The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-03
a GENERAL BKEAK1NG mr.

MI. Ashton Starke, of this city, is a
member of the National Tariff Com
mission Association, and has had con.
siderable correspondence with John
Gambler Cobb, of Boston, the Presi
dent OF the Association, about the pur-
poses the Association has in view and
how they can best be advanced. In a
letter written August 20, which is
said to have set the Down E.a sterners
thinking, Mr.. Starke suggested to
President Gambler that tho time had
come when the people generally should
be made to understand that the Asso-
citation sis on-political organization
whose members and officials may be OF
any party" Mr.. Starke is not satisfied
with the way things have been going,
hardly anybody is, and particularly
seems to have lost faith In both the
Will to do and the ability to accom-
plish of those who have been seeking
to reach better condition of affairs
through the ancient and historic De-
mocracy, at least this appears to be a
fair deduction from what Mr.. Starkc
says. in his August letter to the head
of his organization in Boston, part
OF which we quote as follows:
IF ever the South is again to be-
come a real factor IN corporation and
sympathy with the administration OF
the governmental affairs of this coun-
try, the followers OF the so-cailed
Democratic party must be torn away
from, old mornings and the brain and
energy of these people, OF which there
is SO much held in bondage. brought
into play by the diplomacy and appre-
citation of strength at the hands Of the
better clement of the dominant party
CT the country. Time will never cradi-
cate certain sentiments. and. If you
please, some misconceived ideas, in
born in these people. In the last analy-
sis they are the same yesterday to-
day and forever. There Is no call for
magnanimity from any source, nor do
these ideas and Sentiments initiate in
the least possible degree against the
Invaluable strength and action of these
people freed from foreign association
and accustomed to slow and profound
thought. They stand for the safe
guards of the United States and It's
progress IN the WoItus great COmpell-
ton.
"Whatever Is to be accomplished in
this direction must he drawn out and
fostered by the ruling spirits, the
higher men and minds in the now DOM
inant party. The thought Of such
possible consummaticn thrills me With
a great conception of safety for this
country in the future. l do not think
there has been Il limc so propitious as
now for far-reaching stride in this
directicn, and no subject could offer
such "A broad gateway as this Ques-
tion of tariff. affecting as it does all
classes. in all sections, and in no sec
tion of this country are opinions and
ideas in a greater embryo state re-
garding this matter by reason Of
changed conditions and environments
during the last decade than in the
Sounh,
mo greater stupidity have supposed
shreWd men been guilty of than the
feeders put forth from time to time
by the leaders of the Republican party
TO see what possibly might be done
with the South In political way. Tho
advisers in the South have without
exception been men looking for office
and preferment The Republican PARTY
has never gotten any nearer the heart
of the Southern people than Cook got
to the North Pole, and his nearest APP
preach was perhaps the coolest point,