The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-09
STIRRING APPEAL TO WHITE VOTERS.
Montgomery County Ratification Club Issues Address by Presi-
 dent Gordon Macdonald.

three-fifths majority of their own people. Are you afraid, men of the opposition, mat your pity for the school children or your county may make you so wildly reckless. against your will that you will become so grossly cxtravagant as to tax yourselves 10 cents on the $1Oo for their education? As to city taxation the state ments are equally misleading. The new Constttution fixes an absolute limit of
 l.2 on the s1oo for all purposes The limit now, which we have been paying | Tor years, Is N.15, but there Is an actual limit Of S.5O. as follows: Fifty cents for ment of debts existing at the time of | the rathcatiop of the old Constitution in 1875 and the interest thereon. The | amount of this indebtedness is $565, 900, principal of the debt will become due on the End day of January, 1907. It is absolutely certain that the city will de- fault on the interest of these bonds with Constitution. When this happens the whole debt is due and the full limit of $1 per $l00 for this purpose will be inn posed upon us and the additional and an indefinite number of years, till the principal of these bonds and their accru- ing interest is paid in full. The pres of the United States would. probably be compelled to order our future Aldermen and 1scai officers several times to jail for contempt of his court in refusing ecessor ordered Judge Jones and his fellow Aldermen to jail for q like con- tempt, in the sad and troublous years gone by. Sc. ss a matter of fact. our taxes are kept from getting higher. in stead of being substantially raised. We pay q. 12i-s cents on the sieo now s s the Gf oss %t aGa rs s sass feAssE .sx limit Is reduced. (which we now paU. from 75 to sS cents a reduction of 10 cents on. the sloo,. Taking into consid- eration the reduction of 10 cents In the State tax. and assume that the city of Montgomery will levy the limit of .25, we have possible increase of two and s ths Ana t6s tos hs dGsi S esns sn we are asked to forego for many years. probably forever, the opportunity to in- sure, for all time, white supremacy and honest elections, and to foregather with frage and support.
 It is hardly necessary at this late stage of ths campaign to call attention to the multitude of other Improvements which the new Constitution presents to the peo- ple. Take for example the extreme lib- erality shown by 1t to the public schools. Thirty out of the 66 cent rate of State taxation to be devoted to education, whereas the matter is left by the old Con- stitution to the whim or caprice of the legislature. The utter elimination of the vicious local legislat tion which has caused such scandals to the State should appeal particularly to the citizens of Montgom- cry. The counties will, under the new Constitution. attend to their own local matters by we'll guarded elections. And: a matter I have already briefly alluded to: The wise limitation put in the new Constitution on the hitherto unlimited power of the city to tax man out of his and the construction of sewers. Many q poor man in this city has felt the griev- Ous burden of this particular and iniqui- tious system. If you would be forever tution. If you prefer to be robbed under the g1iise of law, vote for the old Copstl tution by voting against the new.
 Some narrow-minded persons have ad- new Constitution is a rich mans con stitution. and was the product of the schemes of corporation lawyers? Am I rich rich msng Sa,n dave Have eyer been charged rations? Why should you be misled by those who have aligned themselves with negroes and Republicans. and ask you to desert your people in the supreme hour of the opposition are ignorant of what their efforts, if successful. win lead to. Let us take it so. and, in all reverence. repeating the words of the Divine Master and Martyr say: Father. forgive them. for they know not what they do."
 Read what l have written. and ponder on what you read. l, who address you. am a poor man. I have no part or lot among corporation lawyers. I was born ard raised among, and love YOU as a man loves his own household. I advise you humbly and earnestly. in the name of God, for the sake of the race purity oS your children and grandchildren. for the sake of continued white supremacy, for the sake of the resplendent honor of our beloved South, and, if some will have it so. for the sordid sake of mere financial to vote and work on election day for the new Constitution. tell you solemnly. men of the South. my comrades and my friends, that if by any mischance the people of Alabama fail to ratify this new Constitution. a time will surely come and that right early-so shameful. so bitterly humiliating, with the heel of the negro and the mongrel so firmly planted on the necks of you and your posterity, that by comparison YOU will yearn for the "detestible days of Reconstruction" as a land of fair light even as man longs for the sweet days of his youth And when these things come to pass and they will come if this Constitution is not ratfied-"vou will know that you have had prophet among you" Stand by your color!
 Gordon Macdonald, President of the Ratification Club of
 Montgomery County.