The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-01-10
MR.. WATSON'S
FINE SPEECH
He Ably Contends for MAJORITY Suf-
frage Plan.
CONCLUDE ARGUMENT TONIGHT
Will Devote His Time 10 a Discussion of
the, Plan Signed by Himself.
Convention News and
Gossip,

There was a large attendance at the
suffrage conference last night, though it
was nearly o'clock before Mr.. Walter
A. Watson began his speech in support
of the suffrage plan reported by the ma
jority of the committee.
Some time was consumed in deciding
whether smoking should be continued IN
caucus. 1t will continue. Mr.. Glass plan
had not been printed. He stated that it
was ineXcusable neglect on the part of
the public printer, as he had given spe-
cial instructions early in the morning as
to its Importance He outlined the main
features of his plan, SO that Mr.. Watson
could have some data, on which to COM
ment.
Mr.. Watson made a very strong and at
tractive speech and was intently followed
by every one present. He said he con-
sidered that the only thing the suffra se
question had to deal with was the po-
Iitical rights of the negro race. 1t was
useless to talk about restricting the white
vote on grounds of eXpediency, fornifca-
ton of politics. or governmental better
ment The battle of white manhood sui
frage had been fought and won on this
floor by our fathers in 1929 and would
never be seriously reopened in this gen.
Grafton.
NOT A CURE ALL.
He said the mistake made by many
who opposed the features of the suffrage
plan reported by the COMMITTEES was N
thinking that the object of a. suffrage or
dinance was to cure all the ills of the
complex modern political world. There
We're evils existing to-day that were in
herent in all forms of government, the
attendant ailments of organized society,
since government was first organized on
earth. They existed where the black man
had never trod, and would continue sc
long as man was mortal and prone tC
evil.
IN considering the suffrage question
now demanding solution, the one Single
object OF minimizing evils that mao
arisen and accumulate OF account VI
the infusion into the electorate OF d
great and insoluble mass of foreign ana
poisonous matter was the one to whlch
all eyes should turn To eliminate that
poisonous influence and do 1t with as
little disarrargement as possible of nor
NAL conditions was the work that mem
bers were sent here to do.
When that was done, the great white
body polite composed of proud, high
minded, generous and Just Virginians
would revert to its former healthful anc
progressive state, a icted. as all people
or individuals. with occasional anc
| sporadic attacks of civic complaints.
OF LoCAI4 INFLUENCE.
Mr. Watson showed that the negro
vote of the black belt was local in its
influence to only a limited extent. Ht
gave many illustrations of the manner
in which it permeated every section q
Virginia and decided matters for the
State at large that affected counties OF
the Southwest or Piedmont Virginia
whose members here always spoke Q!
sympathy for the black belt and thoush
they were not directly interested in the
natter. He then showed by statistics II
other States having a poll-taN quallt!ca-
ton that it was as effective in cutting Of
white votes as negroes, and thought 1t
would prove disastrous to depend upor
it in Virginia. Speaking of the educa-
tional test. lie declared and read statis-
tics to sustain it, that negro illiteracy
in Virginia was decreasing faster thar
white iiliteracy. He said the people hao
sent members to the convention to de-
stroy the negro as q political factor. anc
yet it was proposed TO prescribe an edu-
cationaI test for him to vote, and then
spend half a million dollars 4 year te