The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-08-16

the other. IL we had any original
chance to carry the election that
would defeat us. because We could not
defend it and he would not deny it.
H.
But, turning from questions of ex-
| pediency to questions Of principle,
Mr.. Bryan would commit the Demo
cratic party to at least two measures
of public policy which are at war with
all its doctrines and traditions. These
are the Government ownership of the
railways and the initiative and refer
endum. The adoption of either would
involve the ruin of the South.
If the first could be realized, the
Federal power, which even as matters
stand the States, are contesting in the
matter of transportation, would be SUI
preme; il the second, Massachusetts
and Iowa would sit upon and determ-
inc the domestic affairs of Mississippi,
Alabama and Georgia.
Mr.. Bryan appears to have no ade-
quate understanding of the meaning of
State sovereignty, as that came down
from the Colonial period to the thir-
teen original States of the Union and
survives IN the Constitution they en-
acted He seems to have as little
conception of the peculiar conditions
of life and the exceptional social and
political fabric of the States of the
South. He grew up in the newer
States of the West. His childhood
was rocked in the cradle of extreme
Capitalization, intensified by section
al war. Unconsciously, perhaps, he
looks to Congress for everything
when in want go to Washington" the
cue of all parties alike throughout the
territory ceded by Virginia and the
territory obtained through the Louis
lana purchase-so that he has lost, If
he ever had, any generation for the
motherhood to which Illinois and Ne
braska owe their being. Be this as 1t
may, Mr.. Bryan has conceded enough
to the paternal idea to give away the
logic Of the argument against it.
The acceptance by him of Mr. Bev-
eridge's child labor bill-a Trojan
horse, disguised as a Little Sister of
the Poor-along with his proposal of
Federal ownership and National ref
erendum would strip the States of the
South of the last remnant Of home rule
and convert them into outlying prov
inces of the greater States of the
North and West. The South can new
er consent to this. If it equivocates
it is lost. With the negro on it's hands
to be developed on lines of varying
exigency and radical necessity under
the laws of common sense and expert
ence, not on lines of sublimated senti-
ment and visionary theory, it cannot
afford to submit to any foreign in
trusion through Mr.. Bryans scheme
of referendum, nor to surrender it's
highways to standing army of rail-
way officials and servants owing politi-
cal allegiance to Washington.
God knows the machinery of Gov
eminent for the benefit of the Office
holders and the deployment of parties
is too great already. Reinforced by
the railways and the telegraph, what
hope would the people have of a
change of parties short Of bloody
revolution? II Mr.. Bryan should seri-
ously propose a line of airships to
Mars he would be put in straight
jacket. Yet, Government ownership
of the railways is just as visionary.
Could Mr.. Bryan propose anything too
preposterous for those Who, having
sworn the horse to be sixteen feet
high, not only stick to It, but abuse all
who fail, or refuse, to concede 1t?
AS to the referendum, we have 1t
already in our local options Even
there it may sometimes work unequal
ly. But transferred to the Nation, it
would not only destroy the States OF
the South, but our whole representa-
tive system Of Government.
The Democratic party cannot afford
to indorse-even tentatively, even neg
atively-such revolutionary schemes.
The nomination of Mr.. Bryan by
Southern votes would mean such an
endorsement. II would mean defeat
also, unless there be some Industrial
cataclysm which cannet be now dis
cerned II we be mistaken, why do
not some OF those who are Of diff
fefeht opinion give some reason for
the faith that is in them, instead OF
questioning motives and dealing In
abuse?