The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-14
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS,
THE RACE ISSUE.
Cleveland Star.

Cleveland Star.
We note that several associations in va
rious parts of the State have made a de-
claraton with reference to raising the
race issue in the coming campaign, and to
our mind this is all wrong. We trust
no such resolution will be introduced in
the Kings Mountain Association, which
is to assemble at Double Springs next
week, but should it be presented we can
depend upon the good sense of the dele
gates to promtly kill it. We' want no re-
solving one way or the other, for it is not
a matter for the Association to deter
mine-it is purely political and not with
in their jurisdiction.
There has been altogether too much talk
about raising the race issue already, and
those opposed to it have INDUCED in it
even more freely than it's advocates 1t
seems to us that the Democratic position
is this: The promise was made that as
soon as the negro was eliminated from
politics then race antagonisms should
cease and every man would be accorded
the privilege of voting as he pleased with
out having negro thrown in his face, and
this promise will be sacredly kept. 1t
would be well to remember however that
the negro is not eliminated until after the
November election-then he ceases to be
a voter and hence is no longer factor
in politics.
We want no more race fights. The
negro question is distasteful as cam
paign slogan and we hasten to drop it as
soon as circumstances will permit. The
only excuse for injecting the race question
in this campaign as an issue would be for
the Republicans to organize and arouse
the negroes and make the effort to have
them illegally registered and voted. The
white people could not afford to allow the
negroes to carry this State for Mckinley
the man whose national party platform
declares against our constitutional amend
ment and ISLANDERS our Southern peo-
pie.
1t is also we'll to determine what is
raising the race issue" Discussing a
mans public record does not occur to us
to be raising any issue except an individ-
ual one. When we charge Mckinley with
having appointed twenty seven negro
postmasters, it stands on the same FOOT
ing with the charge of having given Nicely
white man an appointment in Cuba,
whereby he was enabled to steal thou
sands of dollars of the Cuban revenues.
All this goes alike to discredit him in the
eyes of respectable people. And the same
is true of the Radical puppet, Spencer
Blackburn, who is running for Congress
in this district. While a member of the
General Assembly OF 1895 he voted for
negro to be door keeper of the House, in
stead of a good Confederate soldier. This
should be charged against him, as will be
his threat to North Carolina Democrats to
take warning from the fate of William
Goebel the assassinated Governor of
Kentucky These things make up the
public record of these men and it is per-
fectly legitimate to charge them with it,
and it cannot be called raising the negro
issue"
The scurvy white leaders who arrayed
themselves against the good white peo-
pie of the State in the campaign against
the amendment are still in charge Of the
Republican party and are McKinley's
warmest supporters, and should he be re-
elected will receive the major portion of
the patronage at his disposal. They will
likewise be offensive to our people. After
the amendment goes into effect another
class of men will fall heir to the leader
ship of tn Republican party-that is, if
that party is to gain any recruits in North
Carolina.