Apparent substantiation of a story told in limited circles in Charlotte some weeks ago, but never published, to the affect that several prominent South Carolinians met in Charlotte to consult about forming a “white” republican party in South Carolina is contained in a story by Mark Sullivan, the political writer. The story is being discussed in local republican circles, along with the report about the South Carolinians meeting here.
The story about the meeting here was to the effect that a number of South Carolinians, among them one or two prominent men, have held office in that state under republican administrations, held a conference in a Charlotte hotel, at which they discussed favorably the new attitude of the republican party, which is not to attempt to carry the negro any longer as the special protégé of the republican party, but to set up that party in the South as a “white man’s party” on the same basis as the democratic party now operates.
While absolute confirmation of the interpretation of the South Carolinians’ meeting here is lacking leading republicans of Charlotte and one or two former South Carolinians, who are ardent democrats, are wiling to believe and a South Carolinian who is conversant with every phase of the South Carolina politics was the one who sponsored the story first.
WHAT SULLIVAN SAYS
The Mark Sullivan story, jibing with the alleged purpose of the conference here, follows: “At the coming meeting of the Republican national convention, in preparation for which conferences are now under way, there will be just two important items of business. One will be the selection of a new chairman to succeed Will Hoys. The new chairman undoubtedly will be former Representative John Adams of Iowa. That part of the business will be quickly put out of the way.
“But thereafter will come a detail of reorganization, which is right now the cause of tense controversy. The proposal, in short, is to change the entire basis of the Republican party in the South. Those who want to do away with the ancient scandal of the “Southern delegate” propose that hereafter the Republican party shall rest upon the same basis in the South as the Democratic party does.
“In the Southern States large numbers of negroes are prevented from voting by State laws, which laws have been held constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. At present the bulk of the Republican party (word obscured) recognize State laws in the South and everywhere else, the same as the Democrats do.
“The suggested rule is that hereafter no person can be a delegate to a Republican national convention and take part in a Republican primary or in a Republican local convention unless he is a qualified voter of the State in which he lives and has voted in that State.
TWO GROUPS OPPOSE
"The practical working out of this rule would make the Republican party in the South a white man’s party to practically the same extent that the Democratic party is. The suggested rule is opposed by two groups in the Republican party, which compose a curious combination of principle and politics. One large section of the Republican party in the North thinks the party should continue to stand as it always has stood since the civil war, the friend and protector of the negro. To these are joined a group of the old time Republican leaders of the “hard-boiled” type who have been doing business with typical Southern delegates in every Republican national convention for a generation or more. They do not want to abandon the system. It is not merely that they are anxious to maintain an institution which, in the past, has frequently been an occasion of corruption. It is rather out of a feeling of personal loyalty that they do not want to throw overboard old friends whose political capital and standing in life rests upon the fungus Republican party of the South.
“The more forward-looking Republican leaders who want to adopt the new rule say the negro in the South has not been helped but has been harmed by being used as political capital by white leaders of dubious standing, who trade with them as pawns in national conventions. They say the experiment of trying to force local Southern communities has gone on for nearly 60 years and has never been successful but has always made mischief.
NEGRO’S POSITION IMPROVES
“The only sound way for the Southern negro to become a voter is to so impress his character on his white neighbors that they are willing to give him the franchise. That process is going on all the time and the number of negroes who have the franchise constantly increases. The position of the negro in the South, as elsewhere, becomes better every year, and his worst handicap is the so-called white friend who uses him as a political pawn.
“The innovation of doing away with the Southern “delegate” scandal and making the Republican party in the South a white man’s party, the same as the Democratic party, will probably succeed. There is little doubt that President Harding favors it. It is to be observed that his is the first Republican administration since the civil war which has not thrust colored postmasters and other colored office holders on white communities who resent them. In addition to President Harding, so many other forces are behind the proposed innovation that it will probably succeed.”
From the Charlotte News, May 17, 1921
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