Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-04-03
Southern Ideals to the Fore;
Why Not a Southern MANI


NE of the most impressive and alto
together most heartening signs of
the time is the surety with which
Americas thought is swinging back to those
ideas and ideals of government which are
historically Southern-the ideas of Jeffer-
son and Jackson the ideals of individual
right and responsibility that were the very
pole star of our. republics primal years, the
very life-tide Of Anglo-Saxon liberty. 1t
was inevitable that there should come, soon or
late, reaction from the over-centralizing
and paternalistic drift in our governmental
affairs; inevitable, that is to say, if the
United States was to be indeed such de-
mocracy as it's founders visioned, rather than
a half-American, half-Prussan bureaucracy.
How reassuring that it should come at this
anxious and disquieting juncture! What
tribute to Southern traditions! What an op-
portunity for Southern leadership!
For more than fifty years the individual
States have been losing their strength of
initiative and their sense of self-reliance,
while Federal authority has taken on Go
Hath proportons-and, not infrequently,
Goliath mood. Citizens of these once SOW
ereign commonwealth have come, gradually
but surely, to regard Washington very much
as the inhabitants Of province in the Au-
GUSTAV empire regarded Rome, or as Rus
slams under the old regime regarded Petro-
grad. Functions once performed by Legisla-
lures have been absorbed by Washington.
Responsibilities once supposed from their
very nature to rest upon the States have been
transferred to Washington. Problems, once
considered the peculiar concern Of particu-
lar regions, must now be solved, if at all,
by the advice and aid of Washington.
1t may be said that all this is efficient, but
it cannot be said that it is American Nor
can it be said to develop those virtues of
citizenship which spring from each mans
consciousness of his particular duty and
right, and which result in that "organized
self-control' called democracy. Paternalis-
tbs or socialistic government gets many things
done, be it granted, with more speed and
economy than democratic government has yet
attained. But unless we are ready to SUBJ
ordinate humanity to mechanism, and aban-
don the ideals of Washington and JEFF
ferson, it is highly behooveful that we
halt our fifty-year trend to Capitalization and
ask if it has not gone far enough. or dan
Serously too far? We have settled once for
all that we are Union Of States rather than
a crowd OF unlinked sovereignties; but we
nave yet to settle whether we shall remain
a Union Of STATES, each having it's own
political lie and right, become virtual
empire IN which local self-government will
be q fading shadow and the power at Wash.
inItbn ell in all.
Ii the principles Of government to which
the South has been faithful through all vi
clsGitudes and which are the life-breath of
the democratic party attract the com
mon countrys soberest thought what couId
be more fitting than the nomination Of .
southern man as Democracy's candidate for
the presidency? And what more logical than
III" ELECTION! That the common country is
returning to the traditional Southern view
IS eVldenced in many quarters and many WAYS.
Far-Slghted Republicans themselves mon Ill q
MI. Taft. Mr.. Hughes and Mr. Root brnd
lhough thcy were upon the Hamltonian the
oIy' nave pecn heard of late years in warn
inSs against the tendency toward periIous
contemplation So. too. from the leading
couHSelS OF American journalism news
papers and magazines alike come Meas for
decentralization to the extent at least of nre
serving local and individual responsibilities
ana rlgnts. This sentiment is particularly
marked IN the great Middle West. with which
the south has developed so close a commu
10y VI interests IN the fight for fair play to
s nef pofts, against the shipping monopolists of
the Nortn Atlantic. In that populous voet
efn region, whose vote will go very far TO-
ward determining the outcome of tho nev+
PRESIDENTIAL election, Southern ideas of GOV.
,,l nave taken specially strong hold
upon the rank and file of the peonles inst
as recognition of the fact that Southern and
western business must stand together for
tner common rights, has come forcefu11v
nome TO commercial and Industrial 1eaders
10 no one section, however, is the growth of
tnese Ideas confined. Throughout fhe ITnion
they are asserting themselves in tboneh+r1Il
!s ainos' Iney constitute the most appealing
II not indeed paramount principle mon
Wnlch the Democratic party can % befora
me country And who better could bear them
aloIt IMAM leader from their tradition 81
stronghold? 'i"olIiohal
Certainly the time has come for the South
to play worthier role in the affairs of The
Democratic party than that of handy Man
Friday who delivers unfailingly a solid block
of votes to whatsoever candidate he is bid
den. Surely the States whence the nation
drew its wisest counselors and strongest
leaders for well-nigh hundred years have
not become so impoverished in brain and
8 character that they can offer no helmsman
for these latter times! 1t was a great New
England scholar who declared that before the
war of the Sixties, the South furnished
America with President after President from
whom Lord Bacon himself might have gath
erred rich truths for his immortal essay on
Estates and Craftsmanship Has not that
war been over long enough for the South tc
return to her olden place and privilege?
Were not bitterness and prejudice washed all
away with the blood of her sons at San