The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1897-03-11

Illinois $3.50. .24.9 Mississippi ..31.9
| Kentucky -. .30.1 Idaho ........ $40
Where the Real Fraud Was.
| 1t must be apparent to anybody who
| takes the trouble to examine the above
| figures that the charges of fraud in the
election in the States carried by McKin-
| ley are false. Nobody, whatever his po-
| litical sentiments may be, can doubt that
| if he examines carefully these figures,
which are taken from the official publica-
| tons.
But how about the South. where the
| Democracy is always triumphant by one
process or another?
1t is a notorious fact that in the ex-
| IRENE Southern States the colored voters
have been disfranchised by one process
and another until their participation in
national and State elections has practi-
| cally disappeared. This has been accom-
plished by various processes at various
| times, that process which combines the
| greatest success with the greatest showing
| of virtue having finally been hit upon in
amendments to the State constitutions
which require an educational test as
! qualification for voting. With clause
| in the State constitution requiring each
| voter to be able to read or satisfactorily
| explain" a clause in that instrument itself,
! and the jury which is to determine wheth-
| er the reading or explanation" is well
| done being packed" beforehand, it is
| easy to see that the average colored voter
| in the South stands little show of an op-
portunity to cast his vote. This require
ment exists in several of the Southern
States. In others there is also an educa-
| tional test in the form of law which re-
duires a separate ballot box for each can
didate with his name printed on the out
| side, the voter being required to place his
| ballot for each candidate in it's proper box
| In order to prevent the successful coach
| ing of voters not able to read the names
upon the boxes, the custom is to change
| the location of the boxes from hour to
| hour or more frequently if necessary, thus
making it absolutely impossible for the
voter who cannot read to know whether
| he is putting his ballot in the right box
| In some cases it is found more convenient
| to count the votes cast for Republican
| candidates as cast for Democrats and vice
versa. but those are now exceptions and
| the educational test is becoming the
| popular method in the South for keeping
| the negroes away from the POLLS 1t
sounds we'll, prevents charges of violations
Of law and vet does the business most
effectively That the experiments which
the neople of the South have been making
in the last twenty years in the line of
| .How to Exclude the Black Vote from
tho Polls" have been highly successful.
will he seen from the following votes and
| figures taken from the official records of
tho Government. Seven of the extreme
Southern States, which contain in them
solves more than one-half of the entire
colored population of the country, are
seIected as an example. These States
occuny the extreme southern belt and in
tbem the art of depriving the negro voter
of his right of suffrage seems to have at
tanned it's highest perfection.
Surpressing Republican Votes in the
South.
Tho States whose vote will be examined
harowitb are South Carolina, Georgia.
Florida. Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas,
ou;siana. Twenty years ago the art of
sunnressing the negro vote was in it's in
fancy. In the presidential election of
1o7e +he total vote returned from these
States amounted to 9S9.114. Since that
thav have gained, according to the United
S.ates census, 3,3O5, 4O5 in population. Yet
IN the year 1896 they report only 1901
rotas cast an actual loss OF l9S. los votes.
Hare ;s an example for those who admire
Tho art of suppressing votes. A gain of
: 2o6 465 in population and at the same
t;n,e : loss of 198.103 in the number of
votes A gain of sc per cent as shown by
the official figures and at the same time a
loss Of 20 per cent in votes, as also shown
hr the official figures. That this reduc-
t;on n the number of votes was caused by
Keeping away colored Republican voters
from the polls is shown by the fact that
49,, percentage of the vote cast for the
Renublican tickets in these States has
dw;ndled year by year until it has reached
as low figure as per cent in Alabama
IN 1892. 8 per cent in Mississippi in 1892,
| while in Florida and Louisiana no votes
were recorded for the Republican presi-
Dental candidates in that year Not con-
tented with this. the vote was brought
down in many of those States even lower