New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-06-19
AS A SOUTHERN WHITE MAN SEES IT
Cutting Down of Negro Vote Hurts Whites
as Well as Negroes.
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: The unjust cutting down Of the negro vote
in South Carolina hurts the white as well
as the negro. The face of the State Constitution
Of 1895 is all right It doesn't discriminate against
any class or color and it may be in accord with
Lincolns views and the States right to bar out
the ilterate of the State. But it is the I'M
just administration of the law that hurts There
is no doubt that there in this State more col
ored of voting age, of intelligence. who are
qualified 10 vote than whites Of voting age BY
the unjust administration OF the law. the Off
GERS in charge put very severe test to all the
coored men who apply, they debar from voting in
this STATE about 10000 colored out Of about 20OOo
voters, causing a wholesale robbery Of the ballot
which ought TO be Temedied by Congress. All white
men. no matter how ignorant, can get vegistra-
ton, the test is not applied to them, and they
do not have to read or explain the constitution,
which it would take a smart lawyer to do.
The Democratic primary is controlled by a ma
chine, which is against the colored voters, and it
is also in the hands of few powerful politicians
who grind the people down at their will The
whites fee! their power. their sorrow. and wish
a change but powerless. unless Congress
gives aid and lets the people all vote. which would
break their power The machine politicians fool
and blind the ignorant white voters In the PR
mary, making slaves OF them and the others, also.
They cry the negro down, saying the negroes want
want is justice and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES in, court
ana pTGfecon IRON IN o Anq o the 6y ws3
who will give them them. AS it is the
When you give them the ballot you will then free
the white man, well; for he is the slave
Of the powerful politicians who control the State,
who. by their denouncing the negro, fool the ig-
norant white voters in the primary, and the other
white people have to suffer well the ignorant
ones They make bad laws for their own benefit
and they kill business. for times are harder in the
State now than they nave been for years and
years. And it is getting worse. The negro is the
bone and sinew of the State. and the whites can
not do without him. He does the hardest work
and gets the least pay: he pays his poll tax. he
has to do. else he has to work it out on the
chain gang. The Southern papers that pull with
the machine one cannot believe as they hide the
true state Of affairs But the people of the State
have suffered enough, and want things changed;
only they will not out in the Southern papers
in print because they will be ridiculed and abused
negro lovers, which Jney not. but only
after Justice and honesty and truth. They do not
believe in social equality intermarriage, but be-
lieve In political equality, guaranteed by the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments TO the
United States Constitution and would like to see
them obeyed and enforced. / myself a white
native citizen of South Carolina, and voice the
sentiments OF many. J. q. SUBART.
Charleston, S c.. June 10. 1903