The age-herald., 1899-03-14
Suffrage Reforms in the Convention.


 The first courageous attempt to regulate the franchise in the south was made in 1890, in Mississippi. In that state a new constitution was framed, and 1t provides that every elector shall be able to read any section of this constitution, or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or give reasonable interpretation thereof" The supreme court of the United States has held that this is not discrim- ination agairst the negro as a race, al- | though it is a discrimination against his weaknesses.
 | The chief trouble with this plan Is that. | like dishonesty at the ballot-boxes and in the returns of this state, it involves pub
 lie cheating, and, therefore, public as well as individual Generalization. All are taught by it to be tricky and unfair, for its value lies in its discriminating application by election officials In Mississippi all whites are considered constitutional lawyers with out examination; none of the blacks are so considered If we desire to avoid the de- lndl ptIIledttS tne DOuy pOi- itic, the Mississippi plan must be rejected. In 1895 South Carolina met the problem. It, too, made new constitution and in it they incorporated the Mississippi suffrage clause. but the constitutional students must have been registered before January | 1. 1898. Since that date the registered stu | dents have voted but those who are not so registered before January 1, 1898, must be able to read and write or pay taxes on | property valued at three hundred dollars, | or more, in order to vote In other words, | South Carolina will soon depend upn a plain straight educational and property | qualification.
 In February, 1898, Louisiana adopted | new constitution, which provides that voters must be able to read and write, or | be owners of property valued at not less than three hundred dollars. But every per- son who was entitled to vote in any state
 January l. 1867, and his sons and grand sons who were twenty-one years of age or over in 1897, shall also be allowed to vote 1 provided they were registered previous to September l, 1S9S It will thus be seen that Louisiana will in the long run have also a property qualification; and so will North
 Carolina, which Is following in the foot | steps of Louisiana.
 The Louisiana device has not been passed l 1>x,t t1a
 States; but the presumption is that it will
 be upheld. because there are no race dis
 criminations in 1t. Under the 1867 clause
 some negroes can vote. It involves no
 trickery, no race discriminations, no forced
 constructions on the part of election off,
 cials. As compared with the Mississippi
 plan. it is the better of the two.
 But Alabama needs neither the Missis-
 sippi nor the Louisiana plan. A straight
 square educational and property qualifca-
 ton will do. All who can read and write,
 and all who possess property to the value
 of $500. should be permitted to vote. An
 additional provision permitting all soldiers
 of all wars to vote would not be a race
 discrimination within the terms of the fif-
 teenth amendment; for under 1t the sol-
 diers of the Third Alabama could vote as
 well as the soldiers of the First Alabama, | or of any other regiment that the state
 has sent out Whatever plan be adopted,
 1t should be free from race discriminations.
 and it should not involve dishonesty on
 the part of any human being. It is cleo
 toral dishonesty that Is at the bottom of
 much of the public rottenness in this state.