The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1905-04-05
DEMOCRAcY's DILBMMA.
JOHN Temple GRAVES.

TOUR ancestors, men ana WO-
men, broke away from servitude,
religious and political, and sought
freedom of action, of heart and
conscience, here. They flung away
family ties, traditions, inherited
belief, ancestral tendencies, when
existing conditions, dominant and
rational, demanded the surrender.
They obeyed the call of their pres
emit, and met the demands of that
present. let many of their chill
dren, men of high standing and ad
mirable traits, to day are Demo
Gratis, not because the present de-
mands it, but because a phantom,
a spectre. a shade, political bug
aboo, made and used for personal,
selfish political interests and called
negro domination. frightens them
from the path of known civic duty
and honest political action. The
result is political peonage-po-
litical serfdom' thY'lldom to man
of straw"
These are the words of the Hon.
John w. Yerkes, Commissioner of
Internal Revenues under Theodore
Roosevelt. They are published
here for two reasons.
In The first place, they are the
words of a political opponent, and
we can always learn something to
our advantage from the criticism
of our enemies.
In the second place, they con-
tain certain element of truth,
which it is the part of the fail and
fearless thinker to recognize and
consider.
These words were spoken to the
Republicans of North Carolina, as
sembled at the Tar Heel Club IN
Greensboro, and were doubtless in
spired by the desire to make more
Republicans in North Carolina, an
effort upon which no little Reppb-
lican eloquence and Republican
Doodle has been expended with
varying success in times that are
past.
The point in these remarks which
is of interest to the Democratic
party, and particularly to that
large and numerically controlling
element of it which lives in the
South. is its essential truth. And
where truth is recognized there is
no use to combat it, but it is rather
the part of wisdom and of states
manship to recognize it and to
adapt ones self to it.
There can be no sort of doubt
that the allegation contained in
Commissioner Yerkes' impassioned
appeal is founded upon a fact
which has become evident, not
only to the Republican party, but
to very considerable and rapidly
increasing portion of the Demo
cratic party.
There are hnndreds and perha pps
thousands of men in the ranks of
the Democratic party in the South
who naturally belong by creed and
sympathy with the Republican
party.
1t is simple truth to say that
these men ought to be members in
good standing of the Republican
party, and that they would be-
but for the negro.
They think, after the shibboleths
of our political generation, that
the South cannot afford to divide
in the presence of the negro, and
so thinking they subordinate di-
vergent views and opposing inter
ests and antagonistic convictions
to the greater stake, real or mag
ined, of white supremacy, until
beneath the shadow of the race
problem there has been marshalled
the most motley host of divergent
convictions that ever followed and
fought under the comprehensive
title of Democracy.
i No matter what a man believes
In Dixie, he falls in line at the tar