The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, 1907-03-01
Vardaman and Williams.

The Tribune says edltoriallY: The
Democratic voters of Mississippi are
to nominate next August United States
Money, when the latter's term expires,
on March 3, 1911. The two leading
candidates for the succession are Gov
ernor J. X. Vardaman and Representa-
tive John Sharp Williams. Reports
which come from Mississippi indicate
that the Governor is making steady
headway with his canvass and that Mr..
Williams is loosing rather than gaining
ground. The country at large would
undoubtedly prefer to see Mr.. Williams
win. His service in the House of Rep
iesentative, where for two congresses
he has led the Democratic minority with
| greater skill and more credit than many
of his predecessors in that thankless
and difficult undertaking, has made
him a familiar figure in national poll
| tics. He is an apt and often eloquent
speaker, and In matters which do not
involve his special prejudices an intelli-
gent and useful;lcgislator. He measures
more nearly than any other man in
Mississippi up to that States standards
of qualification for public service. He
approaches in equipment the type of
Lamar and Walthal, while the eppo-
nent, so far as the country now knows
| him, represents marked deterioration
from that type. Mr.. Vardaman stands
for cruder aud rawer ideas and for
| harsher attitude toward the dependent
race to which the South looks to do it's
labor, and whose economic fitness for
that task the South's prosperity must
continue to hinge for several genera
tions. To that extent he is a reaction
ary whose policies unwisely threaten
and darken the future.
Yet from another point Of view it is
easy to understand why Mississippi
should be tempted to prefer Mr.. Yard
man to Mr.. Williams. The weakness
in the latter's make up, weakness
shown in his leadership of the House
minority, is that he does not know ex-
actly what he wants or where he stands
politically. He cannot square himself
with practical conditions. Mr.. Williams
expended great deal of intellectual
energy in exploiting ideas on tariff taxa
ton which nearly everybody else now in
public life admits to be obsolete.
He belongs by conviction to an almost
extinct school-the school that held
that our protective tariff was born in
inequity and applied in folly, and that
is effects were in a national sense ab-
solutely injurious and demoraiizing.
The protective theory was to economy,
in this schools opinion, what original
sin and total depravity were to theol
ogy. National development under our
tariffs has made that contention ludi-
crous. But Mr.. Williams still clings to
it, and while other political leaders,
both Republicans and Democrats, are
prepared reduce the tariff on the ground
that in many lines of industry present
rates are not needed for it's benefcent
work, he still argues that it never was
anything but'a monstrous outrage and an
incubus on national growth.
This same haziness of vision has
cropped out in connection with the
chief issue on which Mr.. Williams and
Gov. Vardaman are making their pres
ent fight. Tt will be admitted that
party which intends to nominate Mr..
Bryan for the Presidency next year
must be prepared TO appeal to the
country's ultra radical sentiment. Mr..
Williams wants to be a halfway radical
not too radical, but just radical
enough. He favors Mr.. Bryan's nomi-
ration, yet, as he says, he wants to de-
radicalize the candidates programme
sssave him from himself" AS an excuse
for not accepting Mr.. Bryan's railroad
ownership policies he has sounded the
alarm that Government ownership will
eliminate the Jim Crow car, and the |
Mississippps civilization.
Governor Vardaman takes more |
practical view of the situation. He |
thinks that the 'sJim Grow" regulations |
can take care of themselves. They are
not a national issue. But Mr.. Bryan's
Government ownership programe is,
and If the Democratic party chooses to
renominate Mr.. Bryan with eyes wide
onen it will have to stand for his ideas |