The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1912-01-17
Thomas ]. Pence Says the Politicians
Can't Bea! Elm in The South,
JUST BACK FROM TOUR

He Thinks Nearly All the Delegates
From the South to the National
Democratic Convention Will Be
for Wilson, Who is Himself a
Southern Man.
The Washington correspondent Of
the Bangar Commercial in letter
to his paper says:
The most surprising thing I
found in the South is the systematic
and aggressive campaign that Is be-
capitalistic, corporation Democrats
against Woodrow Wilson," said
Thomas j. Pence, widely known
southern newspaper writer, who has
just returned to Washington from a
tour OF the southern States where
he organized meetings to be held in
the interest Of the arbitration treat
les recently negotiated by the ad-
ministration with Great Britain and
France.
81 visited the principal cities Of
Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee,
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana,
and everywhere l found this element
among tie Democracy Of those States
fighting the Wilson movement. And
what is most astonishing of all to
me is that the most bitter and re-
lentless opposition to Wilson is be-
ing put up in Virginia, the State in
which ne was born, and in Georgia,
the State where he married and
where his children were born"
'tThen you think the South will
not be for Wilson in the Democratic
national convention"
"Oh, no; think the South will be
for Wilson. The reactionary ele-
ment is against him, but the pop
ular sentiment Of the South is so
decidedly for him that I have no
doubt the delegates from nearly all
CT those States will be instructed for
him. You can have no idea of the
strength of the Wilson boom down
there unless you go there. Born in
| Virginia, reared in North Carolina,
a school teacher in South Carolina,
married in Georgia, Governor Will
sor is essentially a southern man.
"Yet he's become so great a man,
so strong leader Of modern
thought, so striking a figure in our
public life, that even the South, ever
disposed to be somewhat clalnish,
recognizes him as n citize:i of the
Whole country and not the exclusive
p,ide Of any one section All over
the South the average man looks
uron Woodrow Wilson as the sanest,
soundest progressive the country has
developed. It is only the reaction
ary minority that is opposing him,
blind, it seems to me, to the fact that
the country is demanding a progress
sive President and bound to have one
at the hands Of one party or the
other.
Alabama of course will send a
delegation to the national conyen-
ton, Instructed to vote for Oscar
Underwood. Kentucky may elect
some Underwood delegates, since
MIR Underwood was born in that
State. Kentucky may also favor
Champ Clark as ne likewise was born
there. But outside Of these two
States I am of the opinion that ev-
cry State I visited will be for Wood
row Wilson by so heavy a majority
as to leave no doubt Of the South's
attitude.
Tennessee will elect Wilson del
egation. Louisiana, the most con-
zervative of the southern States, will
be for him. Of course Mississippi,
under the leadership CT Senator John
Sharp Williams, will be wholly
Wilson State. And the Carolinas
and Georgia and Virginia will be in
line in spite of the activity of the
reactionaries. The people simply
will have it that way, if I am any
Judge Of the meaning of what they
said to me-"
Mr.. Pence is by nature conserva-
tive. Not in any 'se is he q hero
worshipper. Accu ~ned to weigh
all questions well before be speaks
and then to speak his judgment aad
not his prejudice, his opinion On the
situation in the South will receive
unusual attention from those who
know him. Furthermore, the fol-
lowing assertion with which he
closed the above interview is given
a peculiar significance by reason of
the care with which he guards his
utterances:
"The Democrats can elect one man
President next year and that man is
Woodrow Wilson. They have no 9th
er in sight with whom they can win.
If, therefore, they should not nomi-
nate Wilson my advice would be
that after their usual licking at the
come to Washington, march over to
polls the leaders Of the Democracy
the United States Supreme Court and
petition Chief Justice White for the
appointment of a receiver and the
dissolution Of the Democratic par
ty.'
.rarnN sGENT -CONEESSES.