The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-01


 CINCE the reconstruction period O political statisticians, for the purpose of ready calculation, have Jumped the southern states as a dem- ocratic unit; but from 1876 to 1896 the solid south, in presidential cam
 paigns, included all Why New York the former slave Is battle-ground states - all the
 states south of the Mason and Dixon line-Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, as we'll as the eleven states of the Confederacy.
 But in 1896 the democratic solidarity gave way, and since then the states that had seeded in 1861 were under stood as making up the solid south, notwithstanding the fact that Wilson, in 1912, reclaimed the five that had gone estray.
 Tilden, who was elected in 1876, but who was counted out, carried New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Indiana. New York was called pivotal then and it has been reckoned as pivotal ever since, although MT. Will son had such landslide majority four years ago that he would have been overwhelmingly elected without either of the doubtful northern states that the democrats carried in 1876 and again in 1884 and 1892.
 President Wilson's chances in New York are promising this year, but the political situation has undergone many changes in recent years and even if the democrats lost New York, theytpight be able to hold on to more than enough states transferred from the republican column in 1912 to give Wilson a decisive majority. But as The Age-Herald's Washington corre- spondent, MT. Roberts, suggests, New York will be the great battle-ground. D R. DAVID STARR JORDAN, the A eminent educator and apostle of peace who has been active as a fol- lower of Henry Ford and co-laborer with that gentleman in his altruistic schemes, journeyed down to Fl Paso on the invitation of the American Union Against Militarism to take part in conference between Americans and Mexicans held for the purpose of avoiding war between the United States and Mexico.
 Patriotism in Ell Paso has been at white heat for months past and it Is not surprising that Dr. Jordan's re- Ception there was anything but friend ly. In fact, the situation grew so
 alarming that Dr. Jordan Finds the mayor of Fl El Paso Is Warlike Paso ordered the
 chief of police to call on Dr. Jordan and advise him to take the first train out of town. Public opinion was so strongly op- posed to anyone trying to mediate between the United States and Mex ico that it was feared an assault might be made on the pacifist leader. Dr. Jordan finally decided that dis erection was the better part of valor, tenet, by the way, of the pacifists, and shaking the militaristic dust of Fl Paso from his feet, he went to Albuquerque, N. M.
 Since William Jennings Bryan de- ' clined to be delegate to the proposed conference and Frank P. Walsh of Kansas City also declined, Dr.. Jordan was left as the lone representative of America. The whole plan was ridicu- lous and absurd and it is hardly prob able that anything will come of it.
 ,Dr. Jordan presents striking ex- ample of good man gone wrong. Be- fore the "peace-at-any- price" hysteria became rampant in this country and before MT. Ford was deluded into making his "peace crusade" in the justly celebrated Oscar II, Dr. Jordan was successful and highly respected educator, one of the ablest men intel { lectually in the United States. He < has lost none of his mental brilliancy, but his misguided advocacy of