Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-25
SUFFRAGE RESTRICTION IN MARY
LAND.

National Possibilities of a Democratic
| ,f,.-,. Move to That End.
| From the Baltimore News.
There Is another consideration making
| against the scheme which ought to have
decisive weight with the most partisan OF
democrats. provided only that he has some
1 feeling in politics beyond the desire for
| immediate and local party advantage. The
question Of cutting down the representa-
| tien of southern states has been allowed
| by the republican party to slumber for the
| present. This has unquestionably been due
| to a recognition Of the state Of public SEN
| timent throughout the country. 1t is rec
| ognized on all hands that the south has a
difficult situation to deal with, and, while
| no one regards the difficulty as having
been met satisfactorily, 1t is the general
feeling that a stirring up Of the subject
would do more harm than good. The re-
publican party accepts the solid south as
an existing fact, and it's most influential
leaders have no disposition to disturb the
status quo. Many republicans, in and out
of Congress. are FESTIVE under 1t, but the
| weight of sober and responsible Judgment
in the party is Overwhelmingly opposed to
agitating for a change.
But If Maryland should now make
move to disfranchise her colored popula-
ton and place herself alongside her sis
ter states of the SOUTH" it is highly prob
able that there would be radical change
in the temper of the republican party, and
of the people of the north and west gen
orally, upon the subject. 1t is one thing to
shut your eyes to an anomalous situation
which you have long been accustomed TO
tolerate; it Is quite another thing to permit
the extension of that anomaly into new
region, without any substantial excuse or
explanation. The colored population in
Maryland is only one-ffth of the whole,
and the ratio is not increasing MlsgoVern-
r, ,at tod frnYr
cess; on the contrary, improved government
and honest elections have been brought
about by 1t. There is no motive worth
reckoning behind the movement for negro
Acknowledgement except the desire to secure
to the democratic party in Maryland the
same kind Of monopoly Of political power
that it exercises in the states of the far
south. 1t might fall to accomplish TINS
throughout the country, the will would be
taken for the deed.
We DO not exaggerate, therefore, when
we assert that, if Gov. Smith should call
an extra session, and If the legislature
should enact Acknowledgement legislation,
the democratic party Of Maryland would
thereby make itself responsible for move
more dangerous to the democratic party or
the nation, and more laden with the seeds
of national dissenSion and trouble, than any
step that has been taken by either party
since reconstruction days. For the selfish
and cowardly purpose of securing by change
of an honest election law what it ought
to have the manliness to win by force of
it's intrinsic merit, it would endanger the po-
litical tranquility of the country and run the
risk of precpitating a crisis in the delicate
and difficult problem OF southern represent
tation. 1t is reasonable to appeal to re-
publicans to keep hands off that affair, so
long as the affair remains as 1t has been:
1t will not be reasonable to do so after
Maryland has deliberately, and without the
semblance of just provocation. Joined the
ranks of the iron-bound democratic states
Of the solid south. We cannot believe that
Maryland democrats will make themselves
responsible for a backward step fraught
with so much evil for the state herself, and
with so much danger to the party and to
the country.