The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-14
TO DEFRAUD NEGROES
sCHE1fERs AFTER THE DoIrARs
 OF THE BLACK MAN.
introduction of the Bill to Pension the Ex-slavss Will Be Respon- sible for Much
 Rascala<y.

washington. Esb. Especial. )--It ought to be powerfully suggested to the Legislature of Alabama that 1t pass a joint resolution empowering Governor 1elka to send circuasr letter to every justice of the peace in the state direct ing him to warn all negroes In his pre- cinct not to pay any money to any man who seeks to raise funds for the prosecu- ton of any sort of claim for pensions for former slaves. or for any scheme looking to the colonization of negroes in Africa or elsewhere. the State paying the few doilars which such plan of. warning the blacks would cost. and thersby keep in the State 8 great sum of money.
 There is proof that Senator HAnna's bill to pension former slaves has had already q disastrous efrect upon the minds of Southern negroes. and 1t ts an derstooa that certain Washington law yers have formed company to further l.le paAsa&e of this Impossible bill. I& appears to be the purpose of the lawyers to ask of every form& slave past the age of fifty years for subscription of xi each month or something like that to a fund to be used in securtng the enact ment of the Hanna bill or some airnilar measure. This outrageous scheme tor imposing upon the ignorant nagroas of the South will deceive' tans of thousands of former slaves
 For years there have been schemes to subscribe certain sum monthly Cor Q prescribed period. at the end of which the negro paying the installmsnts would f~ l&H kr <Na Anr. Ak.s axan As an illustration the scheme, 1t is alleged that . negro may pay 90 much 6 month, until he has paid. say, s4e, but unless he pays the hftieth dollar. all is lost.
 The negrofs notorious shiftlesSneas makes this plan profitable for those who promote it.
 i The objection that may be interpossd in the Alabama Legislature against State interference with the palpabla frauds upon the negro in that such action as that suggested for the protection of the blacks smacks of paternalism. would not stand.
 It Is held to be as much the duty of the State to protect it's ignorant population as 1t Is to save its helpless poor from starvation.
 The moral influence of Senator Hanna . negro pension bill is bound to be most deplorable. Not only will 1t tend to dis organise labor throughout Alabama and the South and open the way to fraudu- lent and thieving assessments upon de- fenseless negroes, but 1t must of it's very nature give the negro grossly exagRe- rated conception of his own importance. His ignorant mind has already grasped the idea that the Government owes him from one hundred to thousand dollars and in addition thereto eight dollars a month-enough for him. if he be past fifty. to live on in comfort, after having with his first bounty purchased for him. self cabin and farm
 Clearly 1t would seem to be the duty of the Alabama Legislature to make some provision for warning the negroes against the thinly disguised swlndlers who will ask them for money to push the Hanna bill and to assure them all that the enact ment of any law pensioning them is ut- terly impossible.
 Congressman Andrew Fuller Fox of Mississippi today announced himself as a candidate for Governor of his State. Judge Fox Is native Alabamian. having been born in Ptckens County ffty-four years ago. Lucien Julien Walker.