Gloucester County Democrat., 1903-08-06


not to say astounding, manner out in
bleeding Kansas. There is a United
4 States district judge to be appointed
from among the Jayhawkers by reason
| of the promotion of Judge Hook to the
circuit bench. This prospect of good,
| fat, juicy Office to be bestowed has had
about the same effect on the Long and
Burton factions that big hunk of raw
meat has upon the wild animals in a
menagerie. The feud is so bitter that
some peacemaker has suggested that
Kansas be divided into two judicial
districts SO that Long and Burton may
each have judge. Great is Republic
an harmony in Kansas!
A Christian Lobby.
King Solomon once enunciated the
startling proposition that there is moth
ing new under the sun. He had a
| great headpiece and told more wisdom
than any other of the teeming sons of
Adam, but the wise king had never
| gazed upon my learned and energetic
friend, Rev. DR.. Wilbur f. Crafts, when
he made the declaration aforesaid If
he had communed with the doctor per-
haps he would have 'held his decision
for revision DR.. Crafts, with orig
inality that is startling and with in
genuity that is puzzling, has evolved
out of his own inner consciousness the
idea of a Christian lobby to operate
upon, influence, assist, aid or direct
congress in its labors. Perhaps that
would not have been "a new thing
under the sun" to King Solomon, but
it is certainly new to everybody else
DR.. Crafts is entitled to letters patent
or a copyright on his idea. So far as
can now be ascertained, lobbies are as
old as legislative bodies. Indeed, Hon.
Thomas Bracket Reed always defend
ed lObbies on the ground that repre-
sentative or senator could not possibly
investigate the merits Of every bill that
came up for consideration in congress-
but, while his logic was forcible, cir
cumstances have given sinister mean
ing to the lobby, and with the masses
of the people the mention of the lobby
suggests corruption. 1t seems incon-
gruous, therefore, to preface it with
the adjective Christian" and in popu-
lar estimation christian lobby is
misnomer. What would be the func-
ton of Christian lobby? Who would
determine what bills it would advo-
cate? Who would pay it? How much
would it receive? Would it not soon
degenerate into a secular lobby and do
the questionable things done by a secu-
lar lobby, thereby bringing reproach on
Christians?
vermont's Election Law.
If any southern state had adopted
the suffrage qualification recently en-
acted in Vermont mighty indignation
meetings would be held in Boston, and
congress would be memorialized and
asked to take charge of elections in the
south. The following is from the
Washington Post:
What the Chicago Tribune calls "a
poser from the south is really deserving
of that name. Webster defines a poser as
question or proposition that puzzles
or silences." The Tribune represents the
people of the south as being desirous to
learn from the supreme court of the
qualification is constitutional In the Ian
guage of the Green Mountain solons, as
quoted by the Tribune all those shall be
excluded from the suffrage who have not
attained the appreciation of the board of
civil authority of the town in which they
reside"
That is a sure enough poser for Yer
monters or any other censorious critics of
southern suffrage laws. The Atlanta
Constitution says it wants nothing better
than that. The Tribune says that grand
father clauses would be but the gauzy
tissues of the adolescent spider compared
to the withes which the Vermont clause
would wrap around the black voter in
care freed Dixie The Constitution
predicts the Vermont idea would really
work with charming effectiveness in shut
ting out the venal and ignorant voters of
our precincts, whether white or black :"
The Tribune which is not half so bitter
toward the southern Democrats as is its
Democratic neighbor the Chicago Chron-
icle, says the Constitutions prediction 'is
evidently and patiently true, provided we
disregard the southrons s exuberant, fairy
like figures of speech and substitute for
his fanciful phrase about excluding ig-
norant voters, whether white or black
what he meant by 1.-THE word me-
groes. +"
But the Tribune readily perceives the
gravity of the subject. 1t declares that
the Constitution has put up a knotty
question and adds:
1.-THE supreme court must pass on the
constitutionality of the statute as it oper-
ates in Vermont Vermonters have never
availed themselves of it to shut out me-
groes. Neither in language nor spirit does
1t contravene the fourteenth or fifteenth
amendment The supreme court can
hardly by the strongest stretch of inter-
pretation, hold otherwise. If the court
Apholds the Vermont statute the south
will at once adopt it, and nothing can
stop it. And then the southern negro
will be disfranchised as effectually as ne
is now, but without the remote glimmer
of hope before him that the federal courts
may intervene and hand him back the
ballot"
We hope the Hon. Thomas Williams
Hardwick, representative elect to the
Fifty-eighth congress from the Tenth
Georgia district, is keeping an eye on cur
rent happenings relative to suffrage queS-
tions The Post has recently discussed
this young statesmans announcement
that he will offer an amendment to the
constitution wiping out the fifteenth
amendment The Post has not given Mr..
Hardwick any encouragement, for it be-
lieves he is essaying a virtually impossi-
BILE task. The Republican party, as repre-
sented by administrations and congresses,
is tacitly consenting to let the fifteenth
amendment sleep and leave the southern
states free to regulate suffrage But that
party will not consent to the repeal of
that mistake. The Post said that "if Mr..
Hardwick has kept tab on supreme court
decisions touching this question he has
learned much that was not expected by
Republican extremists a few years ago.
but which they have managed to digest
without very great difficulty" Let Mr..
Hardwick watch out for decision as to
the validity of this Vermont law. "All
things come to him who waits The Mis-
sissippi decision and the Alabama de-
cision show the direction in which the ju-
dicial tide is setting.
Wisely Done.
1t is always a pleasure to well
regulated citizen of the republic to find
something which he can honestly com
mend in an administration to whose
politics and whose policies he is OPP
posed on general principles. Therefore
it is set down now and here that the
government at Washington acted wisely
in giving up all claim to the Isle of
Pines and letting Cuba have it. In the
first place, it is absolutely certain that
Cuba will one day be a part of the