Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-03-29
Franchise and Representation.

From the New York Times.
1t may throw an interesting and instruct
I've side light upon the discussion of the
question raised by the resolution of Repre-
sentative Crumpacker Of Indiana calling for
an investigation of the suffrage laws of the
several states land allied questions if it is
known that majority Of the best citizens
of the south, men of the class who COM
posed the conventions for constitutional re-
vision. would much prefer to see the repre-
sentation of the south in Congress cut down
to the basis of their enfranchised citizenship
than to return the negro to politics and
again surrender to him the control of state
and local affairs.
That the suggestion of reduced represen-
tation in the House should come from them
is, of course, uncomfortable; that they would
willingly accept it is equally SO. The ad-
vantages of a representation disproportion-
ate to enfranchised population are too
great to be lightly surrendered, and the
conviction that the republican party man.
ayers would let the subject alones had
weight in encouraging the constitution re-
visers to sail as close to the danger line of
open notification of the fourteenth amend
ment Of the federal Constitution as was de-
manded for the attainment of the end in
view-the disfranchisement of the negro
and his exclusion from any part in local,
state or national government, except as he
may be represented by persons whom he
had no part in electing and who are in no
sense responsible to him for what they say
or do. That they have taken the chances
deliberately and with a preference for re-
duced representation rather than of COM
petition between the whites and the negroes
for the choice Of representatives is well
known
The danger of the present situation is
that the exclusion of the negro from the
rights of citizenship will be permanent If
the states which have excluded him as a
measure of self-protection discover no po-
litical advantage from his restoration to
the enfranchised condition when he shall
have qualified for it by attaining the stand
ards prescribed by the revised state consti-
buttons. Granting that the mass of the
southern negroes are presently unfit to be
electors, they should have a chance to be-
come fit, and the states which have dis
franchised them for the protection of their
material interests should have a substan-
tial reason for recognizing such fitness
printed in our issue of yesterday, Mr.
Crumpacker sums up the whole discussion
tersely and forcibly as follows: THE phi
losophy of the fourteenth amendment is to
make 1t an object upon the part of the
white man of the south to educate the COL
ored man and admit him to the right of suf-
frage as fast as he is prepared for it. This
is the whole question, and it seems so Just
and so righteous that 1t ought to have the
support of every citizen in the country"
1t is safe to say that if an increased repre-
sentation in Congress was the result of a
restoration of the negro to the enjoyment
to temporarily deprive him, the race ques-
ton would solve itself very much more
quickly and satisfactorily than it is likely
to do under existing conditions.