The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-04-12
AN NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

~ N EDO VA IoN AL > vi u LII ..
If all the stories that are told about the
opening of night schools to teach illiterate
voters to read are true, the Il the new
Maryland Election law is already perform
ing good service. This State has main
taineu for over thirty years public free
schools for whites and blacks. The color
ed schools have, of course, been maintain
ed almost entirely by the white people,
who have willingly taxed themselves to
educate their colored fellow citizens. For
years school books have been supplied
free in Baltimore city to all pupils and in
the counties to those persons too poor to
buy them. In 1896 Gov. John Walter
Smiths Free Book bill was enacted, and
now the people of Maryland are as liberal
ly supplied with the appliances for edu-
cation as almost any State iii the Union.
While there are perhaps good many
intelligent persons in Maryland Of both
races who can neither read nor write, it
will be an easy matter for them to learn
the art If there are some without suffi
cient intellect to acquire the art of read
ing or without sufficient ambition to
make the attempt, the State will not suffer
any great damage if this class of people
should SO vote as to neutralize their ballots.
1t is said that when Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens
was approached for advocating the
emf NJ
just out of slavery he replied that he
would give oxen the right to vote if they
would vote the Republican ticket. No
exigency requires that the right to vote
shall now be given to those who cannot
use it intelligently or will not use it
honestly. The present disposition to
learn to read which is manifested by the
people all over the State is an encourag-
ing sign. If it keeps up there is no rea-
son why illiteracy should not disappear
in Maryland, as it has practically done in
Massachusetts. That there should be
nearly $4,000 illiterate voters in Maryland,
representing an adult illiterate popula
ton of double that number, after there
have been free schools for thirty years is
not creditable. But perhaps great many
of the illiterates come from other States
where the facilities of education have not
been SO good as in Maryland. And it has
been suggested that a great number of
those who register as illiterates are not
really so, but declare themselves such in
order to facilitate the sale of their votes
through the ballot clerks.
AS the Ballot law enacted at the recent
extra session of the Maryland Legislature
is better understood by the p.e's of other
States it is regarded with more favor. The
New York Herald in discussing the law
says: ut must be noted that there is no
grandfather clause in the Maryland law,
and that it therefore differs from the laws
passed in the Black Belt, since it does
not discriminate in favor of white illitera-
ties. We could stand little wholesome
restriction of the ballot in this latitude"
There can be no doubt that ''little
wholesome restriction of the ballot" in
New York would work no harm to that
city. For many years the courts were
overworked naturalizing citizens who had
just landed, WHO could not speak nor
read the English Language and did not
know whether the chief magistrate of the
United States was king, sultan or a
president. There are in the slums of
New York today thousands of illiterate
foreigners. stupid and vicious, who are
voted in droves by padrones at so much
head. This element-not only in New
York, but in other large cities-is the
chief instrument for bad government.
Boston is We believe, the only large
Northern city in which they are disfran-
chised. In Massachusetts all voters must
in addition to knowing how to read their
ballots, be able to read the Constitution
in English.
The New York Herald is entirely right
in saying that the Maryland law applies
to whites and blacks alike. While the
number of colored illiterates in the State
exceeds the white illiterates by about
5000, in six of the twenty, three counties
of the State the number of white illiterates
exceeds the colored. These counties are
Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett,
Washington and Wicomico. In three
other counties-namely, Baltimore, Caro-
line and Worcestershire illiterates of the
two races are about equal, and in Cecil
and Dorchester the excess of colored
illiterates is small, being l 40 in one case and
240 in the other. In Baltimore city the
colored illiterates exceed the white illitera-
ties by about 1 ,500.-Baltimore sam.