The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-03

are excused from paying You have
 no right to say you shall not pay be-
 cause you are forty-five years of age,
 but you, because you are forty-four
 and a half years shall pay for fifteen
 years longer. Let Us look at this
 thing from a sensible standpoint. If
 thought for one moment that the black
 belt was in danger, l would vote a
 ten dollar poll tax: would vote for
 twenty dollars poll tax. l would vote
 for fifty dollars poll tax, but that Is
 not the question. The black belt can
 take care of itself. We are willing to
 give 1t every opportunity to do so. We
 have done that and that Is one Of the
 main objects for calling this Constitu-
 tional Convention. You can call it
 voluntary tax. It has been stated up-
 on this floor that it is not tax. be-
 cause 1t is voluntary. What Is the re-
 suit: the forfeiture of the right of
 franchise It Is one of the worst sort
 of taxes. Why an ad valorem tax in one sense is a voluntary tax. What does
 it do? Forfeit your right of property.
 Where is a man on this floor that
 would not rather lose his property than
 his right to suffrage. So you see 1t
 is the very worst form of taxation,
 and the people in Alabama in my judg-
 ment are not expecting anything or
 the kind. On yesterday I had the hon-
 or of offering an amendment whicn Tn
 the wisdom was overwhelmingly voted
 down that required poll tax aiter
 1903 and went on so far as to say that
 those who refused to register under
 the temporary plan could not register
 under the permanent plan. and yet the
 delegates by a vote of nearly three to
 one voted it d0wRs yesnwes are told
 here today by the very men who voted
 against it that poll tax will disfran-
 chise ten negroes to one white man. In
 other words fifteen cents contribution
 wou'a. .disfranchbse one negro. If that
 is tfsecase let's raise a few hundred or
 few thousand dollars and disfganchise
 every one of them. Fifteen cents does
 no d.sfranchise the negro; neither does
 dollar and ahalf disfranchise them.
 Because the re~orGs in the black belt show that the negroes in the black belt pay nearly three times the poll tax the white people in the black heit, pay. E. s'Mr. Rogers (Sumtsr9-Wil the gen
 tleman allow me to ask him n Ques-
 ton?
 The President pro tem-Will the gen.
 tleman yield?
 Mir. Long-I decline te yield. I ad-
 init that this is because many of the
 white people in the black belt pay the
 taxes of rne negroes. the poll tax in-
 cluded. They can continue to do that
 or refuse to do 1t. as they see fit and
 proper 1 mention that to show you
 that it is not a question of the su-
 premscy of the winte people ill the
 black belt. The white race will take care of itself, and when the delegates of this Convention are asked to come
 up here and raise the limit up to $l.5O for all these who become 45 years or age after the ratification of this Con- yention, it is the worst form of class iegisla tion, and the most vicious meas ure in my honest judgment that has ever been proposed here. We. as Dem- ocrats. have always opposed class leg station, and l want to see any man get up here and say that this Is not class legislation. You have right to name your limit. 1 am willing. for one, and introduced an ordinance in this Conventicn, which the dlstinguisned Committee on Suffrage and Elections saw fit to ignore, to make the poll tax apply to every man that had the right ts vote in the Stase of Alabama. IT, respective of his age. am willing now to vote for the amendment of the gen. LlcIlldu HUH lhSb OHb eSh VI" ~'s' not willing to vote for class legislation here that will allow men under 4o years of age to be discriminated against. l can see no good reason why after all of these clauses have been | put in here that we should he asked to raise the age limit up to which a man should pay poll taxes. There cannot | be any good reason given. and l. tell you that 1t is a violation of the Demo- cratic platform. as said by the distin- guished gentleman from Tuscaloosa i (Mr. Fitts). I claim to know as much lbout the wishes of the people as many | thels. and 1 tell you that the farm | CTS sons in this State look at this ,I. 50 year as a tax. and one that they arc looking forward to the time when | they will reach the age when they will be exempted from It's payment, and road duty is the most obnoxious thing | in the world to them. l have seen numbers of men whose wages have been garnisheed time after time On a forfeiture for costs because they did not work the roads
 Mir Hood-AS a delegate from the white section of Alabama. I wish to | repudiate the idea that the white peo- ole of Alabama in my section are less patriotic than the white people of any | o oiher portion of the State. As dele gate from the hill counties of this | State, 1 also wish to deny the propo- ,tion that the white people of those counties are poorer than those of any other counties in this State. and that 1 they are not able to pay the pitiful sum of $1.50 annually to swell the | school fund for the public schools of this State. especially .Mr. President, when. this $1.50 contributed by the peo- pie of those white counties Is retained in their own counties to build up their
 common schools.
 Mir. Long (Walker)-I would like to
 ask the gentleman a question. You stated that the white people in the r white counties were just as well off as the white peop'e in the black belt?
 !e Mr. Hood--They are not all paupers, Find the gentleman well knows ii. He comes from d country in this state of but a little more than twenty five
 thousand people. the assessed valuation | of whose property is over six million dollars. (Appla use) They are not all paupers MT. President. and neither are they all fools. CApplause.)
 Now. in my Judgment. this poll tax l qualification Is the m Jst important pro- vision of this entire article. Under the scheme reported by this commitFe, on the 1st day of January, 1903, this magnificent temporary plan expires, and then we have a property and edu- caticnal qualification stated In the al-
 formative In other words, every per
 son offering to vote or register after
 that date, who Wall be able to read and
 write cannot be disqualifiad. We are