Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-03
WHAT THE SOUTH is.
The Question Answered by May or Skaggs.
of Tslladega, Ala.

of Tslladega, Ala.
The idea of disfranchising the black
men of the South, as recently advanced
by Congressman Oates, of Alabama, is
not the exclusive possession of that
representative Southern statesman.
The proposition, in fact is held and
advocated by many in the South. The
argument is simply that 1.-The South
can not continue to disfranchise the
negroes Illegally and that the end
should be secured in legal form by
means of an amendment to the Fed
eral constitution. Perhaps the clear
est and frankest statement of the
reason for this demand is made by
Mayor Skaggs, of Talladega, Ala,
who, in the course of an elaborate
article which is attracting considerable
attention in the South, says:
The Democratic party in Alabama Is sus-
tanned solely upon the theory that it is the
white mans party. We are confronted with
this unsettled negro question to-day and We
can not adjust it by sentiment in the future as
We have in the past ANY measure was JUST
domination of the class of Republicans who
held sway in Alabama Immediately following
the reconstruction period. But 1ce euh sSs GO
on .foreUsr stealing the Regro'S ballot. Their,
must be wiser and more honorable solution
of the question. We haze gons too far IN our
election frauds, and soon we shall learn that
success founded on fraud can not be perma-
nent. In the black belt, where the negroes are
N the greater majority, the tactics by which
the negro has been deprived of his vote have
also served the purpose of depriving the white
men of fair representation The negro vote
has been used to count the South Alabama
Democrat in and the North Alabama Demo
crat out.
As election frauds are returning to
plague their inventors "the South is
calling for the legal disfranchisement
of the blacks. What is ''the South"
about whose demands and desires so
much is said? 1t is continually as
serted that the South wants this, that
or the other, but it should be explained
that such demands represent simply
the desires of about $500 ex-slave-
holders and their families. The 6,000,-
600 colored people are not taken into
consideration when any thing is asked
in the name of 1.-The South" No ac-
count is taken of the millions of ''poor
whites" The Northern men who have
gone into the Southern States and the
men who have invested hundreds of
millions of Northern capital in build
Jag railroads, establishing hotels, mills
and factories, and in developing mines
in that section, are not represented
when 1.-The South" speaks A handful
of Bourbon politicians and ex-slave-
holders make up the political force
known as 1.-The South" They DOM
mate the entire section and stifle the
voice of every interest except their
own. While the negroes and the poor
whites perform the labor and produce
all the wealth gained in the cotton
States, a small minority of lazy,
domineering ex-slaveholders assume
the right to rule and determine who,
if any one besides themselves, shall be
permitted to exercise political rights.
Southern election frauds are the
work of the ex-slaveholders directly
and aided by their henchmen. and now
that they are being caught and pinched
in their own trap they are beginning to
call out in the name of 1.-THE South
for the legal Acknowledgement of the
blacks by constitutional amendment.
But the colored voter has come to
stay. He will not be disfranchised,
and the ex-slaveholders will not be
permitted to "go on forever stealing
his ballot. Chicago Tribune.