The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-25
NORTH CAROLINA's RACE WAR.
1t Is Characterized as II Conspiracy
to- Win Back Voters.
". Z. Curtis, in Chicago Record.

w. E. Curtis, in Chicago Record.
A railroad man from North Carolina, who
is the son of a STAKEHOLDER who fought in
the Confederate army through the war and
who describes himself as a man who is too
busy to have any politics" declared this
morning that the recent race war in his
State was a deliberate and desperate con-
spiracy on the part of the Democratic lead
ers to bring back into their party a con-
manufacturers, bankers, railroad men and
others, who went over to the Republicans
in 1896 and were likely to remain with them.
THE race war was proposed said my
informant, "by professional politicians
whose names are known and who contribute
no more to the material welfare of the
State than the negroes who were shot down
in the streets of Wilmington. They have
been supported in office by the taxpayers all
their lives until they were thrown out into
a cold world by the Republican victory two
years ago. They realized that unless they
could do something to bring the deserters
back to the Democratic party they would
have to earn their own living They there
fore persuaded the Democratic state com
mittee to engage in conspiracy to reawak-
en- the ancient Slumbering prejudice against
the negro and humbug the white element
with representations that they were living
under negro domination and were iii danger
of being overrun. The agitation was so sud
den and the excitement SO great that nobody
would listen to arguments or statistics.
When a man stopped to reason his neigh
borS ran him down. but when the statistics
that are now being collected are made
known l think there will be a reaction, and
when the good men who have been deceived
into this conspiracy cool off they will show
q proper resentment. [ predict that 1t VIII
be shown that instead of ruling the State
the negroes of North Carolina do not hold
as many Offices as they are entitled to from
the basis of the taxes they pay, without
regard to their excess of population.
For example, in the city of Wilmington,
where the greatest trouble has been, there
were comparatively few colored office mold
ers, although the colored vote was in an
overwhelming majority. The mayor, the
chief of police and all the other officials Of
Importance except the recorder OF deeds
were white, and the latter is an intelligent,
honest faithful official who has been re-
elected year after year for fourteen years
by the votes of white people and has served
to the satisfaction of all concerned. In the
Board of Aldermen there were only two
negroes to nine white men; the board of
audit, which has charge OF the finances, was
composed Of one negro and four white men.
and the police force, which we nave heard
so much about, was composed OF ten col
ored and thirty-one white patrolmen In
the county the proportion of colored off,
Gals was considerably larger, because so
many negroes serve as petty magistrates in
villages and at crossroads where there is
practically no white population and where
no white man could be induced to accept
the office
II am willing to stake any amount of
money that there is no ground whatever for
the complaint that has been made so loud
and so often by our people that white men
were unjustly arrested by colored policemen
and punished by colored magistrates. Col
of the city and county that were inhabited
by their own race, and if a white man got
into trouble there he was entitled to no
sympathy. He better have remained where
he belonged
Furthermore, Mayor White, who was
compelled to resign and was driven out or
the city, is a rich man, who has lived In
Wilmington for thirty years, and until now
has been regarded as a most estimable and
valuable citizen. He was elected by the
votes of the business men of the community.
He is a large property holder and one of the
heaviest taxpayers in the State, whereas a.
NJ, Waddell who led the mob that drove him
out and succeeded him in office by the will
of the mob, is pennileSs broken-doWn,
threadbare politician, who has been support
no taxes, owns no property and has never
contributed anything to the improvement of
the city. / understand that since he has
been out of office he lives upon the earnings
of mis- wife who is a music teacher.
Manly, the colOred editor who was driven
out and whose printing office was burned,
pays ten times as much taxes as eX-GOver-
nor Jarvis. another leader of the mob, who
travelled over the State crying out concerning
the dangers to WHICH the taxpayers were
subjected because of negro domino ton.
understand that somebody has been looking
up Jarvis's record. and finds that he paid
last year in taxes exactly $l.S9.
THAT unfortunate editorial about white
won en- in Many's paper, which was used so
effectively to arouse the mob, was published
in midsummer. and nobody paid any atten-
ton to it until after the conspiracy Gull
minated, when one of the editors of a VIII
mington daily remembered reading 1t and
searched through the files Of Manlys paper
to find it. AS soon as the Democratic COM
mittee saw it they realized they had found
exactly what they wanted to prove their case
and excite race prejudice, and three months
after it's publication it was revived to fire
the Southern heart
"When the statistics now being collected
are presented to Congress, as they will be,
it will be shown that instead of paying only
3 per cent. of the taxes of North Carolina
the colored population pays nearly 20 per
cent. = that is, about $9,0OO,oOO out of
$50,O 900"