The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-05
Ties up Pritchard in His Own
Statements,
THE PEOPLE ARE AMAZED
If The Republicans did not Kick out Negroes
Because Of Color, Then their Whole
Campaign was Miserable
PretenSe.
Pretense.
Especial to News and Observer

tJ
Washington, d. c., Dec 4.-Senator
Simmons today gave out the following
statement:
Senator Pritchard's statement, pub
lished in the papers on Wednesday, will
strike the people Of North Carolina with
amaZement. If his statement that the me-
groes were not excluded from the Repub-
lican State convention On account of color
he true, then the campaign which his
party made in North Carolina this year
was a miserable pretense for the whole
campaign was based upon the theory that
the negro had been excluded because OF
his color, and that was what the Lily
White movement meant.
Senator Pritchard and his party made
his reelection to the Senate the over
shadowing issue of the campaign. Upon
| that issue the Senator and his party lost
| in the proportion of more than six to
one, for he only has five votes out of
| fifty in the Senate and nineteen out of
one hundred and twenty in the House
of Representatives.
There was not full vote in the State
this year, except in the western part,
where there was q sharp contest, both
tickets. There the vote of both parties
was brought out with reasonable full
| ness. Most of the white Republican vote
is in this section of the State.
"In the east where the Republicans
have very few white voters there was
practica,lv no contest and as a result
there was not q full Democrats vote. rH
many of these counties he Republicans
LoA g. Ta
many of then sey tolie5 or hand
| full of votes 81 Sonic oourtfea nat mUeG
! over a sCcre Og votes ~ hs a6 bau
| a real contest all over une state and
! there had been a full vote. the Demo-
Gratis would have had a majority of be-
| tween eighty and ninety thousand. The
majority in the State in 1904 will not
fall below seventy-five or eighty thou
| sand. The State is and will remain
| strongly Democratic.
Senator Prtchard deceives himself il
| he thinks he made any gains from the
| Democratic party in the last campaign.
| / know of no county in the State where
| it made gains in white votes worth men
/ tioning, and in some sections it sustain
| ed substantial losses
s'His assumption that there was only
thirty thousand white Republicans in
| the State prior to this year is without
| foundation. l have never heard any one
estimate the white Republican vote,
! since that party obtained substantial
/ permanent additions from the disintegra-
tion of the Populist party, at less than
sixty thousand. while many have esti-
mated it very much higher The Senator
must know that in the mountain districts
| of the State alone his party had more
| than thirty thousand white voters else
! how could they have elected in recent
years the congressman they have elected
in that section where there are practi-
callyI no negroes.
There were only about six thousand
negroes registered in the State this year.
] They did not register because they We're
indignant at the manner in which they
had been treated by their own party and,
: being unwilling to vote the Democratic
| ticket, they purposely absented them
selves from the polls as the best way
to rebuke Senator Pritchard and their
party.
! Nearly all of these negroes voted the
State Republican ticket but many of
them voted against the Republican cam
didate for the Legislature because Of
their intense opposition to Senator Pritch
ard
! Senator Pritchard's best friends in
North Carolina will regret exceedingly
that he has found it necessary to make
this apology which is humilating IN many
ways.