The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-11-24
AFTER THE BATTLE
EDITOR HOLMES SIZES UP THE
SITUATION
In Broadside Manner in His Paper,
The Barnwen People, That Reads
Like Epic Poem.

Inc barnWcAl Eeoplc, 4u@st Aso%@oo
Like Epic Poem.
The election is over. The shout
ings are hushed. The fireworks are
burned to ashes. The smoke has
gone away, and where are we at?"
Hindsight is better than foresight.
and as we see the course of the
political cyclone ,of the first Tues
day in November, 1908, we recogniz',
that the truth of the popular quota
stion, You can fool all the people
some of the time, some Of the peo-
pie all the time, but you can't fool
all the people all the time," needs
the addition that generally enough
of them to carry out the plans and
purposes of the men who pull the
fires and 6 ct their axes ground can
be fooled-or are natural fools.
The defeat of the Democracy IN
the presidential race was national
misfortune approaching the degree
of disaster, as time will show.
The prestige Of the president, the
awful power of his administratio |.
the character and ability Of the pres
ident-elect. Mr.. Taft, the general
ship of Chairman Hitchcock and the
fervid eloquence of the Republican
spellbinding speakers may be con-
sidered-as they have the surface
appearance OF beins-the cause of
Mr. Taft's triumph, but a deeper
analysis, digging down to the
truth, will show that the almighty
dollar biased the verdict pf the
American people.
The money power stood pat. The
Standard OIL Company, the richest
and most powerful trust on earth,
that eXacts toll from every lamp that
burns in parlor or sick room, every
stove that cooks q scanty meal, every
gasoline engine that pumps water,
cuts wood, drives automobile, grincs
corn or gins cotton, that has cinched
the forethought reservoirs of oil
stored by a beneficent providence for
the general good ages ago-and so
Rockefeller declared for Taft. He
means to keep the monopoly that he
has.
The steel trust that has cornered
the essential metal made In the
morning of time by the good God for
the uses of his children, corpora.
ton that exacts tribute from every
atom of that metal, from the break
fast knife, from the hoe and plow
that tills the fields, through the long
catalogue to the battleships that
plow the deep, proclaimed through
Andrew Carnegie, its master spirit,
for Taft.
The railroad system, that ties the
States as the spider weayes Its .weo
among the rose trees of the garden,
threatened the suspension OF I'M
provement and extension in ease II
Taft's defeat, and its thousands OF
uniformed dependents took the hint,
and Hartman proved that Roose-
velts Judgment of him as "a practi-
cal man" was a true bill.
And the great ffnanciers,. the mel
who control the circulation Of money
as the miller regulates the flow OF
water or the impact Of steam, pre-
dicted a panic in case Of Rryan's cleo
ton, and great fear came into the
hearts of the merchant princes of the
North and every blessed hireling OF
theirs was made to show his colorS,
march in the Republican paradts.
vote for the grand old party candt-
dates, and for the second time in It's
history New York city, the modern
Babylon, went Republican and
Belshazzar Morgan drank his wine
in smiling content.
Through the North and West the
farmers, merchants and manutactur-
ers who have waxed fat on the
profits of Southern trade wanted no
vacation from their profit-gathering,
and SO they gave th :ir landslide vote
to Taft.
And so to the end of the chapter.
Another large factor was the I'M
migration of aliens without an idea
Of a government OF the people; be-
sotted in mind and habit by long
subjectinn to the iron hand Of mon
archical rule and having but the
one ambition of bread ard meat and
money in their starved minds.
And so the great multitude filled
the broad road, some in brave raj
ment, some foot sore, others in royal
equipage; the rich fearing the peril
of ill-gotten gains, the poor dreadins
the deeper poverty threatened, the
wage-earner siivrring at the thought
of discharge motley procession of
nationalities--and they gave Taf:
221 electoral votes.
But in the whole tragedy Of the
surrender Of the great republic Of
the West to the worship of the gold
en- calf thre was one luminous page.
The solid South" one unconquered
by oppression untamed by wrong.
unafraid of threat, true to principle
and prosperity, stood to the faith Of
the fathers who built with brave
deeds and strong hands and unfalter-
ing sacrifice and rejoicing courage
the foundation on which this govern
ment grew to goodness and great