good time OF the
American commercial world The
question will have an industrial solu-
ton, which is to say, scientific solu-
ton. The commercial interests Of
America, pushing more and more rap
idly into the South. are discovering
that in the South there is an intol-
cradle Industrial waste. This indus
trial waste is a part of the race ques-
ton. 1t will be so we'd IN the way
most beneficial to the industrial pros
perity of America The Vardaman
idea is not more than half a genera
ton, at best, ahead of the hour. He
himself may not live to see it &C
copied as wisdom, but he will die be
Iieving in its truth and Justice; for
he has learned il in the fields, in the
hamlets and the cities of the South,
and has seen its truth demonstrated
under the windows of the State cap
itol in which he now sits as chief ex-
ecutive The negro does not improve,
he reverts; he does not become edu-
Gated but remains savage. Educa-
ton does not help him. but gives him
false ideas. Education teaches him
to believe that political equality
means social equality, which is i'm
possible These are different state
ments of the Vardaman idea. A few
years from now it will not seem SO
absurd to us in the North
James K Vardaman first appeared
in the political field as editor of The
Commonwealth, newspaper of
Greenwood, Mississippi natural
politician, he was early in the legisla-
ture, where he became speaker of
the house. His paper advocated in
PREVENTION by the United States in
the Cuban difhculties-jus as did
Theodore Roosevelt And, just as
did Roosevelt, Vardaman, feeling that
he who invoked war ought to go to
war, enlisted for the war with Spain.
He left wife and four children, and
left them in no especial affIuence.
He joined the First Mississippi, and
was elected captain, but Governor
McLauren, whom Vardaman had crit
icised in his paper made this the oc-
fused to issue a commission to the
captain. Vardaman explained this
matter to his company and enlisted
with the Fifth United States Volun-
teers, known as the Mississippi I'M
munes''-who were not immune. but
who wanted to see some fighting.
They arrived in Cuba too late for the
glory but in plenty of time for the
hard, unpleasant work Vardaman
came out of the campaign as major,
and he speaks now of his experience
as made up largely of chasing mi
crobes up San Juan hill with q bat
terry of quinine capsules
After the close of the Cuban war
Vardaman ran for governor and was
defeated. He ran again in 1908. and
after a hot campaign was elected.
In way he had split his party This
often happens when a strong man
gets into politics. Some time a real
ly big man will split up both national
parties and give America another and
better one, which assuredly America
needs.
Vardaman was elected on the plat
form, in part, of no race equality"
He fought the expenditure of the
State money for the education of the
negro, and declared he considered
that undertaking a hopeless one. His
opponents said he would drive every
negro from the State: that the plant
ers would be left without 1aborers. |
In reply Vardaman continued to tell
them what they all knew to be true, |
that black was not white His argu-
ment was scientific, not political. /
The North Joined in calling Varda- |
man negro hater; it held up Missis-
sippi as a relic of the dark ages
Needing friends in his political |
campaign. Vardaman nevertheless
pledged himself to none. and went in
to Office absolutely without strings /
attached to him In any way His /
opponents predicted that after his /
election there would ensue a reign
of terror. an outbreak of lynchings |
and an exodus of the black race from
Mississippi. None of these things /
happened. Vardaman proved not so
sensational and erratic. after all.
President Roosevelt has declared
his intention of UNFOLDING the law
and of giving every man a square
deal. Singularly enough, that was
precisely the platform on which Var
daman stood after his election as
governor. Whitecap outrages broke
out in Lincoln county. There are
nine men today serving penitentiary
sentences for those outrages. Pros
ecution was kept at work under the