The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-10-25

ment of railways on this question
than he had to enter any private Office
in the state and direct how its busi-
ness should be conducted. He regrets
the course suggested by him has not
been adopted" The governor is sin
gular, certainly, in his regrets, for no
reasonable person would desire to i'm
pose on railway companies, already
burdened. the additional tax of run
ming a special first-class car at
tached to all passenger trains
for the accommodation of the very
few negroes who care for first-class
accommodation. Besides, the car now
run on all trains for the use of ne
groes is as good as the second car set
apart for whites. Would the COVER
nor have the third car, for the use
of one or two or three negroes on each
train, better than that used for the
whites? In spite of the civil rights
bill having been declared nullity
the governor would have separate
cars, or separate seats" for white
and colored people in the same
to which they should be escorted
and assigned by the employees
of the companies. Says the gov
ernor: "a female of our color"
THAT means the governors color, and
it has been understood that he is
white, which is not a color, "or even
a male, takes seat, and the OPP
posite sex comes and occupies
the same seat" which leads to
difficulty. This the COVER
nor says can be corrected only
by separate coaches. This is just
what the railways have been doing,
even during the existence of the civil
rights law. They have been forcing
negroes to take different cars from
the whites, and now let US rest assured
they will remedy the entire question
by forcing the passengers to occupy
such cars as they designate, not by
placing special palace cars on
the roads for the benefit of
those few negroes who
have demanded palace car privileges
When it said, "the complaint 1 make
is a serious one, involving the peace
of society, and | have to repeat nay
regrets that you do not propose to do
what seems reasonable and what
other trunk lines in Texas have done,"
the governor makes two statements
which will not bear sitting. The Sc
riousness is all gone under the null
fed civil rights bill, and it is not true
that other trunk lines in Texas
have provided negroes with the third
car as requested by him. The gov
erner appears to have gone insane on
this subject. He attempts to direct
railway companies, and then he at
tempts to cure the nulified civil rights
bill, and our department reports of to-
day refers to the fact that he has ad-
dressed even third letter to Mr..
Hoxie to impress his views. If it be
the governors purpose to curry favor
with the negroes so as to gain
something of that strength which
placed him $4,000 votes behind the
ticket, he may stop to reflect that
ultra radicalism" is not to be tolerat-
ed by the whites of Texas. Negroes
do not make Democratic nominations,
and a vote of the white people
of Texas would to-day sustain
Mr.. HoXie in his position, ten to one
against the governor. The people of
Texas are not hankering after provid-
ing palace cars for negroes, and they
certainly would not tax a railway
company to do that which they care
nothing for. The colored influence
in the legislature is small, and
if the governor expects to get the best
of Senator Maxey on his advocacy of
the civil rights bill he must fail as well.
He will never get where he can re-
new the civil rights fight in the United
States senate, and the people of Texas
will suppress any effort to make civil
rights an issue in state politics.