The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-03

was that the Black Belt delegates agreed to retain the poll tax age at | forty-fiye. If that Is so, they ought | to keen the faith and not come into the Convention and by recommitment 10 the Committee. raise the age from | forty-five to sixty.
 MT. Pitts--I did not make that state ment. I said 1t was understood be- | tween the delegates on the Suffrage | Committee that all of those who are now forty-five or will be forty-five in January, 1S03
 M-. Lowe-will the gentleman yield moment? Does the gentleman from Talladega, intimate that this Conven- tion has agreed to support a compro- mise made by two contending factions l in Committee? MT. Brow ne-I did not so state. | MT. Lowe Jefferson)-What did the gentleman state?
 l MT. Browne-I stated if they had agreed to certain things 1 MT. Lowne-That was my under standing of the statement. l MT. Browne-That if they had agreed to certain things before the Commit tee, they ought to stand by the agree l ment.
 MT. Lowe-who should stand by the agreement?
 | Mir. Browne-The delegates from the Black Belt that made the agreement. Now, Mir. President. I decline to be further interrupted.
 the gentleman from declining to be in- terrupted.
 The President pro tem-The gentle man is out of order.
 MT. Browne-Mr. President, there are delegates on this floor representing counties where they can well afford to agree to support a measure looking to raising the age of paying poh tax to sixty, because they have very few ties. but in North Alabama and a great many of the counties, in most of the | North Alabama counties that have hills l in them. we have very poor class of white people. Now, you propose to raise the age limit from forty-five to sixty. You cannot change the effect of that so as to make 1t otherwise than this. You go back to those tens of thousands of poor white people in North Alabama and tell them that while in one sense we have kept the faith and not raised your taxes, we have provided that we are going to charge you who are forty-five years of age, twenty-five dollars and fifty cents apiece for the right to vote be- tween now and the time you become sixty years of age.
 MT. Walker-Under the report made by the Committee, those who are now forty-five years of age and those who will be forty-five years of age by the first of January. 1903, will not have to.
 MT. Browne-Then I will have to fall a notch and come down to those who will not be 45 years of age on the first of January, 1903.
 Mir. Lowe-(Jefferson)-Will the gen. tleman yield?
 MT. Browne-No, sir. That is the most vicious piece of legislation that has ever been undertaken to be passed through this Convention. Why do you in the name of Heaven, make that exception in favor of those who are so fortunate or unfortunate as to be on the verge of forty-five years now. If 1t is right. why not include everybody? Why offer to those who are now forty-four years this exemp- tion. when you do not extend 1t to those who are only forty-two. As I understand it the amendment proposed Is, provided that those male inhabi- tants Of the State who shall reach the age of forty-five years on or before the first day of January, 1903, shall not thereafter be required to pay poll tax" Why is that exception?
 | MT. V Neai-Are you not in favor Of it?
 MT. rBown--No. sir I am not in fa- yor of it. l am in favor of the amend ment proposed by the gentleman from Pike so as to leave this matter in the hands of the legislature and it seems to me that is all the gentleman from the black belt counties ought to ask of us, that is if the result of this suf- frage plan without that clause is not such as to satisfy them. If it is not sufficient to practically disfranchise all of the negroes in the black belt, or a sufficient number to insure white su- premacy. then let the legislature come in and raise the poll tax from forty Five years to sixty, without our doing it. when we do not know that it is nec- essary.
 MT. Lowe-Win the gentleman yield for a question? l want to know if the gentleman from Talladega says he is going to leave this matter to legisla- ture and not to the Convention?
 The President-The gentleman is not entitled to the floor and cannot an- swer the question.
 Mir. Browne-I am willing to answer the question.
 The President-The gentleman from Mobile has the floor, the gentleman from Talladega is out of order | NAi' ClHAlH NtlODllcJ-lH dll IHlS ulS- cussion the State of Alabama has been constantly divided into two classes, the black belt and the hill counties, usual ly spoken of as the hill counties and sometimes as the white counties.
 There has been no consideration or no thought of any other section what ever. except the hill counties and the black belt. The reason of that, Mir. President. is perfectly manifest. and that is the hill counties are, some of them. counties in which there are black belts, and some of them counties in which the negroes hold the balance of power, so that active politics has be- come an evil and a necessary one in those counties. The black belt, as we know, has a large majority of negroes and that has been an evil. That DOT tiOn of the State to which I belong is neither hill county with negroes holding the balance of power, nor black belt county. The white man there stands in undisputed control of the elective franchise and can control 1t at all times. The negro is allowed to vote. His vote is counted but it accomplishes nothing. I take 1t our position is the one that the balance of the State is now seeking to obtain so far as the suffrage question is con cerned. Now 1t seems to me, there fore. MT. President. the experience of the black belt. as well as the experi- ence of the hill counties situated as they have been, possibly will not be