The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-07-24

wears, we D01I6N6s OA1J
State has ever for a single term
elected a Governor not of that po-
1iticaI party. The best government
cannot be had under such conditions.
The Manufacturers Record touched
upon this question last week. saying +:
mo party seems to be honest
when once it loses all fear of oppo-
sition. In Pennsylvania, according
TO the best men in the Republican
party, there has been great political
corruption because the party work
ers have held ~undisputed sway in
the South we have unfortunately
had much political dishonesty be-
cause the race question has been
made a pretext to keep the white
vote solid, and almost to ~ostracize
men who dared to speak their con-
victions on economic questions If
against the Democratic Organiza-
ton. That this has been a curse to
the South and a curse to its man
hood, no honest man can question,
Just as the Pennsylvania situation
has been a curse to that State"
In other ways the negro question
has exercised a baneful effect upon
our politics. The negroes them
selves not being qualified to name
the best men for public positions, in
places where the negroes r numer-
Gus corrupt election laws and the
use of force and intimidation have
been allowed by the whites, not only
undermining the fundamental prin-
ciples of free government, but ren-
dering politics so distasteful to Our
best men and those of highest moral
qualities that they have been forced
to give place in many instances to
DULLES and tricksters. On n side
rings and cliques by machine meth
DDS, backed by the plea that division
of whites meant negro rule, have
often overruled the wishes of the
better element of whites, who, how
ever, because of the race question in
politics have never felt free to rebel
or to change their political afflia-
tions; on the other side, the best
white men have often been forced
aside for constituencies bosses better
able to use the negro as a tool. The
South has not produced a Jackson, a
jefferson, or a Calhoun since recon
struction days. They could not
grow in our political atmosphere at
this time. They discussed issues ;
they appealed to a people whose judg-
ment and intellect were not kept in
subsection by the presence of a race
problem. The acknowledgment of a
race just emerged from slavery has
made political slaves of many Of
their former masters. Many good
people believe the amendment will
by making the States ratio Of
voting population s whites to 1
negro, render negro rule impossible
in any county, remove the negro
from politics, give greater liberty to
Our people and benefit whites and
blacks alike. To charge that they
are actuated only by desire for office
or by undemOcratic ideas is as futile
us it is unjust.
The charge that the educational
qualification means an aristocracy
does not seem to be better grounded.
But if it be an aristocracy, then it is
n that practically all white boys
of ordinary intelligence and industry
can enter-a fact that ought to slim
ulate interest in our schools and ele-
vate our citizenship.
Nor do we believe that there is
danger of the elimination of the
grandfather clause, leaving in force
an educational test for whites and
blacks alike. This is a scarecrow
that has been deserted even by it's
makers.
On the other hand, the assertion
that there can be no reason for op-
the amendment except oppo-
to Anglo-Saxon supremacy is
both false and foolish.
And it would have been a great
deal better for our State and a greater
credit to the amendment party had
the campaign been conducted in a
more common-sense way-had the
amendment arguments been pre-
sented with more calmness and good
feeling. Perhaps no paper in the