The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-24
WHY CRAIG COULD GET NO AN.
SWER FROM PRITCHARD.

The Republicans keep up the two
faced campaign upon which they started
out.
They seek to secure a division of the
white vote by saying the constitutional
amendment eliminated what they call
1.-The niger issue and then refuse to say
they will stand by the constitutional
they have a sneaking purpose to attack
the amendment.
At Kinston Mr.. Craig asked Senator
Pritchard the boss of his party, this
question that went to the git of the
whole matter:
will you tell these people here and
amendment and defend it if you are re-
elected?"
And he opened not his mouth. Why?
Because, if he fails to divide the white
vote, while thanking the Lord that the
negro question is not uppermost in this
campaign, he and his party will seek to
have the courts declare the amendment
unconstitutional. And then he and his
party hope to get in again by negro
votes. He holds his tenure of office to-
day by negro votes. In the first election
that the negro vote is largely eliminated,
Mr.. Pritchard will be retired to private
life. There is eternal fitness in both
events coming together.
At the Democratic State Convention
this declaration was made:
1--WE congratulate the people of North
Carolina upon the adoption of the suf-
frage amendment to our State Constitu-
ton, and upon the benefits that have re-
suited therefrom, and we pledge the
Democratic party to faithfully maintain
it by every legitimate means, and we de-
mand that the Republican party shall
declare it's purpose either to accept or
reject it, and until it is accepted as
finality by all parties we declare it to be
the duty of the white people to stand
together for all's protection"
When the Republican Convention met
there were members of that body who
wished to meet the Democratic challenge
and declare that the Republicans accept
ed the amendment as settling the suf-
frage question. The chairman. Capt.
Charles Price, referring to the elimina-
ton of the bulk of the negro vote, said
it would "rid the Republican party of
the body of DEATH The platform COM
mittee agreed upon a plank accepting the
amendment as permanent settlement,
and pledging the party not to try to test
it or have it declared unconstitutional.
But Senator Pritchard issued his ulti-
matum that no such pledge should be
made. He was willing, in order to please
few so-called independents, to kick
down stairs Cheatham (who was good
enough when the negroes could vote for
Pritchard to give him $4,000 office and
the other negroes, whose support made
his election possible. He was willing to
turn all the negroes out of office except
his dearly colored African friends, Jim
Young and John Dancey, and to otherwise
display his ingratitude to the voters who
made his success in politics possible. He
was willing to do almost anything that
Bill Day, Charles Price and other rail
road attorneys desired, but when it came
to a promise to accept the present suf-
frage amendment as a permanent set
Element of negro voting he kicked like a
steer. and coerced the committee into
discardng their plain declaration and
adopting a straddle in it's place.
If the present independent" propaganda
of appealing to white voters, upon the
idea that the negro is out of politics,
succeeds in making the Republican party
respectable" which in Radical circles
means giving them the State and county
offices--if Pritchard e. Co. can stay
at the pie counter and be respectable
too, then they will not seek to restore
the ballot to the negroes. If, however,
the propaganda fails if the white folks
continue to vote white and reject the
death bed repentance of Pritchard Co.,
and they get no offices and the little re-
spectability is accompanied by empty
stomachs-then Pritchard & Co. will make
application to Federal Judge, which
they will provide for that purpose
(Pritchard may be the Judge himself) to
declare the amendment unconstitutional.
If that should succeed the state of the
white people in North Carolina would be
deplorable indeed But just as sure as
the sun shines that is the Republican
programme, and it is because of this
cherished purpose that Pritchard changed
the Republican platform at Greensboro
and refused to answer Mr. Craig's ques-
tion which the people urged him to an