The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-17
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 The New Bedford (Mass.) Standard. discusses and dissents from recent statement made by MT. Bankhead re- garding the effect which would follow in the South the elimination of the me- gro from politics. and as its argu- ments are both ingenious and fallacious we make this somewhat lengthy ex- tract from its columns:
 Representative Bankhead of Alabama says that If the negro were out of poll tics the South would be divided into two great parties of nearly equal strength. Perhaps; and if there were no Atlantic Ocean, there would be a railroad from New York to Liverpool Mir. Bankhead. we presume. claims to be practical pol only as pegs on which to hang specula- tive debate. The trouble with his 'it'' Is that the negro Is in America. and being here. he Is In politics. That he should be in politics as a voter is not essential. Being in politics as an issue is quite sufficient to make him a positive and de- termining factor. At this period in the history of the United States 1t is useless version. on what might have happened If the ancestors of tho present white men had not brought to America athe ar- cestors of the present black man. They did bring him here. and though ,h this .,ors re they did make him an element in Ameri can politics. Neither MT Bankhead nor the Democratic Party, nor the so-calleo white Republican Party, nor the Repubii- can Party proper, nor any other party. nor the whole country-black man him self included-can by any possibility keep the negro from being an issue and lac- tor in the politics of the United States. The Alabama Congressman says that were the negro out of politics the time would come when elections In his state would be determined by the candidates and by the issues of the hour. That time is here at this moment. The negro Is one of the issues of the hour. and in Alabama apparently the chief issue Of the hour. Whether he vii! always be the chief issue is. of course, not so certain. Attimes other questions will arise to en- not and will not be "out of politics" un- til he disappears from life. And that IS not a near contingency.
 It will be seen that The Standard takes the position that the negro. even if disfranchised. will still be "in poli- tics as an issue," and that he will there fore be "a positive and determining factor" It is for the express purpose of removing the negro from our poli- tics that it has been practically deter mined by the people of Alabama to so regulate and restrict the suffrage that he will no longer be an issue among us. Before he became a voter he was not an issue in the South, though Northern fanatics made him an issue and the result was four years of bloody war. Some of the same class may try to keep up the contention and lug the negro into our politics after he has ceased to be a voter, but they
 will meet with indifferent success. We of the South are determined to rid our selves of an incubus which has hung
 over us for more than a third of 8 century, and we are likely to do it in
 the way which will be best for all
 parties. We are not going to kill the
 negroes nor drive them from the coun- try, but we are going to put them out of politics, as The Standard will see. We quite agree with The Standard that at present the negro is "the issue of the hour" and he was made so by the Federal Government and the sent iment of the Northern people against
 the protests of those who know him
 best and who were to be most directly affected by his new status. It was an outrage on civilization as well as on
 the South, and those who were respon-
 sible for it, if any of them still live ought to be heartily ashamed of their
 action and hold their peace when the
 Southern people set about undoing the
 evil so far as lies in their power. But
 whether Northern people approve or
 disapprove the course determined on in
 the South Is a matter of little conse- quence. It VIII De auopIeu, dII tne
 same, and no amount of unjust or i'm pertinent criticism will prevent it.
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