Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-03-12
BEFORE AND AFTER.
Some Ruminations Showing the Ineon-
sistencies of Politics,

sisteneies of Politics.
A political campaign and its fea-
lures are soon forgot, but 1t may at
times be amusing, II not instructive,
to recall them to mind.
During the campaign last summer
in this state for the Office of United
States senator, we have some recol-
lection that one of the aspirants for
that office, who was then and is now
the mayor of the good city Of Charles
ton, was more or less fiercely and seri-
ously assailed on the stump by some
of the other candidates by reason of
the fact that in his capacity of mayor
Of the metropolis Of the state. he had,
on the occasion of chance visit to
that city, extended its courtesies to
a gentleman who was at the time sec
retary of war, who during that cam
paign was the Republican candidate
for president, and who is now the pres
ident Of these United States. Mayor
Rhett, we were told during the cam
paign, was not to be trusted by South
Carolina Democrats, because he, with
the distinguished editor of the News
and Courier, had spoken a few hos
pitable phrases to Mr.. Taft in the
office of the collector Of the port Of
Charleston, said office being filled by
a negro.
Among those who most vehemently
and strenuously brought forth this
weighty argument for the delectation
Of the Democratic masses was our
good friend and compatriot, the Hon.
orable o. B. Martin.
Happily or unhappily, neither Mr..
Rhett nor Mr.. Martin was selected by
the South Carolina Democrats to rep
resent them in the senate Of the
United States, and now what do we
see?
It Is announced-and we welcome
the announcement that Mr.. Martin
has been offered and has accepted
high, honorable and lucrative position
under the administration Of that same
Republican, William H. Taft; that he
will go in and out before us under the
guidance of that paternal and cher
ished friend Of the farmer, DR.. Sea-
man A. Knapp, who is engaged in one
of the most benign Of the several pa
ternalistic missions to which the Fed
eral government, under Republican
rule, is devoting itself. We rejoice,
we say, that this opportunity to do
good has come to Mr.. Martin, and we
do not doubt but that his talents and
energies, for which we have no little
admiration, will be we'll employed and
that the selection is an excellent one
we do not hesitate to say.
But it is strange how things turn
out, isn't it?
And we might go a little further in
this rumination. 1t is as we'll settled
as anything can be that is yet in the
future, that the collector of the port
of Charleston will no longer be
negro, and further, that the Office will
be held by white man who Is ac-
ceptable to the white people of the
city of Charleston, and therefore to
the people Of South Carolina. 1t Is
also we'll established, and evidenced
by President Taft's inaugural address,
that the new president Is disposed to
heed local prejudices and sectional
sentiment in making his appointments,
so that a repetition Of the Crum incl
dent seems now impossible
Well may we wonder If this state of
mind which the president frankly
avows would have been confessed, or
even If it would have existed, had
Mr.. Taft, as Mr. Taft, not been so cor
daily and so kindly treated when he
visited the city Of Charleston, where
the officials and the private citizens
, know so we'll how to treat the way
farer, whatever be his degree.
In our mind there is not the slight
est doubt that the gentlemanly recep-
ton of Mr. Taft, by Mayor Rhett and
his Charleston associates, has gone
far to make Mr.. Taft the friend of the
south in the truest sense of the word
and on the other hand we have no
doubt whatever that the allegations
brought against Mr.. Rhett in last sum-
mer's campaign, along the line we
have mentioned, contributed very
largely to his defeat for the United
States senate.-Columbia Record.