Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-05
PRETTY GOOD NEWS FROM
THE ONCE SOLID SOUTH
National Advancement and Better Cit
lzenshlp Oppose Sectional and Class
interests Everywhere

thc Sollu oOuLn from the North in almost
every national election never was reassur-
ing thing to see on the political maps in the
cold gray dawn of the morning after. At
casual glance 1t implies only political diff
ferences. But all political differences rest
for the most part upon differences of aim,
differences Of feeling and differences of eco.
nomic philosophy.
II the southern states were to continue as
permanent Democratic bloc, with deter
mination to withstand all influences that
make for change and the progressive revision
OF political doctrine, political opinion would
naturally harden and settle in immoyable
forms elsewhere in the country. In the
course of time we should have a solid North
and the spectacle of country pulling in
different directions with little hope of the
gradual reimbursement and interchange of in
dependent forces that control the common
life in various parts Of the country. The
trend would be to sectional rather than to
national consciousness.
For that reason, If for no other. Repub-
lican majorities in Oklahoma and Tennessee
are good Omcns. There are northern states
that appear to have inherited Republican
state OF mind. But very few of them have
actually got out Of the habit Of independent
thought. Pennsylvania went to Roosevelt
In l9l2. Other states that G.. o. =. leaders
used to call rock ribbed turned suddenly and
gave majorities to Mr.. Wilson.
1t is often said that the voting South was
solidly Democratic because the negro popu-
latiOn that is dominant in some areas, leans
consistently to the opposing party. That is
in sense true. Deeper than any question
OF race influence, however, is that which
has been created in the South by economic
need. The South is still agricultural. It
favors tariff policies that would be destruc-
tive to the industrial North. 1t has inherited
a dislike for the party that has always
fought for protective tariffs. We live at
present in country that, because of factors
that rule life at its very source, can never
be more than half satisfied with either great
party. Yet, if We are to view the two great
parties as agencies established to keep each
other in order by the force of conflict and
criticism, it must appear that an impregna-
Bile Democratic stronghold in the South and
an impregnable Republican stronghold in the
North would not represent safe or healthy
development of political thinking in the
United States.
When any political party can be assured
of the unqucstioning loyalty of great masses
'A' 'oN N''i1S ~ WIN hot SItullS trouble TO be
progressive and it need have little fear of
enlightened criticism. What is really needed
is greater intiltration of Democratic phi-
losophy in some sections of the North and
East and greater inftration of Republi.
can philosophy in the South. Better ma
tional balance, surer unity of national feel
ing and steadicr and more advanced political
criticism can be attained only by some such
means.
As the industrial advancement of the
South continues there will be q further break
in the line that has marked it as an area
with political consciousness peculiarly its
own.
Sectionalsm anywhere in the United States
indicates merely that we are a nation still
without q perfected philosophy of domestic
government and one that is still suffering
some of the pangs of growth It is not
peculiar to the southern states. There is
economic sectionalism in the North and there
is in New England the sectionalism of ira
dition.
All this sort of thing runs counter ut bot
tom to whatever is fundamentally American.
and it will inevitably hinder national prog
ress toward true democratic ideal. There
IS consolation in the knowledge that sec
tionalism never did and never will perma-
nently survive and that in some of its more
regrettable manifestations it is but a thing
of the moment.
Mr.. Gompers, for example, tried to mo-
bilize and segregate the labor vote for Mr..
Cox. He did not succeed any better than
other labor leaders have succeeded in the
past. Labor in the United States is not
confined at any angle by the bounds which
tradition has established in England to give
to the British Labor party in the final
analysis motive and cry peculiarly its
own. Everybody works in one way or an
'th"r in the United States, and, what is
nore few even of the organized men seem
,illing to permit their own private concerns
obscure what they must recognize as q
larger duty TO the country.
The labor vote was not delivered. If the
Plumb Plan League made any drive for
power at the polls it failed The railroad
centers should have delivered large maiori-
ties to Mr.. Cox il the calculations of the
more headlong labor leaders did not mis-
carry. The majorities in such instances
went to the Republicans.
\ great deal Is being said of an "alien
vote. Some observers insist that it was
thrown against Mr.. Cox because Of his ad .
NOCaCN Oh u League OF Nations supposed to
be devised for the advantage of great rather
than Of small nations. 1t is extremely
doubtful whether there was any considerable
alien vote. The returns do not clearly re-
veal it. There was dissatisfaction and irri =
tation among all classes of people who have
been enduring the more or less natural con >
sequences Of the war, and 1t was expressed
in unexpectedly large majorties aimed at
the party in power.
A new sort OF sectonalism has of late
been apparent in the Northwest, where the
Nonpartisan League established itself and
sought converts to the most anti social sort
Of socialism. More recently the Nonpartisan
League has, through necessity, been becom
ing more conservative. 1t Is manifesting a
DISPOSITION to grant a right to live and work
to those whose minds do not run along with
the minds of its leaders Victor Berger,