The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-07-02

say that there is no party but the
democratic in the south. Another Il
that the people generally take very
little interest In politics after the nnr-
nations to Offices have peer made. A
third is that this latter condition arises
from the great preponderence CT the
democratic party and the primary
system which. with many voters taxes
the nlace of election. We see signs OF
danger to the democratic party IL
these conditions.
The republican party is gaining
strength every year in the southern
states and the members OF the deG1o-
cratic party are becoming more ap1-
thetic and less enthusiastic about pre-
serving party lines. This Is due. tc
a large extent to the disfranchisenent
Of the negroes. BY enfranchisinc the
negro in order to ~perpetuate It's SUI
ema in the south the Republicans
lldue IllS SCtIIOh JIM
| The democrats disfranchised the neSrO
in order to insure continuance Of their
control. Will their endeayor prove
as great a failure as did that of the
republicans and be the cause of the
breaking of the solid south? Do not
present indications point that way?
Below we give the Post editorial,
which gives some remarkable figures
as to the votes in the southern states
in recent~elections:
The Post recently commented at
some length on and reproduced a
number of extracts from an editorial
in the st. Louis GlObe-DemOcrat dis
cussing the great disparity in num-
bers between the total of democratic
votes cast in the solid south and the
aggregate of hat party's> vote in the
north. The GlObe-DemOcrat showed
that of the 5,O77,971 votes received
by Parker in 1904, only 1,238,133 were
from the southern states, that gave
hin lao electoral votes, while the
more than 5000, 900 democratic votes
Of the north represented no electoral
votes whatever. Those figures have
attracted a good deal of attention.,
and called out various explanatory
statements. In its issue of the 21st
instant our ST. Louis contemporary
digeSts an editorial from the Houston
Post, in which the statement is made
that scarcely a third of the southern
democrats go to the polls, and that
their aggregate is more than $500, 600.
The Houston Post asserts that there
is but one political party in the
SOUTH that results are settled at pri-
maries. and that hundreds of thous-
ands of voters disquaIify themselves
by refusing to pay poll taxes. Here
in Texas" it remarks, I'VE have 90O,-
900 voters, of whom 600, 600 are I'M
dOubtedly democratic, but last year
scarcely 10000 votes were cast for
the democratic candidate for governor
and less thar 2O0, 1000 voted in the
J democratic primaries, while our rec
ords show that only about 5000 are
qualified to vote under the laws Of
Texas" In reply to@that rather strong
assertion as to the position of the re-
publican party in the south, the
Globe-Democrat submits that as more
than a third Of the votes in all the
southern states in 1904, and a
fourth of those cast in Texas
were republican, the statement
that there is only one party
in the south is inaccurate. The fact
that a party in a state never does any
electing is not proof that it has no
existence. 1t would manifestly be as-
surd to say that there is no demo-
cratic party in Vermont. 1t is doubt
full if any state contains Il more ar
dent and devoted democracy than the
little band of the 'unterrifed' in the
Green Mountain State. The Globe
Democratic AYERS that whether the
voters in the south who remain away
from the polls are democrats or no
is a matter improved. They are more
apt to represent, if not opposition,
various forms Of Dissatisfaction. At
all events. the ballot hat is not cast
must remain unclassided until it takes
it's place IN the returns. Only Is per
cen Of the population of Texas are
negroes. The Texas republicans num-
bered 51,242 in 1904, and there are
excellent reasons why the humble will
be increased in the next national cleo
ton" The republican rartys long,
long struggle for Texas is almost pa
thetic. It has poured many thousands
of dol!ar into the grasp OF Texas re-
publicans who W. glowing accounts
of the growth and prospects OF the
G. O. f. in their state.
Hope springs eternal in the human
breast,
Man never is. but always to be blest."
But in all candcr, it must be ad-
mitted that the situation Of the demo-
cratic party in that more than i'm
perial commonwealth, as described by
the Houston Post. is by no means
ideal. The spectacle OF voters by
hundreds of thousands DISTINGUISHING
themselves by refusing to pay poll
taxes is not a fine illustration of civic
pride or patriotic duty.
THE RAILWAY RATE CONTEST