The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1902-12-27
JUDGE sPEER ON THE RACE
PROBLEM.

states court Tor the southern district
of Georgia in an address before a clul
in Buffalo has declared that the feaI
Of an impossible Negro supremacy is
the cause of southern political solidity
He admits that the impossibility OF
Negro domination makes no difference
with the fear of it, Yet in the same
breath he says: The remedy seems tC
be as obvious as just. II is to be
found in the enactment of impartial
laws for white and black alike. which
will admit to the franchise the intelli-
gent, the upright and the responsible
Of both races and exclude the venal.
the ignorant and the worthless"
How does Judge Speer expect to
persuade people who are so MORALLY
afraid of impossible niger rule that
they band together sOlidly against that
impossibiIity, though they are widely
at variance on other political ques-
ions. to pass such laws?
He must know that the thing cannot
be done. He must know that the
southern whites can no more be in
duced to pass impartial laws denying
the ballot to the worthless of both
races alike than they can be induced
to give the ballot to all whites and
blacks alike.
The plain truth of the matter is that
most of the southern whites are deter
mined that no man with drop of AfTl-
can blood in his veins shall vote no
matter how intelligent and worthy he
may be, and that no white man shall
be denied the ballot no matter how
ignorant and worthless he may be-
According to Judge Speer so pas
sionately hostile are the southern
whites to the participation of any Ne
gro in political affairs that multitudes
Cf them have parted with their hon
esty. 1t was once supposed that while
the sOuthron might be wrUng-headeG
and hOt-headed he was at least polit-
tcally honest.
But Judge Speer assures us that
"multitudes Of southern men of the
most forcefuI character are in full &C
cord with those policies Cmeaning the
protective tariff and know that If
they were reversed "a wave Of bank
ruptcy would overwhelm our every
interest, yet they vote with mechan-
ical iteration against every interest"
So intense and irrational is their
hostility to Negro participation in
politics in any degree that they persist
in voting for the ruin of every inter
est. And the men who do this are
men of the most forceful character"
To some minds this may seem to De |
a pretty good reason for insisting that
those men shall not continue to repre- |
sent in congress and the electoral con
gress a race which they completely |
and bar from all par1ici- |
patton in political AFFAIRS.
Judge Speer thinks this will never |
do. It would "startle the country rs
nothing has done since the reconstruc-
ton era" It would "engender the uni
yersal hostility Of a resOIute people"
Why should It? Upon what conceiv- /
able principle can the southern whites /
claim the right to represent those who
are denied all voice in choosing repre-
That is a mockery Of rep
The northern people have as good a
right to demand representation for
heir horses and oxen. If the southern
whites want to represent the Negroes
ct them admit the Negroes to the ex-
arcise Of political rights on the same
basis as they admit the whites. Until
hey are willing to do that they will
nave no right to utter a word of com
1laint if the fourteenth amendment is
applied to their case.-The Chicago
thronicle.
If all the great newspapers Of this
country possessed the courage to utter
he truth in relation to the attitude
which the southern whites have as
umed in DISTINGUISHING the Negroes.
nd permitting ignorant white men to
-ote the same as The Chicago ChrOn-
Gle it would not be long before the
whites Of the south would either be
compelled to restore the voting pri-
eIeges to the Negroes or to submit to
aving their representation in Con-
ress and in tn electoral college cut
own or reduced to the actual vote
asst at each national election.