The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-10-06
THE SUFFRAGEPROBL EM
Able Discussion and Valuable Suggestions by Pro.
fessoI Dabney, Of the University of Virginia.

s.,-,llI. pul..acs, ~, .vSs than in medicine,
u coyTece Giagaos-S rs The essential pre-
requisite to proper prescription; anu 1t
saouid be no more absuru III d physician
to prescribe the Mcuicine suitable Tor
munlps 10 q patlenC suffering nom Inenn-
sltls than icr our political doctors III
convention assembled TO Imagine mat the
mere refusal OF the Suffrage 10 ililterates
and paupers WoI4d permanently cure the
malady from when Virginia is suffering.
1t is, OF course, not denied that ignorance
and sniltleSS1less are undesirable quail
ties in a voter, and it is to be hoped that
the new Constitution Will deprive OF the
Suffrage All except Confederate soldiers
Who decline the gTatuitouS schooling OF
tered them by the StaIe, and are too lazy
or improyident To accumulate and pay
taxes upon a small amount OF property.
But If both paupsrlsn and iliiteracy We're
Uanfshed from Virginia, and there were
no man within her borders without a far
amount Of property and the ability to
read write and cipher, the really serious
political disease OF the Commonwealth
would still not only exist, but exist Gun
less other remedies should in the mean
Time haze been applied in far more
acute form than at present For the tcu-
Bile is chiefly aaciai, rather than Industrial
or educational, and consists in the fact
that two very diSSinilar races in the same
body polite are possessed of equal po-
liticaI and other rights.
II any man doubt this, let him consider
whether the race question in Virginia
would be settled II the negroes should
ever attain complete. or nearly complete.
equality with The whites in education. in
teiliGence and wealth. To suppose so is
to ignore the race-collisions that have
occurred in all ages of the world. even
when there was no question OF political
rights involved. The story of the cock
t,af mar
across the street was n foreigner pro
ceeded to cave 4 alf-brick at i'm, IL
5; illustrates the well-nigh universal anti
pathy which men Of one race feel for
those Of another even when there is
neither industrial, social. political nor re
liSious rivalry between them. But II one
or more of these rivalries be superadded
to racial pride or prejudice, serious con-
flict becomes almost unavoidable. Greeks
and Jews, e. g., tic"cely fought each other
in the streets of ancient Alexandria, and
( the hatred between Jews and Romans
was perennial and intense. So obnoxious.
TOO, was this same people to the other
inhabitants of medieval England, France
and Spain that they We're driven ensmasse
from all three countries Nor has Drey
fus SO completely faded from memory as
to let US forget that many thousands OF
highly educated. intelligent modern
IFrenchmen have substantially the same
Moreover this feeling is not confined to
s5I,lc French. For there are hotels in The
United States 10 which no Jews are adj
ynitted. and there are once-fashionable
summer resorts that are fashionable 40
g longer. because, when the Jews; moved in
the Gentiies moved out. In Germany and
Austria anti-senlitism is intense; and the
writer once heard the brilliant Heinrich
Won ,rrcitschke. the German Macaulay,"
say in a. lecture to his thunCcrouSly-ap-
piauding students at The University OF
Berlin that the patriarch Abraham was a
a. .horrid old Jew In the western part of
cur country Chinese have been massacred
wholesale by Americans, While in China
foreign devils of various races nave been
butchered by Boxers. In South Africa
Boer and Briton are proving that race
hatred can be strong even between nearly
allied branches of the same race. In AL
sace-lorraine bitter feeling still exists
between the French and German ele
, mems IN Prussia, Poles and Germans
glare Hereby at each other. In Austria
The perennial dissensions between Czechs.
Germans Magyars and other races seli-
!. oIlsy threaten the disruption CT that poly
siot empire. And, as for the English and
Irish, Mr. Dooley informs US that .whin
England Furnishes, tn Irish II die ~
what Hogan calls ongwee, which is haTin
no wan in the weary wurruld ye don't
love-
S In the light of such nlultifarious race
antagonists as these. il is clearly childish
to imagine that either the three Rs OF
.l,e public schools or Booker Washing
toms nostrtnn OF industrial education
eliminate racl;,4 feeling in the South.
Neither Greeks nor Jews in old AleNan-
I dria were tainteiligent. Aisatiau French
men are NOT q whit che intellectual IN
+ fcyiors of AlSaIian Germans. Both Poles
4 and Germans in Prussia are compelled to
attend The public schools. Austrian Ger
mans and Austrian c2echs are -=uDstan
tiaalS on q par in education ana IN the
industrial arts. The industrial success of
s The. Arnicnans has not saved them from
the Tanks. No German pretends that the
Jews, whom he hates. are iiliterate or
stupid or lazy or shiftless. the truth be-
7 ing. on the contrary, that he hates them
all the more just because they are so in
aelligcnt and industrious. and because
there are propor;ionally more Jews than
SGermans at the universities.
* Let us now imagine fhe negro TO have
become practically the peer of the white
man in literary requirement. in the me-
chemical trades, in the conduct of busl-
ness. in the acquisition of wealth. viii
4 that destroy the antaEoniSin between the
Two races2 Or Will it not rather inten-
SHY il I? II is well known that antipatby
4 10 the negro is far stronge- at present
among the poorer than among The wealth.
aer class of whites. Why is this? Is 1t
because the negro race IS ignorant. de-.
i graded and generally inferior to the
Wiaftes Or Is st not rather, because the
more energetic and ambitious negroes are
clearly outstrippins the lazier and more
Dhi14iess OF the whites in both education
and wealth? Every one is acquainted
N1ti, individual negroes who arc more re-
spectacle and more respected in every
Way than certain individual whites. These
latter who have nothing to be proud OF
except that The race 10 which they be-
+ long and which they disgrace Is the SUI
4 Yes1or one. feel envy. hatred and malice
toward the s-nieEe.s' who have achieved
ouccesx. But this Is not all. Even the