The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-03-15
THE NOTE AND BEAM.

A special dispatch to the Baltimore Sun
from Washington says:
New York and Philadelphia Republi-
can newspapers, Senator McComas and
various other Republican Senators and
Representatives have all been thrown into
heavy spasms of agony over what they
call the pending attempt of the MARYLAND
Legislature to trample upon the principles
of popular government and disfranchise a
large body of citizens.
while all of these have been subject to
ate negroes of Maryland, they seem to
have lost sight altogether of what has been
going on all winter in the Legislatures of
the States of New York and Pennsylvania
The Legislatures in these two ma gnticent
Commonwealth are overwhelmingly Re-
publican. In them are many men of abil-
ity and of high legal attainments. They
have in their legislative doings the assis-
lance also of bosses who exercise an i'm
perial power without parallel in the legis-
lative annals of the United States.
The Legislature of New York is abso-
lutely at the beck and call of Mr. Plat.
The Legislature of Pennsylvania is abso-
lutely at the beck and call of Mr.. Quay.
Just now in Republican political circles
in New York and Pennsylvania and in
Washin gton there is much lament because,
as alleged, Mr.. German has the Legisla-
ture of Maryland under his thumb, and
the work upon which it is engaged is at
his bidding. Undoubtedly Mr.. German
has sins to answer for, and his bossism in
Maryland politics has had much in it which
cannot be defended But Mr. German
never in all his career held the Legisla-
ture of Maryland in a grasp tighter and
more relentless than the clutch with which
for years Plat and Quay have held their
Legislatures, and Mr.. German nor any
member of the Maryland Legislature ever
before or now has undertaken to ride
roughshod over the opposition, as has been
and is now the effort in New York and
Pennsylvania. The negro voters in New
York and Pennsylvania count for little,
but, as everywhere else, whatever they
count for is in favor of the Republicans.
Mr.. Plat and Mr. Quay and their
obedient Legislatures not only this win
ter, but for many previous winters, have
bent all their intellect, all their abil-
ity, all their energies, to the adoption
of measures practically to disfranchise
enormous masses of white voters by obi
terating all opportunities for allowing
them participation in government.
For three months all the Republican
talent in New York State, at the command
of Mr.. Platt, has been utilized to devise
State commissions which will take from
New York city and Brooklyn and other
populous Democratic centres the control
of their own local affairs. Some of these
projects have been so extreme and out
1ageous as to disgust all but the most big
oted and unrelenting partisans. They
are directed against white, not black,
voters. There are more ways than one
of doing a thing, and possibly, if the
Maryland Legislature had taken the ex-
ample of Mr. Platt and his Legislature
and constituted State commissions it
might have effected results much more
disastrous to the negroes and the Republi
can party in the State than are foretold
in those dreful prophecies of Senator
McComas, which have brought the tears
to his eyes.
'In Pennsylvania Mr.. Quay and his
subservient Legislature have not been
troubled in the least in getting up ballot
to eliminate those who do not concur
with their views. All, no. They have
adopted much more simple and much
more effective method. They have at one
fell swoop abolished elections together
In cities like Pittsburg and Allegheny,
with hundreds of thousands of popula-
ton, and in other cities, where the voters
have indicated dissatisfaction, it is kindly
provided they shall be ruled over by ap-
pointees of the Governor, who is the tool
and creature of Quay and the Republi-
can machine. Why not get up mass
meetings to protest against this dark and
deadly crime against white men, Of whom
certainly the very large majority can
read and write? If the Legislature of
Maryland in express terms should declare
no negro in the State should be allowed
to vote in local elections, would it be
any more than the act of Mr.. Quay's
Legislature taking away local selfgovcn-
ment from Pittsburg and Allegheny :?
Senator McComas ought to look into
this"