The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-10

ing that they will come back But to impute
what was nearly race extinction by adverse ele-
ments to a second-rater like the English sparrow
does a first class fighting man among the birds
much dshonor.
A NEED OF SOUTHERN INSURGENTS.
1t is fact of baneful significance that at
moment when the entire West is stirred to the
heart with the fight within the Republican party
for self-puritication, we hear nothing of I'm
surgent' activities in the party in the South. By
this we would not be understood as expressing
particular preference for Insurgent as against
Standpat Republicans. AS we see it, the dispute
now raging affects political morality only nso-
far as the assertion of higher morals by In
surgent aspirants is considered good policy.
The sins of the Regulars, so far as we can de-
duce the Insurgent accusations, are chiefly sins
of commission against Insurgent ambition, or
sins of omission to provide loaves and fishes for
1nsurgent constituents That is not the abuse
to which the South is particularly subject, but
it is this:
That in the South the rank and file of the
Republican party, so called, is at this time Reg
ular" simply and solely because the administra-
ton is regular. If, as the result of this Falls
elections the 1nsurgent movement should clear
ly presage the overthrow of the administration,
there would be equally dearth of Regulars"
with the present conspicuous absence of PRO
gressiyes". Which is to say, that in the South
the great majority of voters in Republican ranks
are as we conceive the leaders of those voters
to be in the North and the West: soldiers of for
tune, ready to draw blade for that side which
promises the most pay and the better provender.
In the North and West there is fight be-
tween contending factions for the simple reason
that there is division OF opinion Among voters
upon what they consider to be principle. 1t
matters not whether there is any real principle
at the bottom of their conviction. They think
there is, and that is healthy sign. As the voters
think, so the leaders align themselves.
But in the South the fight, when there is a
fight, is not remotely concerned with party pol
icy,--not even with the chief end of party sue
cess Instead, it is fight simply for the control
of the commissary department as supplied from
Washington. The contention is as to who shall
be quartermaster, the line of division between
those who wishing bounty as the price of loyalty,
choose sides as they perceive victory ready to fall
with one dispntant or the other
Take, for instance, the case in North Caro-
ditions. The party in that State is at present
torn into tatters over fight for the Chairman
ship Under the ''referee system, such pabulum
as, to keep up the form of organization, the
Washington administration doles out TO North
Carolina Republicans is distributed through the
hands of the chairman The fight, therefore,
is a fight for the distribution of the stores. The
ranks are filled with contestants of common
hunger. The issue is simply who will be politi-
cally fed, and who will politically starve And the
issue is kept alive by those who failing in salts
faction, from time to time change sides in per-
petual hope of tawdry office. At present the
candidates for this exalted position are John NJ
Morehead, wealthy and successful manufacturer
of good name and good personal repute, drawn
into politics by fattery and elected by accident
and Adams. illiterate Judge relic of negro
control, suspiciously wealthy and politically,
frankly venal But behind Morehead is Butler,
Infamous in the South for his betrayal of the
Democratic party, his subsequent betrayal of the
Farmers Union and the Third Party, his
alliance with the Black Republicans; and behind
Adams is Duncan, shrewd business man, with
taste for politics as game, and lust for a
power of which he has had taste. Of these
Butler and Adams have repeatedly betrayed each
other; have embraced with knives behind their
backs have laid each against the other, criminal
charges at their own peril of the consequences.
Butler does not live in the State and Adams left
it poor man Federal Judge on Indian
claims. and returned to it rich. to practice" .