Turn Back to Old Antebellum Ideals Says Tom Watson, 1910

“Back to Old Ideals” from the Hickory Democrat, June 1910

Tom Watson is back in the Democratic party saying that he is convinced the South can get what it needs politically through no other channel. He declares his aim shall be henceforth to restore the old antebellum ideals of Southern statesmanship.

Joseph W. Folk’s boom for the Democratic nomination for the presidency has been launched on the anti-graft platform in general. He declares that the protective tariff is legal graft and favors an income tax. What is needed, he says, is not a new party but the preservation of the ideals of the old Democratic party to which the public is looking for relief from present conditions.

With the ablest of the ‘outcomers’ returning to the fold; with the best of the stay-inners demanding the old ideals; with the President and congress who have “fallen down” on their platform and pledges; with the best men in the Republican congress allying themselves with the Democrats in order to stay the arrogance of entrenched power which disregards the people’s rights—the people of the country can do little less than to give the Democracy a chance.