The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-08
SCHEME TO D|V|DEl
DEMOCRATIC
VOTE
Then Have the Federal Court
Set Aside the Amend
ment.
A SHREWD CONSPIRACY
Poll Tax Clause Will be Attacked, and
Grandfather Clause Declared
Unconstitutional,
A SHREWD CONSPIRACY
ATTEMPT TO CONTROL THE LEGISLATURE
Chairman Simmons Regards His Discovery as
The Basis If The Prediction Of the
Reelection Of Senator
Pritchard.
Pritchard.

Especial to the News and Observer
washington. D. c., July 2.-Chairman
Simmons, of the Democratic State Com
mittee, authorizes the following state
ment:
'.For some time past prominent North
Carolina Republicans in Washington
have been intimating that their party
would control the next North Carolina
LEGISLATURE and that Senator P~ritchard
would be returned to the Senate. Demo-
Gratis nave been unable to understand the
grounds of this hope in the face OF the
fact that that party lost the State in
the August election in 1900 by about
sixty thousand majority, and since that
time has lost, by the educational proVlS-
ion of the amendment, between seventy
and eighty thousand Of it's former
voters.
The pcrsistency with which his
claim was made aroused in my mind a
suspicion that it was based upon some
secret scheme and led me to al investi-
cation with the view of ascertaining
what it all meant. AS a result of this
investigation, | have discovered a
shrewdly devised and we'll developed
conspiracy.
The scheme, briefly stated. is to stir
up and promote dissensions and indie
pendentism and, by raising the cry that
the amendment has eliminated the negro
and freed the white man, to bring about
during the early stages of the campaign
a hopeless division among Democrats,
and then on the eve of the election have
the Federal Court set aside the amend
ment. In this enterprise and in organi-
ling the opposition forces, the conspira-
tors are to have unlimited money fur
nished them by the National Republican
Executive Committee upon the promise
of two, if not three, Republican Con-
gressmen from the State and the reten-
ton of the present Republican Senator.
I'm order to divide the Democrats,
every local dissatisfaction, every local
quarrel, every fancied complaint and
grievance against the party and State
administration, every disappointment
growing out of the nomination or defeat
of candidates., is to be assiduously
nursed and famed. The Democratic
party is to be charged with hostility to
certain interests and with nominating
men to office known to be ~prejudiced
against these interests, and conserva-
tive voters are to be appealed to to re-
sent this alleged assault and to cast
their votes against these Objectionable
candidates. 1t is expected that the OPP
position to Judge C1ark's nomination
will start the bolt and that, ON account of
the unusual number of Democratic can
didates this year, defeated candidates
all over the State will be found who will
be ready to hazard their chances by al
lowing the use of their name.
'On these lines our adversaries pro-
pose to open and for a time conduct their
campaign. When the lines of battle have
been drawn and frightened, when pas
sion has been stirred to white heat by
the friction of conflict, when align
ments have been made, and when it is
believed that the boilers have gone SO
FAR that passion and pride will not per
init them to return to their old associa-
tons, as the day Of election draws near
% hand the courts will be asked to de-
care the amendment unconstitutional
aAn void. Every detail to this end has
b~,n carefully arranged and the con-
sp,fators are confident there will be no
hu,ch or failure or delay in carrying out
tao program at any point. Between the
LIST and 18th Of October a white man,
who has been refused registration be-
>""'0 io "a Ialleu " Pay MS pOll tax,
viii apply to a Republican Federal
Judge, who has already been selected
for a mandamus to compel the registrar
to admit him to registration. This judge
Will hold that it is within the authority
OF the State to make the payment of
poll tax a condition precedent to the
right to vote, but he will also hold that
the grandfather clause is unconstitu-
tlonal; and, as the amendment provides
that the whole shall stand Or fall to-
gether, every part of the amendment is
affected by this infirmity. The attack
Will be made upon the poll tax insteaG
OF the educational clause, to avoid goins
into court with a negro as complainant
by reason Of the shortness of the time
1T will be impossible to get the case
heard on appeal before the election
and. as the judgment will be effective
until overruled on appeal, it is the ex.
pectation of the conspirators that the
election will be held under the law as
thus declared. If registrars refuse r.
recognize and act upon this decision
mandamuses will be issued by the thou
sands, to be followed if necessary t.
Court bench warrants.
The negro, who is always ready tc
obey the orders of his party leaders. is
to be kept quiet, but secretly organized
and kept in readiness to rush to the polls
when the time is ripe and the way is
clear. It is the calculation of the con.
spirators that with one hundred ant