The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-22
WHAT OF THE NEGRo7

/ the Southern States have taken up the
plan of Riding themselves OF the task
of handling the negro vote at each
election by means of an educational
| franchise clause in their constitutions,
suggests the extent to which negro
domination has been considered a men
ace in the past. Not since 1876 has there
been such a feeling that the South
will never again be solid. Reasons for
this belief are plenty, and not the least
prominent is that very one, that
thousands of Republican negroes will
never vote again, for they have not the
native energy to prompt them to learn
| to read and write, and so earn electoral
| qualification.
| This may seem to be a bull, but the
reasons for the conclusion will be read
iily discernible. The task Of carrying
elections in the South is always con-
| siderable The trouble to which the
white men were put yearly is dlrectiy
at the bottom of the fight for closer
restrictions of the franchise. In fact ii
! is the same fight which HaWan Knew
before annexation. In continued reel
procity lay the life of sugar; In con-
tinued white domination rested the
economic future of the South. IL was
never straining to make those hghts
each year Hence it is evident tnat
with the fear of negro domination Out
of the way there will follow political
freedom among the whites.
President Mckinley is beileVeo 10
have taken the first step toward
white Republican party in the South
since Hayes. This took concrete torrn
when recently he gave two good ap-
- 81 dc.
continents in South Carolina to frlenos
of Senator McLaurin, young Demo
Icrat who believes in a tariff and In eA-
mansion as well. The result is expected
to be strengthening of the new organ
ization which from the ashes OF the
Gold Democracy will erect straight
Republican structure.
The time seems ripe for such de-
velopment. The South is now In po-
sition where there must be advance
ment along industrial lines, and
thoughtful young men, who nave no
reactionary principles, who can see no
hope in Organism or Bourbonism. are
expected to flock to the new standard.
There is all of hope in the future for
the Southland Under Republican sys-
TENS there has come phenomenal pros
perity to the entire section, but only
the periphery of the magic circle of
prosperity and riches has been touched.
The richest portion of the United
States has not been so thoroughly ex-
plotted as our own little isles. With
these possibilities it is but fair to as
sumo that once rid of their 'old man
of the sea-" the men of the section will
seek broader political connections.
AS showing the wide spread feeling
oinfo ia a
her turn at the restriction of the suf-
frage, and will soon hold a Constitu-
tional convention to devise ways and
means. 1t is settled that the negro
vote must be cut down, but not that
there shall be a sweeping educational
amendment 1.-THE Virginia negroes as
a class" says the Richmond Times,
''are a bew-shot beyond the cotton
pickers and roustabouts of the Gulf
States. There are many trifling negroes
in Virginia who are utterly unfit to
vote, and these should be, and we be-
lieve will be. DISTINGUISHED. But as for
the respectable, weH-behaved negroes
who have accumulated property and
who have proven themselves to be good
citizens, they will be treated with con-
sideration, and as many as have proven
themselves to be qualified to vote will
continue to enjoy the right of suffrage.
It is the shiftless, vicious and pur-
chasable negro that the people of vir-
ginia are after, for 1t is this class Of
negroes that have given US trouble, and
these are going to be eliminated from
Virginia politics"
This article shows a strong leaning
towards a property-voting qualif1ca-
ton which, the world over, is coming
into favor wherever voting takes place.
In Berlin the idea has been developed
into scheme to give the heaviest tax
payers more than one vote apiece, but
this plan is not likely to find favor
either in England or America. The
principle, however, that those who con-
tribute to the expenses of the State
should have most to say as to officials
who will handle the revenues, and to
what purposes those revenues shall be
put, is growing in popularity. Some
would call this "un-American," but
Americans, as we pointed out the 9TH |
err day, are rapidly tearing down their
ancient fetiches. Even now their icono-
elastic hands are laid upon the princi-
pie represented in the phrase: Con
sent of the governed