The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-08-07

ballot system. The two ought to go
together, not only because the Aus
tralian system requires n higher aver
age intelligence than we have now,
bat particularly because 1t
INsUREs A SECRET As WILL As IN
TELLIGENT BALLOT,
and gives the voter an opportunity to
register his convictions and choice tIec
from extrancOus influences. This is
great safe guard against bribery and
coercion. because the bribcr and boss
cannot tell whether the voter really
votes as he agrees or not. aud the
tickets being furnished 10y the State
at the polls, the voter Is saved from
being harrasscd and trjckcd 10y ticket
vendors before he goes uP to vote.
These considerations are all import
ant when We remember the influence
bribery aud corruption now exert in
the elections of the North. After
while this will become far more i'm
pOrtant matter than now, for the ten
deucy of the times is tO concentrate
the wealth of the country into few
hands and control elections with mon
ey, and when the State becomes dot
ted by large factories, filled with
thousands Of operatives, without some
such safegard these operatives will be
at the mercy of their employers and
bosses and voted like machines.
al am aware that there is a strong
prejudice in some quarters against an
educational qualification and great
deal of timidity in others, but, in my
humble Judgment, the opposition to it
has far more of sentiment in it than
sound sense and craftsmanship. If
the convention does not go to the very
root of the matter it will acc Omplish
little lasting good. 1t is not a time
for mere eXpedients. At first an edu-
cational qualification would cut off
only one white voter to every ten ne
groes. If it be argued that the negro
would soon learn to read and vote in
diligently, and that we would he no
nearer Il solution of the race problem
than now, | say we would, for if cdu-
cation of the negro did not make him
Il better citizen we would have clear
ly demonstrated that intelligence is
not the remedy, and be the sooner
ready for the final one. In Repub-
lican form of government like ours,
where the people are the soverigns,
general intelligence should prevail,
and any system of voting which fails
to recognize and require this falls that
far short of what the highest type of
Republic should be.
"While am on the subject of suf-
frage | will also say that if an educa-
tional qualification were required, and
the Australian system adopted, l
would be i'll favor of
GIVING THE BALLOT TO WOMEN.
"Paradoxical as it may seem to
some, that would go Il long way to-
ward removing the race difficulties, for
a while at least. Since the war our
white girls have been more generally
educated than our white boys. To
every male college we have at least
four female colleges. The boys have
worked in the fields and shops, while
their sisters have gone to school. On
the other hand, the negro men who
can read Outnumber the women, so
that while there are ten colored men
to every white man who cannot read,
the disprOportion between white and
cOlOrcd women, for the reasons | have
mentioned, is still greater. OF course,
if our white ladies were given the
franchise, they need not vote on all
occasions, but in great emergencies
they could be brought out as reserve
force, and under the Australian sys-
tenn could vote with as much proprie-
ty and freedom from contaminatingin in
tluenccsas they can now go to the post
Office and make out an application for
a money order.
"If an educational qualification
should be rejected by the convention,
| would next favor longer residence
in county and State than is now re-
quired, and in addition thereto the
production of n two or three dollar
poll-taX receipt of the year previous
as prerequisite to voting.
Gin the selection of delegates to the
convention, favor the choice of the
wisest, truest, most patriotic and con-
sentative men-men who have the
wisdom and foresight to discern what
is needed and the courage and patriot
ism to do it,
REGARDLESS OF ALL PERSONAL con-
sIDERATIONS AND AMBITIONS;
men who are not candidates for dele
gates, but who will accept the office
as a sacred trust, and discharge it as
in the sight of God and future genera
tons.
'NO one subscribes more heartily
than do to the proposition that one
idead men and hObby-riders should be
kept ont of the convention. Aside
from these there is only one class Pro-
hibitionists will take especial pleas
ure in knitting. They are a certain
lot of politicians like some of those
in Kinds, Lauderdale and Lowndes,
who, while protesting to be Demo
Gratis and in favor of white suprema-
cy at all other times, do not hesitate
to mass the negroes on the side of the
saloons and marshal them against the
great body of whites representing the
intelligence, morality and wealth of
their communities. They should be
discounted, not merely because they
are anti-ProhibitiOnists, but because
men who will thus mass ignorant ne
groes against their own race on any
issue are not to be trusted in an emer-
gency like the present.
sit has been suggested that there
should be an agreement in advance
between ProhibitiOnists and anti Pro
hibitionists, that this question should
not be brought before the convention