The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-07-15
rHn NV CONSTITUTION or VIRGINIA.
Completely R~evolUtionizss the Politics Of the
State and May Have an Important Bearing
on It's Material PrOgress-The Suffrage
clause-Arbitrary Powers Of the Cor
pOratiOn CommissiOn-Other
Interesting Changes.

48UBS-AKp1GT6I E@W6I8 q G4S SWE@
poratiOn CommissiOn-Other
Interesting Changes.
North C~arolinians have shown con-
siderable interest in the work of the
Virginia Constitutional Convention,
and now that it has completed its la
bors, we are sure that an outline of the
noteworthy features of the new in
strument will be welcomed by our
readers. The best article of this
character that we have seen is the fol-
lowing one, written by the Richmond
correspondent of the Charlotte OBJ
server some days ago:
The Virginia Constitutional Con
vention, which assembled here more
than a year ago, will tomorrow com
plete it's work. There is nothing re-
naming to be done but to sign the
Constitution, which the body has al
ready proclaimed as the organic law
of the Commonwealth. This instru-
ment completely revolutionizes not
only the politics of the State but will
have an important bearing upon its
material progress, it may be.
The most significant changes eff
fected are the suffrage clause and the
creation of a corporation commission,
with the most arbitrary powers ever
proposed in the Old Dominion. The
franchise provision will eliminate
possibly 60 or 70 per cent of the negro
vote, but little or none of that of the
whites, If the boards of registration
do what is expected of them. Under
the operations of the new law which
with all other provisions of the Con-
stitution, will go into effect July 10th,
it is proposed to place the whole white
voting population on the books before
1904, when the understanding" clause
becomes imperative. After that pc
Rod, the white and colored illiterates
are put pretty much on the same foot
ing. A rigid educational qualification
is made to apply after that time, and
unless the registration boards act in
the most grossly partisan way, there
can be little discrimination shown in
accepting voters.
The most interesting question,
though, is what effect the new fran
chise law will have upon the political
future of the State. With the com
plete liberation of the whites, it is
very doubtful whether the leaders, the
men who have heretofore dominated
the party affairs of Virginia, will ex-
ert any such influence in future cam
paigns. This will be particularly
true, probably, of great national cam
paigns. With the incubus Of the ne
gro issue eliminated, the white people
of Virginia vii be free to act as they
see fit on all economic and other ques-
tions which may effect the interests
of the country. This view of the
situation is admitted by the ablest
Democratic leaders in the State.
These men foresaw that such a con
dition threatened their future con
tinuance in politics should a new Con
stitution be adopted. It was largely
on this account that most of the con-
spicuous men, especially of the ma
chine element, opposed the assemb-
ling of a convention. If they could
have had their way. Senator Martin
and the men who train under him,
would never have permitted this body
to have met. They fought it in sea-
son and out of season, but could not
stem the tide that had set in against
them and the old order of political
manipulations in the Old Dominion.
Next to the franchise articles, the
creation by the Convention Of a cor
poration commission was the most
revolutionary action adopted. This
body is to be composed of three mem
bers to be named by the Governor, and
confirmed by the General Assembly.
The commission is given power to
fix rates for railroads, express, tele-
graph and telephone companies. The
business of these interests is placed
practically under the supervision of
this body. The only appeal permitted
from it's decision is to the State Su-
preme Court, and then the latter body
can only enquire into the questions
which have come before the commits
sion for adjudication. The law takes
away from every State, city and coun-
ty official the right to accept free