The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-12
Another Guess Coming TO Griggs.


Our ever esteemed rainbow chaser the
Hon. jim GRIGGs of Georgia must have
been sadly shaken by the elections
of last Tuesday. When a Democratic
prophet falls into a trance as the result
of a knock on the head and Immediately
after recovering consciousness fires of
a moan to the effect that his party's
sole remaining hope lies in the Hon.
JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS we are justified
in assuming hat his c~onvalescence is
by no means complete. As a matter of
fact, persons of an impulsive tempera-
ment might tell themselves that the
sufferers nurses had permitted him to
talk too soon.
Our own guess il that the Hon. JIM
GRIGGs was still rambling when he pro-
posed the Hon. JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS as
the next Democratic candidate for the
Presidency. He thought the House was
still in session and he seemed TO hear
the minority squibs under
the fetlocks of the Hon. CHARLES HENRY
GRosvENoR or bewildering the Hon.
SERENO PAYNE with explosive punches
of epigram and irony. The Hon. JOHN
SHARP WILLIAMS is justly famous as a
strategist on the floor, as the p~atentee,
sole proprietor and only competent manip-
ulator of the finest brands of sarcasm,
"sassing back" and Democratic poetry
ever heard on Capitol Hill. No wonder
the Hon. JIM GRIGGs, just emerging
from a state Of coma, imagined to HIM
self the aurora borealis at its brightest
and its best. When, however, he gets
strong enough to be taken out in a
wheeled chair he will discern larger
shapes than are furnished by the Demo-
cratic Mutual Admiration Society Of the
House Of Representatives.
Now, We know Of no unanswerable
reason why the South should not present
its own candidate for the Presidency in
1903. That section furnishes two-thirds
of the party's brains, four-fifths of it's
virility, and practically all the voices in
the national councils. Why, then, should
it not, az the provider of the banquet,
abandon the role Of the poor relation and
refuse longer to sit below the salt2 Up
to this point we follow Mr.. GRIGGs with
honest fervor. But we do not accept
his postulate that the South, in looking
for a leader, must needs confine its quest
to the few score gentlemen who theoret-
ically represent il at Washington. 1t is
by no means clear to us that the South
is giving Of its best to national politics.
We are persuaded, on the contrary, that
with a dozen or two exceptions the
South's biggest, brOadest, most enlight-
ened and most patriotic sons are at pres
ent engaged in purely private efforts
to uplift the section in a moral and ma
terial sense, 70 establish it's prosperity
upon a lasting basis and to secur its
civilization against all imaginable peril.
Comparing the advance achieved in
these respects with visible improvements
in the way OF craftsmanship, he would
be n rash and irresponsible appraiser
who asserted an equal or eve a family
indicated concurrence Of the political and
the material evOlutions.
There are some truly great men in
Congress from the South. Not many,
but some. In civil life, however, men
of high intelligence, Of pure and lofty
ideals, of compelling force, of brilliant
initiative and OF s%plendidly substantial
achievement are to be met at every turn
Of the road. Whether they could be
lured from the enterprise of upbrilding
TO the cvancscen glories Of public life
is another question. In the old days,
when the South furnished the ruling
class, or most Of II, TO the nation, il
gave its men oH leisure, of secure fortune
and position men far above sordid and
mean temptation men misguided, II you
please, but of punctilious and passionate