The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-01-26
THURSDAY. 1880. January 20, 1898,
A GRATIFYING SITUATION-SEP
ARATE CARS FOR THE RACES.

The crowded condition of our col
umns yesterday did not permit as full
an account of the argument on the jim
Grow car law as would have interested
our readers.
The speeches were all excellent and
the most gratifying thing in connection
with them was the feeling on the part
of the representatives of the corpora
tions and the advocates of separate cars
that this Legislature will do what it
believes to be right. and wall give due
weight to all arguments from all sources.
The speech of COL Warren G. Elliott,
the able president of the Atlantic Coast
Line set the pace. He presented in
a strong and clear way the reasons that
induced his road to ask the Legislature,
if it saw fit to order separate cars, to
impose no hard burdens on the railroads,
which would all readily comply with the
legislation enacted. There was in his
speech an endorsement of every proper
policy looking to preserving white SUI
premacy, and he spoke with the feelings
Of a Southern man, having the same
ideas that welded the white men togeth-
or in the November election. His speech,
moreover, was free from suggestion that
this LEGISLATURE in its action could
-, II ~ YONG
Naturally, speaking for his and other
corporations he objected to the expense
and did not believe the necessity existed,
and his argument along that line will be
given the proper weight. In like man
ner Mr.. Busbee, speaking for the South
ern Railway, said that his road knew
that this Legislature would be actuated
by a desire to comply with the peoples
demands without imposing any I'M
necessary burdens ON the railroads.
Senator Ward, of Plymouth, who an
tagonized the arguments of Mr.. Elliott
and Mr.. Busbee in strong speech that
was penneated by a spirit of perfect
justice to the corporations, showed thai
the demand for the Jim Crow Car
came from the people and was based
nJon the same necessity that had caused
white men to unite to carry the State.
1t is not prompted by any desire to in,
jure the negro, but to secure that com
plctc separation of the races in all
things that obtains in schools and
churches. In DOING this it is not pro
posed to impose any hardship on the
railroads that can be avoided, and in
those portions of the State where there
are very few negroes it will doubtless
be the policy of the Legislature to make
exceptions to the requirement of sepa-
rate cars. Where the separation of
the races is not needed or demanded it
ought not TO be imposed, for the reason
that demands separate cars on the roads
in Eastern, Central and Piedmont North
Carolina may not exist ON certain
branches in the extreme West
To the proposition that the Railroad
Commission might be entrusted with the
power to suspend the law as to particu-
lar roads, Senator Ward vigorously OBJ
iected saying that until it was known
who would compose the Commission, the
people would not be willing to lodge
so much power into the hands of three
81. 10 Oh.
making the single passenger rate
cents, thus increasing the cost to second
class passengers a quarter of II cent a
mile and reducing the first class rate
from 81 to cents. He declared that
there was need of an investigation that
would make clear what the proper rat,
would be, and insisted that under nc
circumstances ought the rate to be in
creased above the present second elias,
rate.
When all parties approach this mat
ter in the spirit of those who addressed
the committee-(a committee composed
of men who deservedly enjoy the conf
dence of the people)-the result will b.
such as will approve itself to the people
and TO the corporations. There will b.
separate cars, but there will be desir,
10 accommodate the reasonable desire
Of the railroads as far as possible.