The age-herald., 1901-07-05
THE GRANDFATHER
 CLAUSE APPALLS The Gravest Danger Threatens the State. IT MEANS GREAT DISASTER M. V. Joseph, Prominent Merchant of Birmingham, Talks as Business
 Man Concerning the Fran chise In Alabama.
IT MEANS GREAT DISASTER

Alabama is now well on in the way of great material development-even now 1t is the greatest of southern states in prog ress, and there Is every promise that 1t will within a few years be one of the foremost states of the Union, provided we have no radical or unwise general legisla- tion," said M. V. Joseph, the great dry goods merchant of Birmingham, yester- day.
 "The present constitutional convention is confronted with the gravest of ques- tions, and upon the final action of this convention will depend the good fortune or the i'll fortune of Alabama for many years to come.
 "Therefore the threatened inclusion of the so-called grandfather clause in the franchise provision of the new constitu- ton is viewed with grave apprehension and earnest disapproval by nearly all men who are in touch With the material development and the progressive spirit of Alabama
 "Such men see in this proposed back ward step most serious danger to the
 
 State for such dangerous step in one direction would necessarily imply danger or even disaster to other interests than those immediately connected with the bal lot, which Is now as 1t has been for so long the source of corruption and of practices most ihurtful to the general well fare.
 Conservatism Needed
 "At this particular time, more than ever before, Is 1t essential that we have broad- minded, conservative and wise laws In Alabama, for now the State has reached that point in Its progress where 1t draws and holds the attention of the outside world.
 "The attention of capitalists all over this country and in Europe is now to greater extent than ever attracted to Alabama as a field for profitable invest ment.
 Let the lawmakers at Montgomery give the world assurance that Alabama shall continue to be rich field for safe investment, and then shall foreign money pour in a deep and broad stream into the State!
 Back to the Middle Ages.
 "That grandfather clause in the pro- posed constitution is going back to the Middle Ages, in principle. and it's enact ment would be disastrous to Alabama
 This Is an age of progress, of enlight- enment, and If Alabama give assurance to the world that 1t Is welded to the prin- clples of the dead, centuries in govern ment, that it repudates the highest teachings of mankind's advancement, then we may take to ourselves the bitter reflection that our State will remain the most illiterate, and that it will inevitably come to be the least progressive.
 Absurd sentimentalism and time-serv- ing political subterfuges should have no place in the constitution or the laws, for they would mean business disaster and ruin to our people.
 'The grandfather proposition in the suffrage qualification is a subterfuge, and very cheap and exceedingly hurt full one, not worthy of consideration by constitutional convention which we have boasted as being composed to a large ex- tent of our best men in public life.
 Tt Is subterfuge that is redolent of the old order of ballot wickedness which all good men have hitherto sought to make impossible.
 Premium Upon Ignorance.
 "This subterfuge for padding the regis try lists and raising up an ignorant class of hereditary voters to tempt the cupidity of place-seekers, and be fruitful source nf tn ha put premium upon ignorance and make impossible an intelligent electorate.
 Ut is proclaiming to ignorance, thirty six years after the war between the States: You can't read or write, you haven't cared and don't care to learn; you haven't got any property, and prob ably never will have. but notwithstand- ing all this you are the very elect of the State. and the ballot Is yours by herit- agev
 That proposition Is not only immoral, 1t Is in the highest degree dangerous. It startles the stoutest man who Is working for the real good of the State; who de- sires intelligence in voters, and the ab- sence of theft from the ballot box; who doesn't care the snap of his fingers whether this country or that country is powerful in politics.; who has no axe to grind, and no office to seek!
 ''The good people of Alabama should fully understand that the constitutional convention threatens them with an ap- pallng danger In that grandfather propo- sition.'' --e .st
 MT. Joseph's dry goods firm gives em- ployment to nearly five, hundred people.