The age-herald., 1900-01-01
Southern Suffrage and Representation.

Congressman Crumpacker. of Indiana, proposes to press his basic bill to passage speedily. This bill directs the director of : the census to report the voting popula ton of the several states distinctly and by itself. The difference between his report and the actual vote cast will afford the field that the Indiana congressman proposes to ex- ploit. He then proposes to put in force to its fullest extent the fourteenth amend ment of the constitution, which provides that representation shall be reduced in pro- portion as the right of suffrage Is abridged. He will however, overlook the northern field, in which there are an abundance of educational and poll-tax restrictions. and devote his great trobbing republican brain to this list, secured by the New York World
 In Tennessee the poll-tax requirement $ he only direct restriction. But the ballot aw requirements are such that no illiterate person can comply with them. This prae- lcally disfranchises most of the negroes
 In North Carolina each voter must have paid his poll-tax for the current year and preceding. Any one offering to register who cannot produce proof of such payment is subject to immediate indictment This both disfranchises and intinidates the ne- groes in large numbers.
 In Florida there are none but poll-tax requirement. but as in Tennessee, the bal lot-law requirements In effect disfranchises 70 per cent of the negroes.
 In Mississippi the voter must have lived two years in the state and one year in the election district. He must have paid two yeats poll tax. He must register four months before the election. He must be able to read and write, or to understand clause of the state constitution when it is read to him, the decision as to the ''un- derstanding' resting with the election off, cers In practical effect these requirements dsfranchise nearly all negroes and hardly anybody else.
 In South Carolina, after this year, every voter must be able to read and write, or must pay taxes upon $500 worth of real estate This applies to blacks and whites alike.
 In Louisiana a two years residence is re- ouired. Also the voter must read and write, or in lieu thereof pay taxes upon $500 worth of real estate. But persons who were voters in any state before January l. 1867 Gall whites of course), and the sons and grandsons of such persons. if they were twenty-one years old or more in 1898, and all citizens naturalized before January l, 1898, are entitled to vote. provided that they have been residents of the state for five years. In effect these provisions disfran- chise a majority of the negroes and enable illiterate whites to vote.
 The aim and object of these restrictions is to secure an intelligent electorate, and as Massachusetts shuts out all who cannot read and write, thus barring out thousands upon thousands of French Canadian mill operatives it is difficult to see how MT. Crumpacker can frame bill that will not affect Massachusetts, representation Nor can he attack the poll-tax provisions of southern states without tresspassing upon Pennsylvania's representation, for that \state makes tax-paying within two years \ast past a condition of voting. In Della .
 are registration fee of one dollar is re-