Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-04-05

New sectionalism

Preaching a New Sectionalism.
Alton E. Parker's appearance as a,
sectionalist is likely to be as humiIiat-
ing to him and as emh lrrasSing to his
party as was his advent IN the role of
leader in 1904. In a speech at Char
lottesville, \. c., he told the South that
it was its duty to seize the control of
the Democratic party of the country,
and to depose the men who have been
holding sway for the past dozen years.
Nebraska and New York. he says, have
been running the Democracy in recent
times, and it is the South's duty now
to take the reins. The time has come,
he declared, when the really effective
Democrats of the country should be
recognized. and when they themselves
should no longer hesitate, decline or re-
fuse TO seek or to accept those honors
which are their just due for work we'll
done. 1t may possibly be that the party
will go to defeat again, but since 1896
1t has done nothing else under Northern
leadership, and certainly it cannot do
worse"
The tone of this advice to the South
to assume the dictatorship in the De
mocracy will be resented by those
Northern Democrats who care enough
about what Parker says to take any
notice at all of it. Sane Southern lead
ers will be a little distrustful of this
sort of talk. Many Northern Demo
Gratis, as we'll as many Republicans,
have often said that Democratic ma
tlonal conventions ought to treat the
South with a little more consideration.
They ought occasionally to let a South
ern man, when he is capable and popu-
lar, have some chance TO get on either
the first or the second end of the ticket.
In recent elections the South has fur
nlshed about all the electoral votes that
the Democratic party has rolled up. As
a matter of policy as well as of fair
ness it would be well for the Democ-
racy to let a Southern man, when he
has the requisite qualifications, get an
opportunity to figure as a national lead
er. Since 1860 Southern aSpirant for
President would get as little quarter in
Bob Ingersoll would have received in
the college of cardinals if he had pre-
scented himself as candidate for Pope.
Democrats of all sections of the coun-
try who are safe and sane will reject
Parker's counsel. Reasonable men have
been asking equality for the South III
the matter of presenting candidates
and formulating policies. Parker adj
vises the South to demand dominance
in the Democracy as matter of right.
For the SectiOnalism by the North and
West which has been the rule in the
Democracy for over forty years he
would substitute a Southern sectional
ism. He tells the South to seize the
control of the rational Democracy, and
frame its platforms and put up its can
didates. At a time when all good Amer
leans are hoping that sectionalism in
the country's politics has died out or is
on the point of dying out, Parker comes
forward as an advocate of a new sec
tionalism. William L. Yancey, in the
Charleston convention of 1860, de-
nounced the Douglas Democrats for al
lowing freesOilism to spread all over
the North. and demanded that hereafter
the South should shut out the North
from a share in the selection of creeds
and candidates for the Democratic par
ty. Alton B. Parker appears in the role
of Yancey today. The Yancey spirit
was sufficiently strong in the Demo
cratic convention of forty-siX years ago
to split the Democratic party in the
Middle, and to precipitate a rebellion
whose effects are still felt in the South.
John Randolph would have called Par
ker doughface-a Northern man with
Southern principles. If Parker's sec
tionalism rules the Democratic conven-
ton of 1908 its candidate will be even
more disastrously defeated than was
the Democratic candidate of 1904-St.
Louis GlObe-Democrat.