The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-03-16
WILL IT WORK.

In his first public utterance after taxing
the oath of office, that he will have no
" Southern policy" that Is, In plain En-
plish, he has no plan In view whereby the
South Is to be compelled TO allow 70 the
negro the exercise of his right 70 vote as
fully and freely as the right Is accorded TO
him at the North. The utterance Is man
ifestly In response 10 the constantly re-
iterated assurance of his party organs dur
Ing the campaign that one of the first tasks
TO which a Republican administration
would address itself, If raised 10 power
would be- to compel the South to recognize
the equal rights of the negro In the exer.
else of the election franchise. No."
says Gen. Harrison, there isto be no COM
pulsion. The day of control of elections
at the South by national bayonets is past"
Desirable as 1t undoubtedly Is, from Re
publican standpoint, that the right of every
negro 70 vote shall be fully and freely &C
corded him at the South, and that that vote
shall be Welded as a solid block In favor
of the Republican party, as 1t T. at the
North, this thing cannot be brought about
by force-nor by executive or congressional
interference with view TO giving the
negro on his way to the polls an escort of
national bsyonets,
al have better scheme to suggest"
says President Harrison. The South Is
becoming largely Interested in the man
ufacture of cottons, in mining and the man
ufacture of iron and salt, and Is deeply en-
gagged In the sugar industry, in all of
which she needs protection. Let her be
entirely relieved from all apprehension Of
hostile interference on the part of northern
Republicanism with the race question,
either as to the Degros right to vote or
otherwise, and the inducing causes of the
hitherto solid South will have passed away,
the negro question will be eliminated from
her politics, and her hitherto Bourbon De
mocracy, now as deeply interested In tariff
protection as Pennsylvania herself, will
" see the point" and naturally join itself to
the party of protection-that is, the Repub-
lican party Nay more: This stout body
of protectionists will find II an easy matter
also TO win the negro rs a solid block to
their political support, and being assured
of their votes, they will of course see to 1t,
being abundantly able, by reason of their
wealth, responsibility and numbers, that
every negro vote Is cast as well as counted.
A very pretty scheme and altogether
lovely" But, suggests the Atlanta JOurnaL,
the negroes are agriculturists almost to a
man and not manufacturers, and can they
be counted apon to fall into this plan of
imposing high taxes on themselves for the
benefit of other classes? Manifestly that
suggestion will give no republican the least
trouble. To the negro republicanism is a
fetish, to which he Is as submissive and
entirely devoted as his fathers are 10 YOU
dooism In the jungles of Africa. Talk
about reasoning with the negro in regard
to his interests Absurd. On the question
of voting or not voting the Republican
ticket he Is as incapable Of thinking or
reasoning as the yoked OK Is that he drives,
Yss-it really looks as II the Harrisonian
scheme TO break up the democratic solid
South might be sufficiently ingenious to
make It work. In the States of Virginia,
Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Louis
lana, at least, there are mining, manufac-
turing and sugar interests rapidly growing
up to make heavy tariff subsidies In their
favor an important object, and though In
point of actual numbers the whites engaged
In these operations may be- inconsiderable
compared to the entire voting population,
the money at their commend will enable
them easily, by reason of the negroes polit-
ical fetish, to solidify his vote in their
favor, and that will be inducement enough
to enlist on the same side, that vast host of
demagogues, who with as little principle
as the negroes to influence him, are always
found on the winning side.
But will not the breaking up of the solid
South In the way proposed have another
outcome, not taken into account In the
presidential scheme? While there Is a
solid South there Is also a solid North, and
the one is solid because of the other Break
up one and will the other not necessarily
break up9 At the last election the tariff
was nominally the Issue, but was 1t really
SOP In the large cities-the manufactur-
ing centers-where the vast majority of
the voters are workingmen, and when they
obviously are better posted In regard to
their own interests and careless about the
southern negroes than people do In the
rural districts, the party of tariff reform
made large political gains; but In the rural
districts, among the farmers and stock
raisers, where really, on account of the
enormous tariff taxation TO which they are
subjected the tariff reformers justly looked
for their greatest gains, they gained never
vote Why? Because the rural major
tiles, like the negroes, adhered to their re-
publican fetish. They cared more to
auapua than, ~, tho cputhary, briuo