The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-05-17
THE SOUTH is IN THE SADDLE.

With Clark, southerner, speaker
of the house, and with the democratic
house in control of the democratic
south, there seems TO be much reason
for the boast that the south is COM
ing into it's own and that soon it
will be supreme in the affairs of the
nation.
Evidence of southern domination is
seen in the fact that while the new
free list place the products OF the
northern farm on the free list, the
products Of the south, such as rice,
cotton and sugar, are left protected.
In sense there should be no more
cause for alarm that a sOutherner
holds the reins than that man from
Oregon or Vermont is in high position.
One has only to visit the south, how
ever to learn that he is out of the
United States.
While the north has turned its face
to new problems, the south had dwelt
almost wholly in the past. The fervor
of northern patriotism is nothing in its
intensity to the burning hatred which
the south still hugs to its bosom
against every northern thing.
The children of the south are
taught to scott at human rights, and
to despise the Yankee" and all his
works. Free speech, such as we know
it in Iowa, would be suicide in GeOr-
gia. The south is intensely selfish,
intensely prejudiced, intensely pro-
vincial. It's mentality is weak. With
but few exceptions its press is maud
lin. Petty quips and puns are its edl-
torial pabulum and we have never
seen in the columns of a weekly
southern newspaper single article
which rose to the dignity of an edi-
torial utterance 1t is fair to pre-
sumo that the southern newspapers
reflect the mental standards of their
readers.
The schools of the south are made
quate and of low grade. Education is
not for the masses, but for the classes.
The result is a small, well-educated
too proud to work and a
large, helpless population, too ignor-
ant to achieve.
1t is into the hands of the southern
autocrats that the dissentions OF the
north are placing the reins of govern
ment 1t is not because of the superior
of southern leaders, but be-
cause of the bitter struggles and con-
fiicting ambitions of the men of the
north.
There is a real danger that the work
of the patriotic union soldiers OF nifty
years ago will be undOne by the dem
agOgues of today. Once the south is
in the saddle and every vestige OF
freedom will be taken from the negro,
and he will be enslaved III all but
name. TO some, we confess with sOr-
row, this does not appeal, but what
will appeal will be the upbuilding OF
the south at the expense OF the north.
This will be a sure result. Southern
industries will be fOStered While the
northern farmers pay the bill and SUI
fer from free trade in their products.
The money of the nation will be spent
in the south almost exclusively, for
there has never been a time, save per
hans in their mock herOcs during the
Cuban war. when the south has shown
any spirit of natiOnalism or any wide
or unseltish purpose in national af-
fairs.
Had the conditions been reversed,
had the south been in the saddle and
the Panama canal zone been situated
to the north instead of to the south,
does anyone suppose that the millions
of treasure would have been voted for
that project? Not in a million years.
The northern farmer should think |
not twice, but many times before he
places the supreme power Of the |
nation into the hands of the Unre- |