New-York tribune., 1905-04-24
THE SOUTH AYD SOCIALISM.

The South has shown thus far little dispo-
stion TO take sides in the quarrel now raging
between the two schools of JeffersOnansm rep
resented AT the North by eX-.Iudge Parker and
Colonel William J. Bryan. Southern news
papers have. as a rule. fought shy of the con
troversy started by the rival jefferson birth
day celebrations here ana in Chicago fresh
interest had been given to that controversy by
Judge Dunne's election as Mayor of Chicago Oh
a municipal ownership programme. Colonel
Bryan and Mayor-eect Dunno were emboldenel
10y this victory TO announce the ownership and
operation of public utilities by the city. the
State and the nation as the paramount Demo
cratic ISSUE of the future. EX-Judge Parker
and ex-Judge Herrick had been driven, on the
contrary, TO reiterate the traditional idiSSe>
faire doctrine of jefferson and to applaud
as the best government that which governed
least and most inclined to mind its own
business" At the North, undoubtedly, Colonel
BIyan's aggressive programme has appealed
more strongly TO the Democratic masses than
the Parker Herrick policy of letting political
and economic evils of all sorts cure themselves
without State interference But at the south
the home Of old fashioned. perhaps unthinking
and undscriminating, Observation-Disclosures
is an ominOus silence. Can Southern leaders
and voters forget the teachings of Il century
and so far renOunce their ingTained political
ideas as to Join the Bryan-Dunne crusade for
a gigantic extension of federal powers and the
ultimate ownership and operation by the gov
ernment of all the instrumentalitieS of inter
! state commerce?
The Florida Times Union." of Jacksonville
and The Charlotte News Observer of Char
| lOtte y. C.. have recently expressed some sympa-
/ thy with the aims of Mayor Dunno and COlOnc,
Bryan. These newspapers favor public owner
ship of public utilities for cities, but little
vague about State and national ownership.
4 Nearly all the Southern Representatives in Con
/ gress voted last winter for the Esch h-TOwnSend
railroad rate regulation bill. and many of them.
so long as they remain in opposition. will con
! tinue TO favor radical railroad legislation. But
the Hon. John Sharp Williams. the minority
leader, not long ago expressed his disapproval
OF any scheme Of federal ownership and opera
/ ton on the Illuminating ground that if the
! tional government controlled the railroads it
would have to run them in the interest Of all
| its citizens and would be obliged TO dispense
with Jim Crow" ears open TO passengers of
one color and closed 10 passengers of another.
For a professed JeffersOnian of the Southern
school this is a feeble and unworthy subter-
fuge. Mr.. Williams's real opposition to govern
mental control Of the nstrumentalities of inter
state commerce was made more or less appar-
ent at the last session Of Congress. Yet p0iti-
cal expedency evidently deferred him from
standing openly with ex-Judge Parker and eX-
Judge Herrick on their platform of Jeffersonian
nOn-interference in the sphere of private enter
prise.
Probably the truer and more characteristic
Southern view is TO be found in a recent utter
ance in The Macon Telegraph" That repre-
sentative Georgia newspaper has little pa
tience with the innoyatOrs who would revise
and reinterpret Jefferson. 1t frankly opposes
the Dunno Bryan programme, not because it
may lead 10 the abolition of ''Jim Crow ears
on the railroads. but because il conflicts with
accepted Democratic traditions. Says The
! Telegraph:
Have we reached the point in national
life where il IS desira BILE. safe 10 turn bus-
If the affirmative is true, then have passed
away from the republican form of government
which was the pride of our fathers and the
glory OF our eXistence-from freedom of
individual action and field Of personal en-
deavOr which made the happiest and the
best governed (because the least governed peo-
ple in the world. Because Mayor Dunno
won an election in Chicago this issue, where
there more naturalized foreigners than
American born citizens. and where nestleS the
particular hotbed Of socialism in this coun-
try. too many Democratic newspapers, evident
! ~ without investigation, have jumped at the
thought that here is an issue Ito win on"
May Heaven save the Democratic party when il
rea ChcS that point In its history where ~ seeks
issues solely ito win on" and without regard 10
| its record of ona hundred years. record de-
voted To individual liberty. the right 10 labor
! and do business unInol ested. and opposition TO
'sumptuaTy laws which veX the citizen"
This Is a view which is likely to recur in
| Southern discussions of the railroad question
and which must be reckoned with by the p3li-
ticans who are trying to commit the Demo