The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-11
LETTERS TO EDITOR
"A Southerner's Viewpoint of the
 Democratic Situation

10 the Euitof or The AEe-fteralus
 "The Democratic Situation" by Samuel
 c. Blythe, appearing in the Saturday
 Evening Post Of April 27 foreiby im-
 presses one with it's deduction and espe- 1 cially the significance of views expressed relative to the candidacy of Underwood of Alabama. Why should not Underwood be as politically strengths ability, worth and integrity are broadly admitted and
 recognized-as if he was from Oho New
 York or Massachusetts? Why cannot a
 southern man secure the nomination or
 be elected President? Is 1t true that
 southern democrats will handicap the po-
 lltlcal aspirations of fellow southerner
 by withholding their support by reason ot a cautious but pharsaical counsel?
 Advisers who prate upon harmony, who say. Twill never do. he cannot carry the northern vote; 'tis mpolitie at this time,
 the war and reconstruction feeling in a political sense is not quite dead in some localities and it would be bad politics
 to stir up a Civil war ghose and many
 score more of plausible and apparently potent arguments. Arguments of so-ealled
 expediency by which southern democracy
 in the past had become obsessed. Argu-
 mennts that were so consistently instilled
 into their body polite that they have
 implicitly obeyed orders and for what?
 The share of political porrdge doled out
 to them in meager measure, as a reward
 for their fidelity servants to the demo-
 cratic octopus with never an expressed
 thought that they should or could be a factor of might and importance.
 Will southern democracy this year lis-
 ten dumbly to spacious pleas as in the
 pHst? Iris to be hoped they will not
 but to a man up a tree 1t looks as if
 they may, and if they do and there be a
 democratic success they should for their
 asininty, be double crossed in good and proper shape. For To! these many years,
 from rostrum. pulpit and press. there has
 been sung paeans of praise and halielu-
 jahs of glory proclaimng to the world the depth of our brotherly love, the strength of the ties that cement in unity our re- united national family, whose harmony of thought and action, exemplified to
 the peoples of the earth that we as a na- ton were not a house divided, but one
 homogeneous people. That we had for given, yea, endeavoring to forget our
 family quarrel of half century past fAs witness that recent invitation couehed in terms Of the most fraternal | cordiality from the Grand Army of the Republic to the United Confederate Yet erans.) That there was no north. no east no south. no vest that national pride and patriotism had no geographical
 bounds. But are we handing out to one another a square deal? Are our asser- tions honest? Are we hypocritical? The time for proof is near at hand when these questions can and should be an- swered When Alabama is called in the democratic convention and Underwood Is launched forth as her faYorite son. what is commonly known as the solid south" should support him to man. Why? Not 4. tinent his cause should be espoused but from the fact that he Is the only repre- sentative American from this large area Of our common country which by force of it's approximate g per cent of conven- tion strength coupled with his courageous stand in shying his castor in the arena of presidential preferment will gain for him.
 his confreres and contituency that pres- tige which as a heritage. has long
 been wantonly sacrificed at the altar of hypocritical political cowardice. In the support of Underwood by the "solid south" there will be political awaken ing and realignment. such as the gods
 never dreamed of The veil of hypocrisy
 which I hope is mythlcal-will fall Co
 the ground and disclose in selfish arro- gance the nakedness of who's who.
 Following this line of action. with a de-
 termination to win even though the
 southern delegations lose, they will have forced an embrasure in the bulwarks of public opinion, and intrenched themselves in an impregnable political barrier which will redound to their future veal. With prestige thus gained in the crucible of unselfshness, the southern wing of de-
 mocracy four years hence will be factor whose political self respect will be so dominant as to gain recognition not as matter of course as formerly, but as a concrete body. sitting in the game with its full quota of trumps and not off suits. Heretofore the southern democ~at F@s aniesccntly played the game with the cards shuffied cut and dealt by others, vita