The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-11-11
As the Solid South Cost the Demo-
|, cratic Party the Legislative, 1t
Must Cost IL the Admin
lstYatiye Govern ment.

l. cratic Party the Legislative, 1t
Must Cost II the Admin
istrative Government.
No man ever said a truer thing
than Senator MARTIN, the Democratic
leader in the United States Senate,
said last Thursday:
There arc tens Of thousands OF UNI
| necessary clerks and Government off,
ciais in Washington and throughout the
country who must be divorced from the
Federal payroll and given opportunity
| to enter productive pursuits. and begin
adding to. rather than subtracting from.
the sum total Of the national wealth."
Senator MART1N, while giving that
warning, was trying at the same time
to excuse his party for its extrava-
gance and waste during the last year
md q half. Thus he cautioned and
apologized together: 1.-THE fioodgates
must be TANNED shut now. The
waste which in time of war We can
not consider extravaganza. but simply
the necessarily letting down of the bars
of caution, must stop short"
But, unquestionably earnest az he
was in urging his party to watch its
step under penalty Of worse po-
litical disaster two years from now
than 1t suffered last Tuesday, Sem
ator MARrIN was not frank and above
board. He did not take the public
into his full confidence. Much less
did he 90 to the heart Of the matter.
Singularly enough, on the very day
| Senator MARr:N's statement was pub
liShed, another Democratic voice
lifted itself in blunter and more
brutal speech. The New York World
looked squarely In the face the cause
Of last Tuesdays defeat of the Demo
cratic party. That Democratic news
paper acknowledged the chance that
before the Democratic Congress ex-
pires on March next II will kill the
Democratic party in its tracks. 1t
| spoke the truth which Senator MAR
TIN avoided: "A Democratic Con-
gress persistlng in Democratic poll.
cies, sectional and fanatical, to the
end of It's term. will make the cleo
ton Of another body protesting that
political faith exceedingly difficult for
years to come"
Let the Worlds own words tell
more Of it:
Democrats from the North have fol-
lowed humbiy and silently the leader
ship OF men from the South protesting
to be Democrats but advocating schemes
Of taxation VIGOROUSLY un-Democratic.
Democrats from all quarters OF the
republic have accepted practically with
out protest assaults upon freedom of
speech and Of press. some OF which have
been carried by their votes. In tho case
of tho press. newspapers and magazines
have been penalissd by postal regula-
lions at once oppressive and unzsces-
sary and all too plainly spiteful.
Most of these measures have been
openly. even defantly. In the interest OF
a section or a class or for purposes of
revenge.
We shall have no more Democratic
Congresses until the people of the North
ern States have some reasonable assur-
ance that such bodies will not be con-
| trolled by vengeful and parochial poll
ticians from the South. who pose as
Democrats but in fact are political
nondescripts.
This Democratic Congress- has Mt
Least one hundred working days in which
10 sA~w that It is a Democratic Con-
gress. It can persist In measures cal
culated to wipe out the States and the
rights OF individuals. It can reafiirm
its inexcusable sectionalism In matters
of taxation and otherwise. 1t can ad-
here to policies as to the press and the
mails VIGOROUSLY despotic and discrimi-
mating. It can deal with the North as
in most of the Southern States the So
called Democratic party deals with the
'niggeP--if II will. But 1t will write
finis on the career Of the Democratic
party.
III the South is to remain sectional
II must beware OF n sectional North"
But, frank as 1t was and brutal as
It was, even the World did not give
the whole truth; for the whole truth
Is that on the day Mr.. WILSON and
his party took control Of the Govern
ment the country fell, both leglsla-
lively and Enthusiastically, into the
clutches Of the Solid South.
1t was not merely in Congress that
the IL per cent. Of the nations vot'
ing population In the Solid South be-
came the master OF the other 81 pei
cent. it was everywhere. This legiss
lutive oligarchy did lay the taxes
This legislative ollgarchy did deny
the right of the 81 per cent. who pay
the taxes TO have voice In enacting
the taxation measures. This legis
latiye ollgarchy did deny the right OF
the 81 per cent. to have voice In the
!