Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-11-13

block all possible reforms, and that
| the great interests" will continue 10
dominate and direct public policies to
suit themselves, even though Taft is
the President of the country. 1t directs
attention to the unsuccessful stand
made by him for the consumers when
the tariff bill was under consideration
and his subsequent somewhat pitiful
acceptance of the AIdrich-Cannon bill
as largely meeting public demands.
From the presidential accomplish
ments in holding down the old con-
trolling powers of Republicanism up
to this time the Press does not augur
well for his future success is a similar
direction.
| The Press insists that there is moth
| ing in the record up to date, or in the
prospective record, to encourage the
South to change its political alleg-
| lance. AS to its so-called Isolation"
and ''unprogressiveness," that paper
insists that this is a Pigment of the
| Imagination. Party corruption does
| not exist in the South as in the North
and West, it points out, and it's provin-
ciality consists in preserving loyalty
to home, to state and to section, to the
ideals upon which the permanence of
our institutions depends. In conclus-
ion Editor Stovall holds that
| The South should not abandon its
! time-tried doctrines of the right of
| local f-goyernment and of tariff for
revenue only. On the other hands, the
| Republican party which makes this
appeal to the South to divide and to
| disintegrate, has, through legislation
for the interests" through high pro-
| tective tariffs, through bounties and
| subsidies, through a loose system of
| pensions, and through extravaganza in
| government, been training the people
| to look to the government for every
thing. Such policy does not encour-
age the young men of the South to
abandon an organization which has
maintained high ideas of government
| The encroachments of the central
| government are weakening to the indi-
| vidual. The best protection is local
| self-goVernment; is building up the
citizen; in tariff for revenue rather
than for protection, and in the princi-
pie that the people should support the
government and not that the govern
ment support the people This is pre-
| cisely what the Solid South has stood
for these fifty years and this is what
1t should continue to stand for
What, then, is the mission of the
Independent voter in the South? Is
| the game of breaking up and going
after new ideas sufficiently tempting /?
Does Judge Taft's party offer enough
| to induce us to batter down the old
walls? The Solid South has stood for
principles far more important and
much deeper than the temptation of a
national party, stepped in privilege and
fat with bounties. If a man is a pa
trlot he wants to see something more
vital before him ere he will break with
those old alignments or part with his
old conditions. Is not it better to Gull
tlVate healthy provincialism" than
to encourage the meddling of WASH
1ngton with state affairs? It is better
to remain provincial than to have
greater evils come upon us. The Taft
banquets are inspiring enough but we
fear the real Republican banquet Of
tered for Southern men is a Barmecide
feast.