The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-15
WHITES ARE
RESPONSIBLE.
Senator Tillman Says White
Republicans
Brought About the Recent Race
Riots
IN A SELFISH EFFORT
To Use the Negro For Their
Own Advancement.
In A SELFISH EFFORT
Declares the Caucasian Will
Dominate in the South.


Benjamin TiIlman inspired and led the
fight in South Carolina for a constitutional
convention, boldly avowing that his pur-
pose was to disfranchise all the negroes
he could under the fourteenth and if
teenth amendments, he has been the lead
ing exponent of that idea. in southern pol
itics. He went to North Carolina
public speaker in the North Carolina can
vass, where the race issue was the only
question discussed, and talked freely on
the Riots at Phoenix and Wilmington.
when called upon at his home in Trenton.
THE Phoenix riot" said the senator,
''was an outbreak such as is liable to oc-
cur in any community thickly populated
by negroes in any southern state. Race
antagOnism, which has existed since the
dawn of history and will continue to exist
while the world lasts, is at the bottom of
it. This sentiment of prejudice, or what
ever you may term 1t, is stronger than
either law or religion, and is ineradica-
Bile.
Tn this particular case it grew out of
a greed for Office on the part of a white
Greenville county, who merely wished to
get the money which is provided BY law
barest possibility of getting the seat in
Whether the Tolberts we're acting I'M
der instructions from the Republican ma
tonaI commllIee, or WhetneT tney Were
maintain their influence with the negroes,
is, OF course, mere conjecture. In either
bert being elected under the new con
stitutfon in this state, which is in every
respect similar to that of Mississippi, with
minor differences which are improvements
and which have been sustained by the
United States Supreme court
The white registered vote, compared
with that Of the blacks, in that congress
siOnal district. is at least 10 to L OF course
all others are unlawful, and I do not be-
with and his farcicaI proceeding of hav-
ing box in which to put the certificates
of the unregistered negro voters whom he
had told to go to the polls, knowing they
were not legal voters, would have Gre
ated derision under ordinary circum-
s'The fact that the race issue in North
that there was widespread interest and
sympatRy for the condIt1on OF the the White
men IN the conInonW wealth., ana the WhlJe
men at Phoenix, remem herring our own
rageous traVesty on legal voting ana thus
the conflict between the races was brought
'4The murder of Etheridge was like a
match to magazine and subsequent to
bush provoked a degree of rage and IN
reasoning anger that alone explains the
solely to blame for all the blood that has
been shed, because nowhere in the state
the races and the race issue, so far as
politics is concerned, is absolutely dor
"Of course the recent lynching Of the
three negroes in this county for the as
white. woman, returning to her home IN
der the protection of her husband, has
-
riot and was merely retr1buuVe Justice
THE thoughtful student of government
in the southern states since the expert
Ine9t OF negro suffrage was forced on US
of two results must follow active partici-
patton there by the negroes. There must
be absolute control of the negroes by the
whites in matters political or there will be
decentralization and rottenness by the use
of the debased and purchased coIored
My observation and experience showed
long that where there is white
to control at the ballot box the colored
vote is not pI1rchasa,bIe II is only when
cOntendtng white factions use the negroes
as an instrument against each other that
this corruptfnsr element enters and then
the race issue is dominant as it is a case
of white rascal against white rascal seek
ing to control the offices.
In one case the politics of a given COM
munity or state will become more and
more corrupt, and in the other the ire
pressible conflict between the races pro-
the negro race. The Anglo-Saxon race
has never been dominated by the colored
England has more to do with colored
races than any other nationality-than all
the other nations combined-and the Eng
lishman goes about the conquest and gov
erning of Chinese HindOos, Malays and
superiority and right to rule It is his
paw Wg4 f9 g% % a and be bS be 5
force is necessary. The most striking IL
lustration of this is in India, where half
a million or so of Anglo-Saxons. including
the men in the regular army, dominate
dDSOlulGly anu COILTOI 0UJ.tJOUUO t1lQQOOS-
. II there We're a change OF policy on
the part of the national government to-
states and the negro were allowed to drop
absolutely out of politics, a great cause
notorious fact that for 20 years or more the
negroes in the south, who constitute the
into politics as g. factor in the Republican
national conventions and as means of
ment which so long gave impulse and d.
rection to Republican politics. 1t is alone
responsible for the solid south
There has been a great revolution in
is shown by the annexa ton of Hawaii
wishes or Irofecti1e the interegts IF the
colored races there. as well as by the atti-
fusing to protect the coIored negro
thicker than water in Illinois, and, I be-
leve in nearly every northern state. at
this time, and were it not for necessity
or imagined necessity, of controlling the
vote from the south in the national Re-
nOmination of this man or that, there
would be soon no political aspect to the
zone thing is as certain as anything
earthly can be certain-the white men in
the south will not submit to negro con-
trol of their politics. local, state or ma
murder such as that of Mrs. Atkinson,
will meet punishment, sure and swift.
1.-The negro must take a subordinate
place and he will be treated with consider
iatlon anq klnd eI IN m Prop9rtlo9 as ne
friends of his white neighbors.'
The diSfranc h1Seunent Of the ignorant in
South Carolina by constitutional and law
full methods has worked no injury, but
is a benefit in many respects, insuring
peace and good order. and. as far as possi-
Bile, a cessation of angry race feeling. The
outbreak at Phoenix would not and could
not have occurred but for the leadership
and inspiration Of designing and selfish
white men. Left to himself, the negro
perience in this state has shown him that
| 1t is a hot iron, and always burns him
4 whenever he touches it,