Evening star., 1923-02-21
WHITE SUPREMACY
| VITAL, SAYS BRYAN
Hoists Banner in Speech Be-
; fore Southern Society
Annual Dinner.
NORTH "DOESN'T KNOW"
The Commoner Declares If Mas
sachusetts Faced Southern Issues
Shed Meet Them" in Same Way.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

William Jennings Bryan. cternaily
youthful tribune Of the people, steps
forth in a new role. He has hoisted
high the banner of white-race su-
premacy. Ten years residence in the
south has taught him there is no
other solution. He finds that the
southland is confronted by condl-
ton, and not political theory, and
that there is no remedy for il except
the undisputed dominance Of the
superior civilizations. NorthernefS
who hold other views. BRYAN says,
simply don't know" The Commoner
adjureS the nation to beware OF
what they tell you in Massachusetts.
and adds: IF Massachusetts faced me
issues the south faces. she would do
exactly what the tarolinas and the
Sirginias do to meet them
The former NebraSkan's attitude TO-
ward DiXie'S paramount problem
electrified the annual dinner OF the
Southern Society in Washington last
night. Though it was eHponnded ne
fore and for the direct benefit of men
and women who hail from the sunny
side of the Mason and Dixon line.
Bryan's admonitionS were in fact IN
tended for northern consumption. he
stood before the Southerners, they
thought. a convert 10 their point or
view on the race question. lie con-
veyed TO them the impression mat ne
is ready to become an evangelist in
propagating it north, cast and west.
Bryan Follows .Stur."
Bryan came late. on the program
as an impromptu speaker, having t"l-
lowed the star of the Ucca sion.
John w. Davis, president of the Amer
lean Bar Associations who appeared
in the guis. of Il West Eirgiutan.
None of the previous speakers had
ventured upon the thin ice OF the
race issue. But Davis eloquent
tribute 70 Thomas jefferson and The
equality" doctrine he wrotr into the
Declaration of lndcpfndeuct gave
Bryan a text on which he proceeded
to deliver a ringing prou"uncement
To his southern audience Bryan 5
assertion OF white supremacy came
as u confess sion that his native north
ern conception Of DiXie'S coiored
proposition hai been radically altered
by ten years of dUmicile in Florida
Though aftcrward Bryan pleaded he
had held the same opinions Tor
twenty years SouthernerS aNerred
that never before. in their recoliec-
tion. had he lifted his voice so pow
erfully and fearlessly. He argued
that the Jeffersonian doctrine about
all men" being created free and
equal could not be literally inter
preted or enforced where there is g.
manifest inferiority as between one
racial civilization and another. Amid
such conditions the superior civilZa-
ton, he said. would and must be the
ascendant factor. AS such ascend
ancy has prevailed in the south. Bryan
pointed out, it had made for justice
for the black under laws which.
even if fashioned by whites, pro-
tected blacks and their rights in full
measure.
Backs DixIe's Methods.
For q decade Bryan told how he
had seen those laws at work. They
had convinced him no other system
was possible. Men and women of the
north, who lightly held the south $
way of meeting it's race problem TO be
reprehensible, speedily would realize
the unWisdom of such criticism once
they had, as he had had, direct con-
tact with "the real thing" Bryan de-
clared Dixies method is immeasur-
ably preferable TO the "theoristic doc
trines Of Massachusetts or the ex-
pertinent of Illinois"
The distinguished "Fioridian." emil
grated from Nebraska, who has been
a longtime apostle OF Filipino inde-
who withhold from the Philippine Is
the colored race in the United States
lives. He described such an attitude as
untenable and indefensihIc. Bryan
intinated that, in his belief, Uncle
Sam could not consistently emanci-
pate the blacks in the United States
without comforting the boon Of gem
utne liberty upon the natives OF the
Philippines.