The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-06-18

the substance Oh t!iOSe SoiliiiluliitlN9'
They are for the most part, as is well
known. the least representative class OF
Tie white people in those counties, and
many OF them are nontaNpayInG.
But these 1000 non-representatlve
whites are represented in the Legisla-
ture upan per capita basis OF 1857 to
each representative. while an equal dis
tribution OF the II7 members OF the
General Assembly among the $4,000
registered white voters OF the State fixes
the :! capita. representation at 1920,
If we pursue this line of observation
still further down the table and take the
sixteen counties OF St Mary's, Charles,
Calvert. Prince Georges, Anne Arun-
del. Dorchester. Somerset Queen
Anne's. Howard, Kent, Talbot, Wor-
cestcr, Caroline. Wicomico, Montgom-
cry and Hartford, we find an aggregate
registered Negro vote of 2S,o3o out of a
total Republican vote OF 3o.325, showing
white Republican vote OF these counties
to be 1926, and aggregate representa-
ton OF the sixteen counties in General
Assembly 90.
Here we have little over one nine
tcentf part OF the 2I3,3o4 registered
white voters of the State, consisting
largely OF non-taXpaycrs not materially
interested in economical government OF
the State or of their respective counties,
enabled to combine with more than two
and one-half times their own number OF
the machine colored vote and elect a
majority Of the men that make the laws
OF the State.
These facts are shown by the figures
of last falls clcctlon and the registration
made last year Were the registered
white vote augmented by the $4,000
white Democrats who failed to register
last year and the Republican vote dl-
minished by the Democrats who voted
for Mckinley on the financial question,
but who will not longer affiliate with
that party, the comparison would be
stronger still.
OF the remaining 4.1S3 colored vot-
ers OF the State not resident in the coun-
ties above enumerated, 1880 are in the
city of Baltimore, where, having been
held together as party machine to do
the bidding OF the white bosses who
have assumed the political proprietor
ship OF them, they have constituted a
dangerous factor in the problem OF good
government in the city. But it is one OF
the healthy and encouraging signs OF
the times that these colored voters OF
the city, many OF whom have passed out
OF the class of illiterates and whose en-
vironment is such as not longer to toll
crate the false teaching of race prejudice
on the part OF their self constituted
bosses, are just now manlfestlng dis
position to assert their manhood and
emancipate their race from further
blind subserviency to the selfish inter
ests OF few white men. This move
ment is encouraging to the cause OF
good government in the city and
throughout the State, and should have
the sanction and support OF honorable
men. Should the colored voters OF the
city refuse longer to serve as catspaw
to further the ambitious and selfish pur-
poses of their white leaders and assert
their manhood as Independent citizens.
their example would be encouraging to
colored men in the counties to break
away from the bondage of race preju-
dice which has been fastened upon them
to their own great injury as well as the
injur,. OF good government in the coun-
ties and in the State at large.
The extent to which. the feeling OF
race prejudi>e has been excited in the
minds OF the eolored people in commu-
mites where they are thickly settled
and the measures resorted to for that
purpose might seem incredible to many
people in sections OF the State where the
cOlored population is an insignificant
factor: but the TACT as well as the means
employed will be attested by reliable
citizens in the counties where the work
is done. The sentiment has been sown
broadcast that Negro who votes the
Democratic ticket is traitor to his
race. This is the ordinary expression
AID it conveys to tie mind of the col
orcd population i'll the rur;. districts the
idea OF an objectionable crime of high
degree. This sentiment has been Gull
tlvated at midnight meetings and the
spiritual advisers OF the coored people
are largely depended upon to give this
kind OF temporal advice This senti-
ment has taken an cSnecial hold upon
the imagination OF the women. and they
evlnCe the most remarkable and extreme
zeal in its enforcement. and their ser
wees are relied upon ior that purpose.
so that It Is now tact, notorious
enough to have come to the knowledge
OF all. that the cOlored vote OF the State
IS to all intents and purposes I machine
vote. blindly cast for the ticket claiming
to represent the Republican party. re-
gardleSs entirely OF the record OF that
party, National. State or county, or the
economic or other principles for which
it stands. The only exceptions to that
rule have been pointed out in the case
OF the well meaning colored voters in
many OF the counties, who, yielding to
the influence OF their white neigllbors
had become accustomed to cast a secret
vote for the Democratic ticket, wholly
unknown to their partisan bosses. and
thereby escape the odium and the pen
aties OF the crime OF being traitors to
their race" AS has been shown. this
avenue of escape has been deliberately
cut off by trick in the Republican cleo
ton law, which subjects the illiterate
voters to the unrestricted espionage OF
the Republican leaders in every voting
precinct OF the State.
A glance at the cold facts revealed by
the above statistical table proves at once
that the whole stock in trade OF the Re
publican party in Maryland consists OF
the unbroken ranks o. the fifty odd
thousand oolored voters OF the State
maintained as political machine This
machine broken, and the Republican
party in Maryland, as in every other
Southern State, would sink into imme-
diate and absolute insigniicance Were
the Negro vote divided evenly, or at all
between the two political parties. as ii
ought to have done long ago and would
have done under normal conditions, and
the II 900 white men in sixteen counties
who are now vested with the power OF
naming d majority OF the law making
branch OF the State government, would
al once become an entirely insignificant
factor III the politics oi the State as well
as OF the counties in which they reside
The unfounded and most unwarranted
race prejudice against the white men OF