The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-12-17

agricultural products, and thus a com
plete change has come over the charac-
ter of her industries. The South has
become rich, and only the surface of her
wealth has been scratched. Her growth
has exceeded that of the rest of the
country and she is now in every way
sharing its prosperity.
again, the Democratic party has
not preserved inviolate its traditional
doctrines as to States rights and other
issues, and has for the time adopted
new doctrines of possibly doubtful eco
nomic truth and wisdom. Southern men
adhering to the party and the name,
find themselves, through the influence
of tradition and the fear of a restoration
of conditions which are now impossible,
supporting platform and candidate
whose political and economic theories
they distrust. Under these conditions
there was in the last campaign, and
there is throughout the South, among
many of its most intelligent citizens, an
impatience, a nervousness and rest
lessness IN voting for one ticket and re-
! joicing in the success of another
''Now am not one of those who are
disposed to criticise or emphasize the
inconsistency of the position in which
these gentlemen find themselves be-
lieve it would be wiser if all who sym
pathized with one party and its princi
| piles were to vote its ticket, but | can
readily understand the weight and iner-
tia OF the tradition and the social con
siderations the make them hesitate.
Il believe that the movement away
from political solidarity has started and
ought to be encouraged, and | think one
way to encourage tits to have the South
understand that the attitude of the
North and the Republican party toward
it is not of hostility or criticism or
| opposition, political or otherwise; that
| they believe in the maintenance of the
Fifteenth Amendment, but that as al
ready explained, they do not deem that
amendment as inconsistent with the
! South S obtaining and maintaining what
it regards as its political safety from
domination of an ignorant electorate;
that the North yearns for a closer asso-
citation with the South; that the citizens
deprecate that reserve on the subject Of
politics which so long has been main
tanned in the otherwise delightful social
relations between Southerners and
Northerners as they are more and more
frequently thrown together.
''In welcoming to a change of party
utilization many Southerners who have
! been Democrats we are brought face to
face with delicate 81 uation, which we
can only meet with frankness and JUS
| tice.
''In our anxiety to bring the Demo-
cratic Southerner into new political re-
| lations we should have, and can have,
no desire to pass by or ignore the com
paratively few white Southerners who,
from principle, have consistently stood
| for our views in the South when it cost
them social ostracism and a loss of all
prestige. Nor can we sympathize with
an effort to exclude from the support of
Republicanism in the South or to read
out of the party those colored voters
who by their education and thrift have
made themselves eligible to exercise
| the electoral franchise.
eve believe that the solution of the
race problem in the South is largely a
matter of industrial and thorough edu-
cation. Some Southerners who have
given expression to their thoughts seem
to think that the only solution of the
negro question is his migration back to
! Africa, but to me such a proposition is
utterly fatuous
'"The negro is essential to the South
in order that it may have proper labor.
Their ancestors were brought here
against their will. They have no coun-
try but this. They know no flag but
ours. They wish to live under it and
are willing to die for it. They are
Americans. The proposition to increase
the supply of labor in the South by emil
grafton from Europe, it seems to me,
instead of being inimical to the cause
of the negro will aid him. As the in
dustries of the South continue to grow
in the marvellous ratio already shown,
the demand for labor must increase.
Primary and industrial education for
the masses, higher education for the
leaders of the negro race, for their pro-
fessional men, their clergvmen, their
physicians, their lawyers and their