Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-15
Alabama'S Black Belt.

The following very interesting and in
structive bit of news comes from Mont
gomery. Ala:
after bitter factional fight the democ-
racy of Alabama, represented by the demo-
cratic executive committee of the state, this
afternoon cast aside the ancient custom of
nominating state officers by convention
and determined to substitute demo-
cratic primary election. The exact char
acter of the primary has not yet been de-
cided upon. The South Carolina plan is
likely to be adopted and probably will be
reported tomorrow.
The overthrow of the convention custom
Is a direct result of the operation of the
states new constitution. That instrument
having eliminated the negro vote, the dem
ocrats feel there is no longer any necessity
for piling up tremendous majoritieS in the
negro counties and permitting those coun-
ties to send to Montgomery delegations out
of all proportion to their white population.
For this reason they adopted the primary
idea a means of holding the vote of the
counties down to their respective white vot-
ing strength
This proceeding is founded in the soundest
logic. 1t is precisely what the occasion
called for. To disfranchise the negroes
without depriving the black coun-
ties of the power of state control would
have been q foolish move. One of the main
objects of disfranchisement would have
been defeated. The old convention plan
therefore was full of peril. The thing to
do was to change the method of choosing
candidates so that only those men should
have voice in that who subsequently
would be admitted to a participation II the
regular election. Where the voting strength
is greatest in Alabama. political power will
henceforth be greatest: and the primary
election will develop that strength and es-
tablish that power.
Now if this is good in state affairs why
is it not good in national affairs? If the
BLACK" counties are not to be permitted to
rule Alabama, why should the black"
states be permitted to exercise what is
sometimes a controlling influence in con-
gressional legislation and in the election of
presidential candidates? Alabama cuts
down the representation of her black
counties by changing the method of choos-
ing state candidates, but she objects most
strenuously to parting with the power she
Yields in national affairs based upon her
black population. The negro is not good
enough to rule her, but she insists on using
him to help her and her sister black"
states in their effort to rule the United
States.
The Crumpacker resolution was defeated
not by argument but purely by an appeal %
prejudice. Not only is the argument in
its favor, is the Constitution of the United
States imperative on the point involved but
the practice of the democratic leaders in the
southern states where the resolution would
apply bears out its spirit thoroughly in the
management of local affairs. The BLACK
belt in no southern state figures any longer
in local matters. but the black belt" in the
United States still yields a power not only
out of all proportion to its constitutional
right. but frequently to the peril and dis
advantage of national interests Two-thrds
Of Organism conferred in the south both in
1896 aud 1oH0