The age-herald., 1901-07-22
MR. BOWIE WRITES AGAIN
 ON THE SUFFRAGE CLAUSE.

To the Editor of the The Age-Herald:
 In the Age-Hera1d of Thursday of last week the statement following is made ed- itorially:
 ''Congressman Bowie is mistaken
 when he says only one provision of
 the majority report of the Committee
 on Suffrage has been assailed."
 In my article referred to- the reference which intended to make was to sele mi- nority report of the Committee on Suf- frage. I expressly stated that the com mittee's report was unanimous in all other particulars. If the committee, com- posed of twenty-five of the ablest men in the state, was perfectly unanimous on all propositions but one. after giving over months earnest study and consideration to the question, it would seem that this In itself would be very strong argu- ment in favor of the plan as a whole.
 But the five objections presented by the Age-Herald in addition to the grand father clause, seem to be altogether un- tenable. The first is stated as follows:
 ''The board of registration that can
 create a life electorate at will; there
 being no remedy that q poor man can
 resort to against oppression or injus-
 tsce'
 It is difficult to write a paragraph with moro transformation than Is contained in the above. The board of registration cannot create a life electorate at will or at all. The constitution creates the cleo torate, and leaves absolutely no discre- ton with the board of registration. The a .1o of of ha or-df- nance allows all old soldiers therein named to register. The second allows the lawful descendants of all such per- sons to register. Over 90 per cent of the white voters of this State will come un- der one or the other of those clauses, hence no discretion of power whatever Is vested In the board of registration with ministerial duty now conferred upon reg istrars under existing law. The third clause enables all persons of good char acter and who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under repuD- lican form of government to register. This clause would operate upon less than 10 per cent of the white voters, even if the DOdTQ or TbBlStTdLlOn unotAtooh IO settle it arbitrarily.
 But even that would be considerably re- duced by the provisions of the pern1a- nent plan, which enable all who can read or write or who pay $300 worth of taxes to vote< So the power of the board of registration Is limited to an inconsider- able fraction of voters in this State. And even this power Is further controlled by the right of appeal provided by the sixth clause of section 10 of the ordinance, from which I quote as follows:
 "Any person denied registration
 shall have the right to appeal within
 thirty days after such denial by filing
 petition in the Circuit Court or court
 of like Jurisdiction held for the coun-
 ty In which he seeks to vote, to have
 his qualifications as an elector de-
 termined. Upon filing the petition the
 clerk of the court shall give notice
 thereof to any solicitor authorized to
 represent the State in said county,
 whose duty 1t shall be to appear and
 defend against the petition on behalf
 of the State. Upon such trial the court
 shall charge the jury only as to what
 constituted the qualifications that en-
 titled the applicant to become an
 
 registration, and the jury shall deter
 mine the weight and effect of the evil dence and return verdict. From the
 Judgment rendered an appeal will lie
 to the Supreme Court in favor of the
 petitioner to be taken within thirty
 days. Final Judgment In favor of the
 petitioner shall entitle him to regis
 traitor as of the date of his applica-
 tion to the registrars.
 The above quotation shows how wrong is the statement that "There is no rem edy that the poor man can resort to against oppression or injustice
 The second and third objections to the committees report referred to in the ar ticle above relate to the good character clause, which have already quoted. As already shown, the good character clause applies to very small fraction of the white vote of this State, probably not per cent, and the most ample remedy by appeal from an arbitrary or unjust de- cision is provided.
 The fourth ground for objection stated by the Age-Herald is as follows:
 "A life electorate"
 There is no such provision in the ordi- nance The right to vote after registra ton is lost by the non-payment of poll tax or by conviction of the crimes men, tioned in the ordinance. If the life regis tration be what is referred to, I would say that that is the law in Alabama to- day, except in towns having over 5000 in habitants. When the Sayre election law in this State was first passed, it was pro-
 .s-s-s-s~s- Perhaps this is the very process whereby these crimes of the mob will be finally checked--by the reduction of the lynching principle to a ghastly absurdity. Time was, few years ago. when lynch law stood for the preservation of the home, ,dxr