Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-15
The Party Of Reaction, and
Of Southern Antibath1

IF there was a lingering Illusion that the
Republican party as now constituted and
controlled had an iota of friendliness for
the South or was anything more than rem
devious of political reaction and spite. 1t as
suredly has been dispelled by the acts OF the
Chicago convention. The first notable Incl
dent in that assembly was the rejection or
most of the white delegates from Southern
districts. The committee on contests, sWayed
as it was by the party's backward-looklng
elements, appeared to take peculiar delight IN
squelching the hopes Of those who have tried
as tactfully as they could to build up Dixie
Republicanism within whose ranks white
citizens could feel comfortable and conscien-
tiouS.
Time was memorably in the days OF Presi-
dent Taft, when those hopes found no little
nurture That generous and discerning
leader not only understood Southern sentl-
ment, but respected it, and took care thaI
the inbred, vital interests of Southern FOLK
should not be umbraged. - But behold the
change which his successors at his party,s
head have ushered in! They are not merely
Indifferent to Anglo-Saxon opinion in this
part of the Union, but are positively antago-
nstic to it, if one may judge by their dis
posal of the delegation contests. 1t was right
that they should give the negro claimants
a full hearing and a fair deal. But why
should the lieutenants of Lodge, Lowden ct
al. have denied the white Republican claim
ants an equal measure of justice? Why dis
criminate against the latter whenever it was
in any wise possible to give their opponents
the benefit of a doubt? Why refuse them
seats to which they evidently were entitled?
The answer is not far to find. The whip
handlers at Chicago were of the Old Guard,
politicians bent upon running the convention
for their own ambitions and for the interests
to which they are beholden, reactionaries
Of war on no
spy-out for delegates whom they most easily
could acquire and most readily control. How
ever that may be- the upshot of the situation
was that the rank and file Of white dele
gates from the South, most of whom were
for Wood against Lowden found themselves
as utterly shut out from their party's deci-
s1ve councils as If they had been the foolish
virgins of the marriage feast.
The Old Guardsmen, having settled this
issue to their taste and advantage, proceeded
to direct the conventions larger trend. At
every turn their influence was felt; in every
decision their bourbonism was manifest.
Theirs the ideas embodied in the plat
form, with it's rhetorical mask of anti-liberal
policies. Theirs were the wires that pulled
continually against candidates for whom the
majority OF voters in the primaries had de-
clared a preference. Theirs was the presid-
ing and determining spirit from first to last.
And theirs will be a rule of flesh pots and
petty tyrants if, unhappily, the Government
is given over to Republican control.
No longer does the party of Lincoln and
Hay and Roosevelt and Taft exist. Once
gifted with administrative skill and construc-
tive ideas despite it's faults and injustees,
Republieanism has sunk in these latter days
to the lowest species of political inanity.
It's control of Congress for the last two years
has cost the nation intellectually both in ma
terial interests and in prestige. 1t has re-
fused to enact obviously needful legislation
for domestic ills and has repudiated the prin-
ciples which we took up arms in the world
struggle for democracy and Justice With
nothing constructive Of it's own to offer, it
has tied the hands of the Democratic admin
istration and left the country without relief.
Under pretense of ECONOMY" for which
it really cares little as Falstaff cared for
temperance, it has reduced the most impor-
tant departments of national service to star
walton funds and has cut the agricultural ap-
preparation to pittance that will react soreIy
against farming interests in this time of I'M
precedented need for farm productiveness
1t has injured every part Of the country,
but none so grievously the South. Its
election to full power would be misft rtune
to the entire nation, but to the South mis-
fortune beyond measure.