Imperial Valley press., 1912-10-30

tempt, which turks behind the quad
rennial humiliation of the South, broke
its bounds at the start and the delega-
tion of one southern state was openly
and outrageously insulted on the floor
or the convention. 1t happened after
wards that the candidate chosen IN
your name played away the South's
self-respect against a chance to secure
few votes from a reactionary
ment of the West.
1t happened in Baltimore a few
weeks ago that the most manly effor.
made for the South in a Democratic
convention during the last fifty years
commanded the full support of but
three southern states and practically
none elsewhere,
What was true of 1908 has been
true every presidential year since 1879
You have been forced to swallow every
political adventurer and the theories
of every political mountebank who Sc
cured the favor of the northern Demo-
cratic minority. Fellow Georgians,
where is the spirit of the half million
brave men who once faced such de.
mands and refused?
What is true of the Democrats is
largely true also of the Republicans,
in the South. No southern Repubii-
can, however honest and patriotic, has
influence in his national convention.
The administration of the general gov
ernment has been Republican for forty
years since the war and the South
has had practically no influential rep
resentation during these long years.
The vote of this section in Republican
conventions has been taken as mat
ter Of course and there have been
practically none able to advance the
interests of the best section of the
Union Take the assessed values of the
South, the rate of wages, price of prod
ucts and the cost of living and see
where we stand. Our doors have been
closed to cheap capital and skilled la :
Dor by distrust, our ports closed to
immigrants, and a price fixed upon
what we must buy and what we would
sell. Take your main product, cotton
in which the South practically has a
monopoly; do you price your product?
NO. You who cannot control your own
ballot cannot control a market
The Republican party promised help:
but its only use for the South was in
The party died.because il
was not national; killed by southern
proxies. The Democratic party will
perish the same way.
into this section of the United States
is poured annually $500, ,OOO, 900 for raw
cotton and for other products 100000
600 more, and it ranks today as the
poorest of all the great divisions of
America. And the state right doctrine
has obtained all along. Posterity with
a better perspective will indite the
southern leaders of this age as the
most incompetent that ever wasted an
inheritance.
Three irreconcilable elements have
met and placed in nomination for the
presidency a Democratic candidate. Let
us see where he stands as regards the
South. First, as near as can be ascer-
tanned from his public utterances, his
tariff views are those of Mr.. Cleveland,
which impoverished the South in the
'90S and brought an increase of the
public debt; second, he is opposed 20
the extension of national powers, with
out which the special interests cannot
be controlled or the hours of labor
fixed; and without which the tired
m others of this age must continue 70
produce tired children. In other words
without which there can be no con
servation of the real wealth of the
labor and its ability 20
labor happily and productivity. And
third, there has been no declaration
from him that this. in the heart of
every white man, is and shall continue
to be for all time in all essentials of
and lirantinn whit 10
mans country.
In his heart l believe there is q
deep sense of responsibility and a de-
termination to be just. But the men
at his elbow, the best equipped men,
are far from just. They are the ma
tural enemies of labor and the real
enemies of the South No man can
be wise by simple resolutions; and IN
the history of our presidents, honest
presidents, are frightful errors and dis
asters. Even Charles I desired the
right; but England had to cut off
his head to save herself from the spe-
cial interests of his day. No man has
ever successfully applied the theories
OF political economy taught in colleges
to the government of any country. The
time inevitably comes when the theor-
ist must turn to the practical politi-
clans for help; and the men who stand
ready to guide the ship Of state for
Mr. Wilson will not steer for the bless
ed isles when they lay hands on the
helm. The South cannot risk any more
experiments in government.
There is third candidate and a
new party, man who mas commanded
( he admiration of the ciViIiza1 MID
by his prodigies of labor, his NOR
ality and the splendor of his ideals,
and a new platform embodying the
needs of government as revealed by
seven years of governing And grea,
as he is, the platform is in all es-
sentials greater. 1t is broadly philo-
sophie. 1t is patriotic. 1t is national.
1t is just. 1t is remedial. And as the
sum of it all, it is progressive. It was
born of the fearlessness and morality
of one man appealing to the courag ge
and inherent morality of millions. 1t
is today the finest thing on which the
American eye may fall in all the fields
of politics; and it is both rainbow and
bag of gold for the South. The flood
of eXecration poured on the head of
in his recent journey thr ough
the South from editorial columns, the
hurried gathering of municipal, court
house and district rings, the frantic
protests of petty bosses were tributes
in their last analysis. But there were
better tributes. In the intense inter
est of his crowded meetings; in the
friendliness of his hearers; in their
quick responses, were assurances of an
awakening of a people who have slept
over their rights as well as their
wrongs.
1t is perhaps too soon to announce
the abolition of the rule of ignorance
and prejudice, but the marching army
of young and freer men is on every
southern road. The day of the little
boss is ended and perhaps the Bing-
vile Bugle has sounded it's last re-
veille.
The hour is at hand for a new south
ern declaration of independence. From
now on, let us follow the sword, not
the whip!
The time has come when the South