The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-03

are used in the country, or under the State laws as they now stand, as sug- gested by the gentleman from Mobile, what will be our condition? On the first day of January of each year, when the contract is being made with the farm iaborer or tenant, the man wha advances to the tenant will pay that poll tax, this very tax-the man mak- ing the contract with the negro will pay his poll tax, in connection with any other taxes he may have, for the purpose of procuring his labor; and, the truth of the business is. these poll taxes will be kept paid just as they are paid today. The farmer, the land owner, will pay the taxes for his own protection, The land owner will pay the taxes to keep the little property he may haye--the negro may have, around him--from being taken by the tax col lector and making him. therefore, dis satisfied. We don't want this tax to he other than voluntary, and it will be almost a crime against nature to im-
 pose upon us any such system that
 will enforce the collection of this tax. Leave 1t out of this Article entirely, If you are going to enforce the collection. For that reason, l favor the substitute that has been offered.
 MT. Bulger-I like the report of the Committee for two rea<ons: one is be- cause 1t has a tendency to disfranchise the darky in the Black Belt, and 1t has A tendency to increase the school fund in the white counties. If ] understand. the gentlemen who speak for tke Black
 Belt and live in the Black Bels. 1t will have the effect of disfranchising and eliminating a great many negroes from the elective franchise. l am sure, SIT, if it is adopted 1t will have the effect to add many dollars to the school fund of the white children in the white counties. Now, the most popular law on the statute books in this State is the law that provides that the poll tax of the two races shall be kept separate
 and shall be kept in counties where it is raid. Now, the gentleman from Tus- caloosa is mistaken. I think, as to what the people of the wh te counties will think of being required to ray poll
 tax from 45 to SO. The most willing contribution made in this ccnfnntEy, by the white people of Alabama 3kI thee ID
 tax they pay for the supro tiopfs the
 public schools. that they know gees
 to educate the white children, and which they know does not go to edu-
 cate the negro children.
 MT. Stamford (Pike)-Would not the man who Is already 45 years of age be
 just as willing to pay 1t as the one who
 became 45 years of age later?
 MT. ONeal-No, not If he Is exempt now.
 Mir. Bulger--I do not think so. for this season.
 MT. Samford-Then If he would not be just as willing, 1 will ask you If
 it would not be fair for him to do it?. Mr. Bulger-Except for one thing;
 where a man has been paying until 45
 and by the Constitution and law oi
 this State he has become exempt MT. Long-Will the gentleman yield
 a minute?
 MT. Bulger--I would not yield to
 anybody, except my friend from
 Walker.
 MT. Long-I am grateful for the priv. iege. I ask if the. gentleman is not
 over 45, and is, ther,tore. not objecting MT. Bulger-No, sir; I am not over 30. daughter). That is an unfair
 question to ask a gentleman like me. MT. Fitts-Situated as you are. Mir. Bulger-Situated as l ana Oaughter). I was going on to say in answer to my friend from Pike, that | where a man, by law. has been paying the tax until he is 45 and when, by
 law, he has been exempt from that payment, he, in my humble judgment,
 would not pay it as willingly as man who has yet to become 45. The poll tax paid in this State by white people according to my observation and ex-
 perience, is very willingly paid. Grand fathers wko are over 45 and up to SO | feel just as much interested in educa' 1 ton of their grandchildren as they dc | in the education of their own children and, in my judgment, there will be n- l fA taa win e these taxes until they are 60 years oi ragc, when they know especially under the law that the white children get tho whole benefit of the tax for school puf. poses.
 Now. MT. President. it seems to ms | that this is the only section of this Constitution that would be absolutely satisfactory both to the hill counties and to the Black Belt. What we would like to do in this country more than any ether two things, would be to dis franchise the Gsrkeys and to educate the white children. If we can do that jrst let us alone and we i'll continua to have the greatest State in the Ame.-
 ican Union.
 MT. Long (Walker)-I would be the last man on the floor of this Conven-
 tion to advocate anything detrimental to the Black Belt. l love the people ot
 the Black Belt. and it was to Black
 Belt girl that I lost my heart. who to- day have the honor to call my wife and that is one of the losses that have made in the numerous games 0.
 life that have never regretted. Mir. President, l cannot see why they sl., uld bring up an argument to in crease the poll tax age from forty-fivc to sixty. Why, in 1903--up to 1903. out
 of four propositions that tine registers of the black belt can register every
 man. woman and cii.d dog and varmint if they see it and declare everybody else not registered. They can register every man, woman n and child. back ana ] white, or refuse every one, black and
 white. and under this soldier aaaInfn
 descendants clause. the undPrs ARdihE
 clause and the good charact6fr clafi0': =
 MT. O'Neal-Wlll the gentleman yield?
 Mr. Long-I will not. Certainly un- der that, that is guarantee enough, I
 do not mean 70 intimate upon the floor that the back helt will be dishonest but they would take care of them
 selves, and they will register the good
 people and leave off the vicious. and | that is vha; they should do. and that would be q protection until 1902. aftc. tkat from the age of tXGuty-une To I farty-fve he will have to pay his poll tax and all Fhee are acquainted with tine negro knows that 1t is hard 10 tell the difference between a negro forty five years old and one sixty years old. The registers can take the benefit of the doubt and say he Is f1rty-five. The negro hardly ever has a record of the