The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-05-08

strous dangers concealed in it. And
the more doesi it appear to be a strike
at organized productive labor.
Let us examine a few of the cir
cumstances leading up to and JUST
flying such a conclusion, and in do
ing so we propose to ignore every
thing of a partisan nature. Nc one
denies that it is intended to disfran-
chise the Q O if the law is
complied with, it will fail to accOmp-
lish that result, and its trainers
knew it they are not ignorant dolts,
they are as able lawyers as the South
affords. Here, then, is an effort at
deception.
In the next place, it is partisan in
the extreme, as we shall see, for it
was not demanded by the people, but
by professional politicians who
pledged to their constituents that if
elected they would vote for no law
that would disfranchise anybody on
account of his political views or
color. They were elected and voted
for an election law that enables the
dominant party (be it POpulist, Re
publican, Prohibitionist or Demo
cratic) to disfranchise everybody but
the dominant party and nine-tenths
of that if they choose to do so. De
ceptiOn No. ?. And once adOptedit
is then too late to think of undOing
the deadly work. Twenty or thirty
thousand good, loyal laboring white
men who were in the Confederate
army in their youth instead of being
in school will be disfranchised, if the
law is enforced, which we take for
granted must be done. This is rank
fraud.
But let US suppose for arguments
sake that one of the objects sought is
the encouragement of education.
Can NAM of the farmers and wage
earners in the rural sections do any
more to educate their children than
they have done? We answer, No they
can't live and spare their children
from the shops, fields and factories,
while there is d constant drift of the
blacks from the country to the towns
and cities where the facilities for
schools are so much greater. So
that in 1910 and after that the pres
ent black boy in school can then APP
prOach the ballOt-bOX and deposit his
ballot while the present white boy
on the farm must stand aside, pro
vided the law is complied with. De
ception No. i.
The next and last fatal objection
to the measure, is the means adopted
to carry it. Had there been any
honesty of purpose in the minds of
its promoters Invested of rank par
tisanship, they could have left the
matter with the people to settle
fairly at the ballOt-bOX. But this
they refuse to do thay enact q law
that permits partisans to
take charge of all the election ma
chinery, and empowers them to dis
franchise whOmsOever they please.
No campaigner fought harder for
the election of these men than the
writer, working both day and night
for their success, and although sixty
three years old, never arrested for a
crime, spent three years in the ser
vice of his country from 1862 to 1865,
always paying his taxes regularly,
yet now d~isfranchised simply because
he cannot swear who occupied the
house in which he resides before
he moved to that house, nor can he
prove by two sworn electors that he
was born on Mountain Creek, in
Richmond county, n. c., on the 10Th
day of April, 1887.
We affirm, that it is the bitterest
partisan measure ever sought to be
forced upon the people Of North Caro-
lima. We use the words FORCED upon
the people, because the law under
which the people are to act upon it is
so arranged as to prevent more than
half the people from voting on it, if
its promoters enforce it-a thing
which they will surely do. No meas
ure was eve fraught with so many
dangers to the peoples dearest
rights. It taxes without representa-
ton it places the many under the
control of the few, and that few the
most bitter partisans, m~ercenary
professionals in the State, with no
hope of ever being able to peaceablY