New-York tribune., 1900-05-10
THE RACE PROBLEM.
SPEECHES BEFORE THE CONFERENCE
IN MONTGOMERY. ALA.

Montgomery. Ala May 9-The Race Problem
Conference began at 1880 O'Clock to-day. Mayor
Alfred NJ. Waddell of, Wilmington, y. c., opened
the discussion with an address largely dealing with
the conditions in North Carolina. His statements
received enthusiastic approval When he de-
nounced the Legislation which enfranchised the
negro the meanest political crime in the history
of nations the audience of thousand people
cheered the sentiment they did when he de-
manded Il repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment In
the galleries there perhaps a hundred negro
leaders in Alabama, including Booker T. Washing
ton, of Tuskegee. ard W. H. Council of Huntsville
Mayor Wadde said, in part:
The negro has had nearly forty years of freedom
and citizenship. and opportunity for education,
quite as incapable Of Understanding the meaning
of true liberty and OF nteigently exercising poit-
Southern people, amid all the calamities that
ma nave befallen them. have expended about $lcoeoo-
Ug FOR the education of the negroes since the year
1870, and yet. with every succeeding year, they
of citizenship and more and more menace to civ
illzauon and good government; These are not Wild
proof.
unhesitatngly say that unrestricted negro suf-
frage is disastrous to good government and to the
peace and welfare Of society and go further and
the greatest political crime that has been perpe-
trated in the history of this country. 1t has been
DDS which are of themselves necessarily Injurious
and em9railzing. and therefore it is douby dsas-
the repeal Or modification of the Fifteenth Amend
ti ed by most persons as one the realization OF
W4ieh te Is bfy4nd reasonable hope but there can be
vail Porto Eco AND be Pbip1inds in more
favorable condition to consider such proposition
than ever before. The repeal of the amendment
ment of the negro. The question of suffrage would
be remtted to the States where it rightfully be-
Of the South would eventually accord to the better
class of negroes the right to vote.
Mr.. Waddell spoke of the North Carolina pro-
posed constitutional amendment saying that If
adopted. there will be about fifty thousand negro
voters in the State. Probably seventy thousand
negroes will be disfranchsed. 1t is substantially
the same the Louisiana amendment It disfran-
chises no white man. educated or illiterate. who
registers as voter before December l. 1908, but
applies an educational test after that date.
JOHN TEMPLE GRAvEss ARGUMENT.
John Temple Graves followed with an argument
for the separation of in distinct localities
a cure for existing evils. Among other things he
said:
Take Booker r Washington. He is the type and
nj his race Ills hner is as cean as yours. Ills fame
hai His character, stainless and unimpeachable
defies criticism His patriotism is clear his courtesy
add 70 his edTnent9 AID ~et chaeoe fhis ST
conference with a proposition:
what man Of Won old install f5is rest a. @ do b1
less negro in your guest chamber tonight? II he
with equanimity his addresses to Your daTgbter oT
your ward? What man of you would vote for this
proved sta tesman for Governor Of Alabama? Would
Would you do it in ten years? When would You
do it? And why would you refuse to do it at all?
plore all your themes for a cause. And when you
Justice, anywhere an answer. you will find at last
the answer-in his skin! Bleach that to the
problem by chemical solution. But until this
leopard shall remove mis- spots. until this Ethiopian