The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-06-05
THE LOUISIANA ELECTION AND THE
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

OEANNo A+N@
In your issue of May 1st appears
an article signed ID" that in my
Judgment is calculated to leave a
wrong impression on the minds of
your readers. I give D. credit for
being honest in his conclusions, but
he has drawn on his imagination and
given us a(picture that does not, and
cannot exist in good old North Car
DINA.
He uses Louisiana as an illustca-
ton to draw a lesson for North
Carolina from, and States that out of
a voting population of 233, 900 that
in the recent Louisiana election only
n, 45O votes we're counted, and that
the remainder of the 233, 900 were
disfranchised or, to use his express
sion, e "everlastingly buried
clear out of sight of LIBERTY"
This statement and the intimation
that other votes cast and not coun-
ted, is guess work, and by being
stated as a fact may do those people
an injustice. Because only 77,450
voted is no evidence that all the 9th
ers are disfrancbised any more than
the presence of only a part of a
church's membership at a prayer
meeting or other service is a sign
that all the absent ones have been
accommodated. AS to why they
were not in evidence, only they
themselves know.
However, had D. been a close read
er of The Progressive Farmer he
could probably have guessed at the
real cause of their absence at the
polls on election day. In it's issue of
April "a, under the head of "the
Louisiana election" we find the fol
lowing dispatch:
"NEw ORLEANS, April 1.-THE
worst rain and thunderstorms ever
known in this section eliminated to-
day, causing heavy loss particularly
to the railroads, destroying the spring
crops and completely suspending
transportation generally. Several
lives were lost. These heavy rains
prevented a full vote at to-day's cleo
ton"
From another source I have seen
the statement that in New Orleans
many of the voters went to the
polls on RATS and in boats of various
kinds. This probably is the real
cause of the small vote on that day,
and not as D. says: Because they
had ''everlastingly been buried out
of sight of liberty"
In another paragraph D. says the
advocates of this amendment, (refer-
ring to the amendment to be voted
on next August), say: "We intend
only to get rid of the negro voter.
No white man shall be deprived of
his vote" and then asks: "Why do
they not add that is IF we are salts
fed he will vote our ticket This
is an intimation that the advocates
of the amendment are untruthful,
unreliable, dishonest and totally I'M
worthy of the confidence of the peo-
plea statement that D. himself
does not believe in his cooler NOM
ents. He had simply worked himself
up to a high pitch, as any of US are
liable to do at times, and made a
wild statement.
From his imaginary deduction
drawn from tho vote in Louisiana,
he writes down conclusions and states
them as facts that will exist in North
Carolina.
Without entering into all the de-
tails of his calculations, we will no
tice some of his figures and conclu-
sions. He assumes that the number
of voters now in North Carolina are
4O6, OOO-271, 900 whites 1876, 900 ne
0 Out of this number 102, 900
votes will be counted, leaving 304,-
900 DISTINGUISHED as follows: Whites
200, 600 negroes 104, 900. Nor is this
all. He says that all the people in
the cities andtowns will vote, whites
and negroes, so the 10000 0 disfran-
chised white men will live in the
rural districts. Now, let's examine
his fgures-test them as he says and
see the result. He says: There can
not be more "a few less) than 102, 900
votes counted in the State and rot
less than 81, 600 of this number ne
groes who will be entitled to vote
under the provisions of the amend
ment; which will leave only 1000
IL. GIL T.-oe--oo