The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-01-27

Ou1b ID COuIu uOG you along W1GQOu6 the
weAker-that they are bound in life
by ties economic, industrial, social
and fraternal, that cannot be broken,
without doing violence to the civiliza.
ton they are jointly building, whether
they will or not. To enact this law
now is to crown with glory and power
the professional agitator and dema-
gogue and sharpen his jawbone where
with he will slsy his thousands of
foolish ones. 1t will rouse race bitter
ness, hatred and suspicion. It will
disturb relations that are to day cor.
dial, bring hope or strength to none,
bring trouble and distress to thou.
sands. 1t will utterly fail to accom-.
pllsh the hope of its author, viz: that
the political complexion of certain
Southern States will be changed
thereby, 1t will only strengthen and
solidify and give new life TO a tradi-
tionalism and bourbonism in the
South that are now going to pieces of
age and general debility. Such a
foolish law would give An indefinite
lease of life to the old race cries of
the white and black demagogues.
There are only two States in the
South that have a negro majority if
every vote were polled. And we
must remember that the white vote
of the North only reaches sixty-four
per cent. of the total who can vote.
These two SAFES are South Carolina
and Mississippi. South Carolina has
a ballot law that disqualifes by its
edu 3ational features its possible negro
majority. Mississippi has a new Con.
stitution which, with its qualif cations
for Suffrage copied from New Eng
land, will deo4r from suffrage two
thirds of the negro ace and one.third
of the white. Such a law would Ger
tainly go on a FOOLS errand, granting
for the sake of argument that it is
apparently designed to remedy nation
al evils.
4 1t would cost a vast sum to IKE
cute such a law. 1t would create a
worthless army of partisan Office
holders, to whom no civil service laws
could apply, 1t would be a machine
capable OF stupendous corruption, and
for all the vast outlay of worry and
energy, the results would be race
hatreds, bitterness, sectional revivsls,
distress and misery-practical results,
nothing,
5. 1t would simply be to throw the
negro a stone, when he asks for bread.
The negro is crying for an education.
AMI he is getting it, and should get
it faster than he is. He wants a free
ballot. But it is beginning to dawn
upon him now that the only free man
is a man who is free in the upper
story. He is beginning to see that the
only possible way to have a free ballot
is to % able to cast IN intelligent bal,
lot. He is beginning TO see that after
all, men are not made free by stat
utes, by constitutions or resolutions
passed amid booming cannon and loud
huzzahs, but that man is free when
he can think for himself, act for b m.
self, and knows the import of his
deeds. In other words, he is free
when he has an educated head, hand
and heart.
+ j. G. Price, the GREATEST living
negro, one of the grandest and truest
men l know, says in the Independent,
January lst, alt then becomes the
negro's most imperatiy e work to
prove himself "a man and q brother
There is no better way for the negro
to do this for himself than in his
mental, moral and industrial develop
ment. In the future the negro will
become more independent as a politi.
cal factor, and less certain as a partisan
ally. The last decade of this century
will find him voting for good men
and wise measures rather than for
mere partisanism, whether Republican,
Democratic, Prohibitionist o: Alliance.
men" Until men have sense enough
to thus vote, they are not free nen
whatever they may call themselves.
6. Such legislation is supreme folly,
because it lsgs superfuous or the
stage of an era that thr IBIS and thrills
with mighty, living problems. There
are vast problems Of finance, taxation,
education, and social and economic de
velopment, that cry aloud for adjust
ment. 1t is the part of childish old
age or brazen demagogery in such an
hour to turn the energies of a nation
to such a solution of such a problem.
In the name of common sense and
| Christian manhood, let us have some
sense. Let the fanatic who has made
this his pet HOBBY remember, that,
admitting all he says, a white man IS
still as good as a negro. That the
negro now only asks to be treated as
a man, with an equal chance. He
does not ask to be made a baby or a
ward. Let us remember that there is
more poverty and misery and suffer