The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-07-20
TRYING TO BLOW HOT AND COLD.

hOllerS Niger at you, ask MIN why
Governor Aycock and the Democratic
machine have laid heavy tax on the
white men for the purpose of educating
the negroes so that they can vote. If
they are afraid of the negro, why do
they want to make a voter out of him?
Is the Democratic party preparing to
become niger party, or are they
taxing the white people in order to raise
fund to buy negro votes with under
| the pretense of hiring them as school
| teachers?
FRANKLIN COUNTY REPUBLICAN
LEAGUE
1t is understood that this league is
organized for the purpose of agitating
In favor of Lilly White Republican
of the Lilly White Republican idea.
Many years ago, when the State was in
the hands of the Democrats, and it look
ed as IL the Republicans would never
be able to get back into power by the
use of the negro vote, Senator Pritchard
was in favor of throwing the negro over
board and establishing a white Republi-
can party. The Senator did not change
his views upon this question until he
thought he saw in 1894 an opportunity
for his party to get back into power
through the negro vote, and then he
steered his party back into the old
channels of negroism.
1t would now seem we are to have
a double-headed sort of Republican party
in the State. The newcomers in the the
party, for which the Franklin County Re-
publican League speaks, are to cry out
against the negro-take from him an OPP
portunity to get an education. This
wing of the Republican party is expected
to run the campaign on white lines, stir
up prejudice against the negro, and get
white votes thereby. The other wing Of
the Republican party, represented by the
old line Republicans, is to agitate in
| another direction. They are to assure
the negro who can still vote land there
will probably be thirty or forty thousand
of these) that the grand old party is
still standing by him and will protect
him in all of his Constitutional rights.
Yes, will set aside the amendment, if it
can, for him, and will see that he gets
his fair share of the school fund. Doubt
less it is thought, by adopting this
scheme of blowing hot and cold" that
the Republican party will be able to
hold on to the negro vote and win over
some white votes.
OF course, the scheme is dishonest and
hypocritical and will not work. No party
| while having one head can divide itself
| into two parts and take inconsistent po-
sitions upon the same questions. The
Republican party must either stand for
the negro or stand against him. One
wing cannot be for the negro and the
other wing against the negro, and yet
that would seem to be the program of
the Republican party in the State just
at this time.
During all the years the Democratic
party has been in power it has honestly
Constitution in regard to public schools.
That instrument requires that the school
fund shall be divided between the races
without discrimination. The Democratic
party has construed that to mean that
the fund shall be so divided as to give
each an equal school term. Because of
the fact that the teachers of colored
schools live cheaper, and by reason of
their inferior attachments, do not COM
has been possible to give them the same
length of school term without dividing
the fund between the races per capita.
In doing this, the Democrats have simply
been giving a common sense interereta-
tion to the Constitution. The Constitu-
ton, which provides for the distribution
of the school fund between tn eraces
without discrimination, was framed and
adopted by the Republican party and
that provision of the Constitution is still
just as it was when adopted by that
party in old reconstruction days.
In view of this fact and the recent de-
cision of the Republican Supreme court
constituting this provision of the Consti-
tuition, it is a little bit remarkable that
the Franklin County Republican League
should charge that the Democratic party
proposes to lay "heavy taxes on the
white people for the purpose of edu-
eating negroes so that they can vote"
| That decision is not yet well understood
in North Carolina, because it has just
been rendered. The decision is, in sub
stance, that the school fund shall be
divided per capita between the races.
The effect will be, if this decision stands,
land we do not believe it WILD to give
the colored people in the State a longer
school term than the whites. Does the
Franklin County Republican League APP
prove OF this decision of the Supreme