The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1912-01-12
CROWD CAN'T BEAT.
PopularSentiment Too Strong, Says
Thoma4 J. Pence.

Bangor, Me, Jan. 5.-The Washing
ton correspondent Of The Bangor Com
mercial sends the following to his paper:
The most surprising thing / found
in the South is the systematic and ag-
gressive campaign that is being conduct
ed by the feactionary, capitalistic, cor
poration 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 treaties re-
Gently negotiated by the administration
with Great Britain and France
Il visited the principal cities of Vir-
ginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Missis-
sippi, Alabama and Louisiana, and
everywhere found this elementamong
the Democracy Of those States fighting
the Wilson movement. And what is
most astonishing of all to me is that the
most bitter and relentless opposition to
Wilson is being put up in Virginia, the
State in which he was born, and in
Georgia, the State where he married and
where his children were born.
"Then 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 element
is against him. but the popular senti-
ment of the South is so decidedly for
him that | have no doubt the delegates
from nearly all Of 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,
school teacher in South Carolina, mar
rled in Georgia, Governor Wilson is es-
sentially Southern man. Yet he has
become so great a man, so strong q
leader of modern thought, so striking n
figure in our public life, that even the
South, ever disposed TO be somewhat
clannish, recognizes him as citizen of
the whole country and not the exclusive
pride Of any one section. All over the
South the average man looks upon
Woodrow Wilson as the sanest, sound
est progressive the country has develop
ed. It is only the reactionary minority
that is opposing him, blind, it seems to
me, to the fact that the country is de-
manding q progressive President and
bound to have one at the hands Of one
party or the other.
Alabama OF course will send del
egation to the national convention, in
structed to vote for Oscar Underwood.
Kentucky may elect some Underwood
delegates, since Mr.. Underwood was
born in that State. Kentucky may also
favor Champ Clark as he likewise was
born there. But outside of these two
States / am of he opinion that every
State | visited will be for Woodrow Will
son by SO heavy majority as to leave
no doubt OF the South's attitude. Ten
nessee will elect a Wilson delegation.
Louisiana, the most conservative OF the
Southern States, will be for him, OF
course Mississippi, under the leadership
OF Senator John Sharp Williams, will
be wholly a 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, il am any Judge of
the meaning OF what they said to me.
Mr.. Pence is by nature conservative.
Not in any sense is he ahero worshipper.
Accustomed to weigh all questions well
before he speaks and then to speak his
judgment and not his prejudice, his
opinion, on the situation in the South
will receive unusual attention from those
who knom him. Furthermore, the fol-
lowing assertion with which he closed
the above interview is given peculiar
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 other
in sight with whom they can win. II,
therefore, they should not nominate
Wilson my advice would be that after
their usual licking at the polls the lead-
ers OF the Democracy come to Washing
ton. march over to the United States
S,tpreme Court and petition Chief Justice