The sun., 1919-09-02
Wilson League, High Costs
and Labor Unrest Are
Menacing Democracy.
YOUTH TURNING TO G. O. P.
Vivid History of Tar Heel Con-
ditions, Past, Present and
in the Future.
~ q s,qc corssponden, Of Tnr svr.

land Administration and recall North
Carolina lying fiat upon her back
awaiting the end OF the world. Cotton
had gone down TO Az cents, aid TO
borrow money from Tar Heel bank
you had to prove yourself a close
blood relation to the United States
something ought to be done about 1t,
elected to the United States Senate
one Republican and one Populist.
The Populist was Marion Butler.
who later. at the expiration Of his
term in the Senate, acted as attorney
for holders of railroad bonds issued
by North Carolina back in the days
OF reconstruction and later repudiatcd
by the State Legislature. Butler. to-
Gay the leader of considerable fac
ton of voters who, If they are not
strictly Republican. are uncompro-
misingly anti-Democratic, won the
repudiated bonds.
This in itself has no bearing upon
the political situation in North Carolina
to-day except in that Marion Butler, as
patriotic American as ever walked Amer
lean soil and as able politician ms
ever voted. is one Of the two anchors
that save the Democratic ark from being
washed out of the Tar Heel State by
the rising protestants of plL~al creed
but singular objective. The other an
Choir is the negro.
When all is said and done and you
have offered this statistical and that
arithnetical argument to support your
contentious that the Democratic strange
li,o fg xynll
have to retreat for the bona fide reasons
for Republican impotency to the two
ancient and mysterious standbys-Mari-
on Butler and the negro. Both OF these
shibboleths of the Democratic party in
North Carolina are anachronistic scare
crows but singularly potent in their abil-
ity to keep poachers out of the Demo-
cratic melon patch. No fewer than
dozen able. young business men-men
of Democratic lineage and tradition
told me that Marion Butler and the
negro were the sole issues of the old
Democratic party of North Carolina and
that these faded battle standards were
huttered every time Senator Furnifold
M. Simmonss political organization saw
q real, up to date issue wTiakiing the
brows of its adherents.
Hsw the Grandfather Law Works..
How fallacious are both these UNDER
pinnings of North Carolina democracy
is shown by the fact that the Grand
father law utterly removes from the
polls and elective offices of the State
all aspiring negroes IL there be such
daring Philippians in the commonwealth
Briefly, no North Carolina negro whose
grandfather was not a voter may do
business at the polls at any election.
This in itself reduces the negro vote to
negligibility. The law has been found
unconstitutional. but on this question
both the Republican and the Democratic
parties have agreed that between friends
the Constitution Is an excellent bit of
literature. But should there be a negro
whose grandfather rejoiced in active
franchise and who Is, in the opinion
OF the election managers, an undesira-
ble person to entrust with the ballot
even that negro doesn't vote And IL
he is a wholly sane negro and appre-
ciative of such creature comforts as have
attached themselves to his modus vi
yendi, he makes no protest.
or course, the Democrats tell thu citi.
genry that should the Republicans win
they would carry with them to victory
and power their ally, the negro, who is a
notorious Republican. Loud are the
protestations of the Republicans, who
point to the fact that negroes may not
and do not and shall not sit In Repub-
lean conventions nor represent the party
I'm any small degree AS a matter Of
fact. the Republicans are urging all
those negroes who are privileged to vote
and have the temerity to try 1t to vote
for the Democratic party.
Seriously, Democratic politics are
part Of every North Carolina child's edu-
cation. To begin with, there Is segre-
cation In schools, which is quite as II
should be, but which is, nevertheless,
the beginning of the child's anti-negro
education. Then. after the youngster
has learned who discovered America,
who saved the life OF John Smith, who
won the battle of Yorktown and who is
sued the Emancipation Proclamation, he
plunges into the civil war. and to clinch
everything. the history of that hideous
era still spoken OF in whispers-the re-
construction period, with all of it's dis
gushing carpetbagger demagoguery. The
poor, misguided blacks ascent to power
IN told without reservation
The youngster is graduated into man.
hood an uticompromising Democrat, be-
cause there must be no recurrence Of
the days when the negroes misled and
deceived by the INSCRIPTIONS soldiers of
political fortune. ruled North Carolina
why the State Is Democratic.
This is no philippe on ethnic prob
iegns. nor is there any thought that q
reversal in the politics of the State
would alter race relations. North Caro-
Ina Is quite well equipped successfully
to conduct her own affairs. The only
object of the foregoing is an attempt to
show one of the principal reasons why
the North Carolinian is SO wholeheart-
ediy Democratic.
Economically the cotton States yearn
TOR a protective tariff. The why's and
wherefores of such desire need no
theorizing. Democrats freely admit
this At this writing North Carolina
cotton spinners and cotton goods manu-
facturers and cottonseed oil producers
VIII tell any who ask that they long
for the day when they can be the sole
manufacturers Of their soil products
and that 1t will not be necessary to ship
their raw cotton to Yankee mills. Free
trade Is so Numerically opposed to all
Southern commercial ambitions that one
may understand how steadfast their In
born political prejudices are when they
sacrifice actual dollars to amorphic ap-
S9SSSasioa.
But like every similar state of AFFAIRS.
North Cardinals political blgotry is be-
ing dispelled by time. The time has not
yet come when North Carolina can go
10 the polls as clear eyed as Kentucky,
for instance. Kentucky Is almost as
stanchly Democratic az North Caro-
lima Yet Kentucky's political battles
are fought on much sharper issues than
- r.. CNAN