Arizona republican., 1902-11-28
The southern Suffrage Question.

of the United States within the near future will pass upon the validity of the new constitutions which many of the southern states have adopted. Judge Jones of the United States district bench of Alabama has certified q case to the supreme court which will, when it is decided. test the constitu tionality of all of the suffrage laws of the southern states. by which the col ored people have been deprived of the ballot. One of the Alabama election boards refused to allow a negro voter to be registered. He applied to Judge Jones, who was appointed to the bench by President Roosevelt, largely on the recommendation of Booker T. Wash ington, and who, although a staunch democrat, and a member of the consu- tutional convention. was bitterly op- posed to that part of the new consti- tuition which was intended to disfran- chise the colored people. Judge Jones. to avoid all delay, at once certified the request for a writ of mandamus to the supreme court. It is assumed that an early decision will be rendered.
 The new constitution of Alabama, which is practically the same as those in other southern states. provides in q read and interpret any section of the state constitution shall be allowed to vote. excepting in cases where his father or grandfather was a qualified voter at the close of the war. This latter exemption, known as "the grandfather clause,'' relieves tn" whites from the qualification put upon suffrage, while as none of the colored people had parents or grand parents who were voters at the close of the war. they all must meet the new re quirements to become voters now. The question which the supreme court will pass upon is whether this is not an | evasion of the guarantees of the if teenth amendment, by which the col ored people were assured that there should be no discrimination in the right of suffro ge. in any state on account of race or color.
 The most serious abuse the cOlored people have suffered, however, is not the discrimination which is contained in the law itself, but arises from it's application by election judges, and this the supreme court cannot pass upon. If the colored people had merely to pass a fair examination, they might endure to see the ignorant whites voting without one. rather than quarrel with them. But the reports fom every southern state indicate that there has been no intention of allowing the col ored people to pass any examination at all, and that the real purpose of the law is to absolutely disfranchise the colored voters. A colored preacher in because in writing section of the con stitution he spelled divided with aa Q in the first syllable. This is typical case. Colored voters have been sub jected everywhere to examinations many college graduates could not pass. and that certainly three-fourths of the election judges could not. The law in it's application has become a farce, a mere handy instrument for accomplish
 ing what there has been no direct means of doing heretofore except by physical violence or intimidation.
 A great many of the leading men ot the south have demanded an educs- tional and property qualification on suffrage, but have urged that it apply to both races alike, and that it be fairly administered. This would exclude fully 50 per cent of the colored voters. But in several southern states it would ex
 clude 257 per cent of the white voters and this the constitutional conventions ] have not been willing to do. Their ain
 has been to disfranchise the coloreC people, rather than to qualify either whites or blacks for an intelligent usc of the ballot
 What the decision of the supreme court will be cannot be surmised. Tn. southern constitutional provisions hay,
 been very adroitly drawn. But theii purport is plainly to evade the consti tuition of the United States. If they are sustained a gross injustice will b' : permitted to g great body of American r citizens, and the constitutional guar antees of the United States will be helC | tobe practically worthless. unless tn, ? individual states are willing to giv'
 them the force and validity of law. Fo , if the grandfather clause is legal there is nothing to prevent other ab
 surd regulations of the right of suffrag 7 on the part of any state that has al
 interest in excluding any class of it citizens from the right of suffrage f It is stated by a statistician that tn