The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-09-05
The Election.

1t is with a feeling of profound re-
lief that South Carolina can look back
on-the recent election and receive the
applause of the country for having
refused to allow her devotion to the
sacred cause for which America
struggles to be impeached. Even the
minority that voted for Mr.. Blease
must realize on sober second thought
that it would have been a calamity
from which the State could only
slowly have recovered to send to the
senate a man with Mr.. >Blease's rec
ord. Even the thousands of friends
of Mr.. Blease who insisted to the last
in putting political factional prefer
ence before the one supreme issue
of principle must feel now that it is
well that they did not succeed IN
forcing the State into what could not
have been regarded, to say the best
of it., as other than an ambiguous po-
sition. We reiterate our conviction
expressed before the election, that
only a very small portion of the
Blease vote represented disloyalty.
The size of that vote is too easily
and obviously accounted for by other
features of political life in South
Carolina.
If Mr.. Blease could have been fore
ed to meet his opponents squarely
upon the stump from end to end OF
the State, we do not believe that he
could have polled m in four of the
vote that was cast. MI. Blease has,
in our opinion, never shown his po-
litical cunning (and Of cunning he is
possessed of a vast store, while Won
derfully lacking in foresight or wis
doml than when he adopted his plan
OF an independent campaign.
Mr.. Blease is notable among South
Carolina politicians for the reckless
folly.with which he throws away op-
portunities. The reason is his mar
row, short-sighted outlook and limit
ed general intellectual capacity. In
tie qualities that make a statesman
no man could be well more lacking.
If on the outbreak of war he had
thrown himself intellectually into
the nations cause, he would have
been irresistible. AS it was he acted
as he has repeatedly acted before and
as he will doubtless act repeatedly in
future. He hung himself more ehec-
lively than any opponent could have
done for him. 1t was as distinctly
Bleasesque as anything could be; it
was due to his fundamental intellect
ual incapacity. If anything could
more completely reveal the intellect
ual limitations of a man than this
blunder it is for that man still to pro
fess not to be able to see why the
United States ought to be at war with
Germany. The hold of such a leader
on large masses of the people is due
to a series of political accidents in
South Carolina intricately mixed up
with the old liquor situation, person
alities, etc. Strip Mr.. Bfease of his
ba%lderdash, his gift for stump speak
ing, and his supreme cunning in de-
ceiving the i%lliterate and exploiting
class feeling, leave him only his rec
ord as a constructive public man, and
there is very little left.
It is evident we do not consider
MI. Blease a proper man for public
service. We feel no confidence from
the recent rebuke which he has re-
ceiyed that the State is secure against
him in future. AS striking as is his
personally, he is far more significant
as a symptom than as an individual.
Until illiteracy has been e~radicated,
until labor has come to understand
it's interest and speak through it's
own bona fde representatives, South
Carolina will have to spend a great
part of her political energies in sim
ply keeping men out of Office that she
ought to be able to devote to pro-
grams of constructive craftsmanship.