French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1916-09-21
CHAIRMAN ELIAS VIEWS
ON THE NAINFE LECTION
saws ..sectiOnalism. VIII Alternate
Southern Republicans From Party
Which They Have Supported.

AshevilIe, Sept. 21.-It is confidently
expected at Democratic Congressional
headquarters here the injection OF
@sectionalism' into the present nation
al campaign by the Republican lead
ers will do more than anything else.
perhaps, to ALLEVIATE southern republl-
cans from the party which they have
supported in the past. The issue or
sectionalism was paramount in the
\ Republican campaign in Maine, just
closed, the leaders of that party draw
ing a sharn line against the South.
They pleaded with their people not to
support Democrats or congress, be-
cause to maintain a Democratic execu-
tive and legislative national govern
ment would be to continue the domi-
nation of a party whose interests CEN
ter in the South. The campaign re-
solved itself into the issue of New
England versus the South"
In a statement issued to the voters
of the Tenth District relative to this
new turn in the tactics Of the repub-
lican campaign, Chairman D. E.. Elias,
of the Democratic Congressional Ex-
ecutive Committee, has this to say, in
part:
According to the alignment made
by the Republican national leaders in
the present campaign. a vote for De-
mocracy means a vote for the South;
and a vote for Republicanism means a
vote for New England. The republi-
cans have themselves forced this issue
&SaA- III nA0~1@ 0H Al 4~,Hnr ~
deavoring it would seem to reopen
the wounds Of the sixties. They adj
Yised their people in Maine that when
they sent a Democratic representative
to Congress he ceased to represent the
interests of New England but follow
ing, obediently and blindly, the Dem
ocratic majority This Democratic
majority, they declared, is dominating
the country in the interest Of the
South:
According to this alignment the
Republicans will expect every Repub-
lican representative elected from the
South to the next Congress to forget
his. southland n do battle in the in
interest Of New England, which has
yer Dominated the Republican party.
The S~outherner. therefore. who casts
his ballot for a republican congress
man will be throwing his allegiance to
New England, the section which fought
him and his father, his kith and kin,
to the last remaining ditch at Apo
matOX.
"The Democracy of the country has
never stood for seetonalism; has never
injected it into it's campaign. 1t has
ever stood for the advancement of all
sections of the country alike. This
issue Of tsectionalism" has been put
forward by the Republicans; and in it
there IS a challenge to every man who
possesses a ballot and claims to have
in his vein the loyal h!ccd Ct tie
South. Under such circumstances,
with the issue forced upon him by the
silk-stockinged Republican barons of
New England. I cannot conceive OF
how any self-respecting citizen of the
South can give-his support to a can
didate of the republican party for Con-
gress, for, if elected, that same re-
publican, according to thedictates of
his leaders, must cease to consider the
needs of his own section and follow
Fblindly and Obediently' the commands
of his New England bosses"