The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-27

effort, and to that great genuine truth
that the citizen is not what the State
makes him, but that the State is what
the citizen makes it.
Already the partisan Republican poll
tician, who holds his office i'll North
| Carolina today by virtue of the suffrages
| of these incompetent citizens as Gov
ernor Jarvis, aptly suggests, has entered
upon campaign of Misrepresentation
against the adoption of the proposed
Amendment In his desperation to pro-
| long his lease of power as an office hold
er, he does not scruple to oppose, for his
own personal gain, the engraftlng into
our fundamental law, q provision which
promises so much for our States up
building along civic and industrial lines.
Republican leaders seek to create the
| impression upon the minds of the people
| that the Democratic party has Violated
| its pledges of 1898 in insisting upon the
| adoption of this amendment, and that
under its operation, many of the white
citizens of our State will be d1sfran-
chised by virtue of the non-possession of
the educational qualifications This L
emphatically deny The promise was
that no white citizen of North Carolna
should be disfranchised, and this prom
ise the Democratic party will ever keep.
Under section Y. Of the proposed amend
ment, the white citizen is entitled to ex-
ercise the right of suffrage, and every
white boy who will reach the age of
twenty-one years Before December 1st
1908, without regard to an educational
qualification, simply upon registration
and payment of poll tax as prescribed
by law. This provision allowing regis
tIation, is effective until December 1st,
1908 and a permanent record of all
those whose names are entered upon the
registration books by this date, will be
made and preserved, and each elector
therein enrolled entitled TO vote in all
elections held in this State. Under
the terms Of the proposed amend
ment, the educational qualification,
therein provided, can effect no white
citizen of North Carolina, except the
youth of today, and that youth only who
will reach the age OF twenty one after
Dee. 1st, 1908. To him the State says,
we have standard reasonable within
itself which you must reach before YOU
can participate in the affairs of the gov
ernment, and we will furnish you with
out any expense the facilities necessary
10 attain it. The effect OF this VIII
be to stimulate the hoys of today to
qualify themselves for the intelligent
exercise of the sacred right Of suffrage
by ayailing themselves OF the oppcrtuni-
ty for education which the State Of North
Carolina 50 freely offers. And that the
Democratic party will not fail in sup
plying these educational facilities, we
have abundant proof in the action of the
party in the last general assembly, in
voting a 100000 to the Common School
OF the State. in addition to the funds
otherwise provided for this purpose
THE LAW MUST EITHER STAND
OR FALL AS A WHOLE.
The position taken by some Republican
leaders that section five of the proposed
Amendment will be declared unconstitu-
tional, leaving the remainder of the law
imposing AN educational qualification
intact, cannot, in my opinion be sus-
tained. The Amendment deals with
one subject alone-that of regulating the
right of suffrage. 1t presents to the
voter, a scheme involving an idea Of uni
ty Suppose an elector in the election to
lie hold on this question, next August,
should deDoSit Il ballot ''for ConStitu-
tional Amendment except Section five.
such a ballot could not be considered.
He does not vote upon any particular
section, but upon the Amendment as Il
whole. He votes either for or against
If the voter could not Mt the ballot box
reject one section, and ad0pt the re-
manning sections by what process OF rea-
soning. or in obedience to what sense of
justice and right could any court force
unon him Il law from which ONE OF the
essential features or one of the parts
of a general whole had been eliminated.
making a different law from that which
received his endorsement at the ballot
box. The same indestructible unity IN
the provisions Of the law which con-
fronted the voter, must and will confront
the Court In the hight of judicial in
yestigation, this amendment will either
stand or fall as one structwe-and that
il will stand is my deliberate Judgment.
The issues growing out of this ques-
ton are supreme. The adoption of the
Constitutional Amendment is all inn
portant to the people of North Carolina.
Our State is about to enter upon an era
of commercial and industrial prosperity
hitherto unknown in our history. One
incubus rests upon us-one dark shad-
ow falls across our pathway. The ellm-
ination Of the negro from politics until
he becomes qualified to exercise the
sacred right of suffrage will lift the ore
and dissipate the other.
ROBERT ID. GTLAIF1R.
WaynesviIle Y o. Aup II 1894