The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-09
SpeculatinS on Presidential
 Candidates for the Next Term

strong foreign policy. powerful navy and an isthmian canal.
 Special Privileges.
 Their differences with Republication are on the points of special privilege under industrial, commercial and fiscal laws, the regulation of the tariff. trusts, railways and corporations, and the standardization of political power. Three tremendous defeats have convinced Democrats of the South as we'll as Of the North that abandonment. of prin- ciples fundamental to the Democracy. to embrace either ultra-radicalism or ultraconservatism, Is a policy of des- truction. It Is the hope, If not the expectation, of the Eastern and west ern Democrats who are in closest touch with the South that the right solution of party difhculties may come from the leadership of that section. The idea Of nominating a Southern Democrat for President is already receiving the sanc- ton of influential partisans North Of Mason and Dixon's line.
 Six Democratic Governors of States which returned Republican electors last year are set down as potent factors in the National Democratic situation. Wise Democrats argue that the influences which elected Chamberlain in oregon, Adams in Colorado, Folk in Missouri,
 
 chusetts and Johnson in Minnesota in the face of overwhelming ma1orities for President Roosevelt, ought to be culti- vated and extended in national politics. In each case the personal equasion was important Chamberlain attracted Re- publican support in Oregon as a reform candidate. Adams and Douglas or fered the best promise of rectification for abuses in the relations between
 col In sachusetts. Toole held Montana by working along traditional Democratic lines. Folk won in Missouri because he stood out against a corrupt State ma chine of his own party. Johnson car ried Minnesota, an agricultural state where the railroad question has long been agitated, by a convincing presen- tation of the Democratic attitude. In New York, New Jersey. Michigan, Wis- consin and other Republican States the Presidential majorities were enormous ly cut by the Democratic candidates for Governor. little reflection shows that wherever, in the last campaign, the Democratic State organizations of the North differentiated from the na- tional organization in the attitude to- ward President Roosevelt and his dis tinctively personal policies. they either won or minimized Republican victories. To theSouth, then. should be added cer- tain elements of party strength localiz- ed in the North, when the work or party rehabilitation begins.
 Public Utilities.
 There are early manifestations of re- luctance in the Democratic party to nationalize the issue of public opera ton of the public utilities. The &C., ton of the Ohio State convention which nominated MT. Pattison for Governor makes distinct reaction from the party course which led to the crushing defeat of MT. Johnson two years ago. The platform Is notable because it sug- gests local option on the question of public or private ownership of local public utilities and declares that be- tween Democracy and Socialism there Is no peace and no reconciliation? Con- sidered as a local question public ownership has many advocates in the Democratic Northern cities, but there Is not up to this time any important indication that Mir. Bryan's theory of State ownership will become a party problem. The South Is against it. Sc Is the East and the far West. And among Democratic leaders everywhere there is a disposition to so conduct dis cussions of this kind and kindred issues as to leave the Republicans nc Justification whatever for the cry oi socialism raised against the Democratic party in 1896. If the Ohio Democrats reduce the Republican majority In that State to the normal 50.000 this fall it Is likely that their treatment of these propositions will be adopted by the Democratic State organizations In all parts of the country relieving the next national convention of dangerous responsibility. "l- N. o. Tanning.