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Fiery Governor Vardaman of Mississippi
- University of South Carolina Press
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Fiery Governor Vardaman of Mississippi His Coarse Speeches and Anti-Negro Attitude They Are Largely Due to Local Circumstances and Were Designed to Defeat His Opponent for the Nomination—Otherwise a Good Sort of Fellow—The State Not Likely to Be Much Influenced by His Advice— The Booker Washington Luncheon and the Indianola Post Office— The Evils in Professional Politicians [Special Correspondence of the Transcript] • Jackson, Miss., April 2. Anticipation, observation, and then the backward view—this is travel, subjectively considered. Ever since I crossed the Potomac, a month ago today, two clouds, hovering on the southwestern horizon, have been growing bigger and bigger. The farther southwestward I have come, the more I have heard of Governor Vardaman of Mississippi, and the boll weevil of Texas. Let me say frankly that from a distance both have looked like unmitigated evils. It was hard to make up one’s mind as to which was the greater pest— reactionary politics or the invading Mexican insect. Here in Vardaman’s country, this sunshiny morning, I seem to find enough alleviations and Published in the Boston Evening Transcript, April 20, 1904. 68 Fiery Governor Vardaman of Mississippi explanations and compensations to render the movement which bears his name a little less terrifying than it was. Perhaps, in Texas, the boll weevil also will show some signs of being a dispensation rather than a plague. Vardaman is an editor. That alone should be reassuring. He got the title of major in the war with Spain, not in the big one. He is, I believe, decidedly under fifty. It is true that he wears his hair very long, and his rhetoric is appalling.1 In his inaugural address for example, to the “sovereign suffragists” of Mississippi, one dauntless sentence made “a pillar of fire to light the pathway of duty” out of “the distilled wisdom”bequeathed to Mississippians by their sages and heroes.2 But mixed metaphors are not an unerring sign of destructiveness. The testimony one gets as one approaches the young governor’s locus is quite convincing in two or three comforting ways. He is considered a good fellow by many who ought to know a good fellow when they see one. His reputation for honesty is uncommonly high, for a politician. Better still, a very considerable number of those who supported him in the primary voted for him not because of his views on the education of Negroes but in spite of them. I should say that more than half of those with whom I have talked about him and his movement, even though they may accept him, reject the movement. The episode of his election is undoubtedly important, however. Let his record on the education of Negroes be contrasted with that of Governor Aycock in North Carolina or of Governor Montague in Virginia and it is apparent that there are many currents in the ocean of Southern public opinion . Much as one might prefer that it should not be so, the industrial rehabilitation of the South can be to some extent retarded by the politicians. One of the general reflections that keep recurring as I traverse State after State is that with few exceptions the politicians are very poor representatives of what the people of the South are doing and thinking.Nevertheless,the power is far from inconsiderable. Even if one is concerned solely with the economic and industrial outlook of a Southern Commonwealth, it is altogether worth while to inquire how it happens that such a man as Vardaman is at the head of the government. One consideration to be kept in mind,here scarcely less than in the North, is that the best men rarely seek political office; at least, they do not give to politics the time and patience that are necessary for a career of office-holding. It is not merely that business offers better rewards.The one-party regime, the petty and personal character of the contests within the party, the predominance of a single issue, and that by no means a really live issue—these things have in a positive way repelled the better minds.If one reads the hair-splitting debates between Congressman Bankhead and Captain Hobson—both men [52.90.211.141] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 14:52 GMT) Fiery Governor Vardaman of Mississippi 69 of ability—the narrowness of the ground they have to fight in is the thing that stands out most clearly. The debate is nearly all personalities. With ludicrous...