The Portland daily press., 1900-05-31
REDUCING REPRESENTA-
TION.
As the Price of . Suppressed Negro

John S. Wise In Leslie's Weekiy.)
If, as it now seems, the North Is will
ing to say to the South, We will consent
TO your suppression of the black vote by
educational or property tests IL you will
surrender your abnormal representation
in Congress, based upon the theory that
your whole population OF voting age Is
qualified, and will pass honest election
laws" it is golden opportunity which
the South ought not to allow to pass. In
lieu of her reduced representation, she
will not only secure local government
and federal representation by her men OF
intelligence and character, but she Will
relieve herself of the awful conditions
now existing there, which should be more
alarming to her than to anybody else.
They cannot last; they must grow bet
ter, or they will become even worse than
they are.
What is to become OF a people who con-
tinue to practice and to justify such
degradation as Mr.. Tillman admitss Is
it not better for the South to yield some
of her representation in Congress than to
continue 1t by bailot-stufilng and shoot
ing negroess Would Senator Jefferson
Davis, OF Mississippi ever have descended
on the floor of the Senate to the state
ments uttered by Senator Tillmans Such
conditions as exist make such statements
possible. Think of the oath man takes
before entry upon the duties of an cleo
ton Judge. He solemnly swears that he
will perform the duty of judge Of election
according to law and TO the best of his
ability, and that he will studiously en-
deavor to prevent fraud, deceit and abuse
in conducting the election, so help me
God"
When he has done his work he adds a
new and equally solemn certificate that
he has performed his duty well and hon
estly. Can community hope to main
tain its moral integrity where people who
take oaths and give certificates like this
are allowed to falsify them with i'm
punity, and not ONLY lose no social pres
tigc by doing 80, but are justified In pub
lie by their representatives! No matter
what may be the urgency under which
such practices are INDUCED in, they can
not but result in degeneracy and degra-
dation. The statement by Senator Till
man that he Is not ashamed OF IL is
the best proof that no Is ashamed Of 1t;
and W neither he Is ashamed OF 1t or not,
conscientious, honorable southern men.
who love their section, are heartily
ashamed of the fact and of Its justifiea-
ton by any sophistry.
Any surrender of representation which
would enable the southern people to rec
tify this crying evil, instead of being
hardship, will be a blessing to them and to
their children S children, and bring the
South back toswhere she ought to be and
where she belongs Of right. No specious
logic of expediency or trucuient defiance
can disguise the terrible consequences 10
people of systematically following the
practices which Mr.. Tillman justifies.
In the first place, they result In the ex-
clusion of the better elements of the
whites themselves from all participation
in politics The element which does
these things does them for themselves,
and the whole political machinery is
thrown into the hands of the worst class of
whites, who do not choose from the
higher element of southern society, but
exclude 1t from participation In represen
tation as thoroughly as the negroes them
selves are excluded.
The southern people had better, for their
own sake, realize this. The North is
waking up TO the injustice done it by the
present condition of southern representa-
ton. 1t will not much longer remain
generously or indifferently silent, and
the nation at large begins to realize that
it is suffering incalculable injury in
prestige.