The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1903-04-11
3'';'1|;;'S||5''3:!


Nv, TO the voters Of Clay, and the refu-
sal of Mr.. Critz. Still another feature
OF the campaign has been the showing
Iup OF vardaman's record by Noel, who
charges, and cites the pages in the Le-
legislative Journal to prove what he says,
that vardaman, while member OF the
Legislature, saw no necessity for chang
! ing the manner of distributing the school
money between the races, but on the
Icontrary, he voted against the very pro-
position that he is now advocating, and,
further, that he voted to give large sums
lof money to Alcorn and Agricultural
Iand Mechanical College at Rodney, an
institution for negroes supported partly
by the State and partly by the United
Estates Government.
And still another feature of the cam
Ipaign is that yardaman is trying TO
hedge on his platform. He has tried to
qualify it. This 10 the third time that
Major vardaman has run for Governor
OF Mississippi, and twice before he has
been beaten. In i894he voted against a
constitutional amendment submitted by
the member from jackson county, pro-
posing to submit to the people the pro-
position Of dividing the school fund ac-
cording TO the amount that each race
paid into the State Treasury. AT Yazoo
City he also said that the division OF the
school fund, according to his idea, could
not be made until the fifteenth amend
ment had been repealed.
AS usual, when there is campaign on
In this State, there have been a number
Of charges and counter charges through
the press, rumors of deals and dickers,
but gradually those without foundation
in fact and which have not been sup
ported by documentary evidence have
played their small part in the partisan
game and bowed themselves off the
stage. While Vardaman represents the
ultra radicals, the men who would over
ride all laws and precedents and force
their ideas of running the State on the
statute books, whether or no, the three
other candidates represent the conserva-
tive element in the State.
They recognize that we are confront
ed by conditions, and that Mississippi,
one State among the many, is not claw
unto herself" and that while we have
the negro with us as part of those in =
cluded in the Federal census, that the
State, through its wisest and best men,
has legally disfranchised them, and that
there is some obligation resting on the
whites to do something for them along
industrial and educational lines. They
recognize the fact that it is not so much
what we shall do with the negro as
where we shall get more of them to till
our thousands OF fertile acres and TO work
in our towns and cities, this being es-
pecially true as to the Delta. They are
cognizant OF the further fact that, un-
der the bcnigning influence of our Con-
stitution, the negro has been eliminated
from the politics of the State; that there
is peace between the races. They also
see in the distance most glorious indus
trial possibilities. The harvest is white
and ready for the reapers. They do not
/ wish to disturb or retard this state of af-
fairs. The wonderful growth in Missis-
sippi in the last decade mas been the
marvel OF our own people and the admi-
ration Of strangers. All these consider
ations are appealing strongly TO the
thinking people OF Mississippi. Missis-
sippi is a peculiar State. Her people
are 80 per cent agricultural. Their pros
perity depends on the contentment OF
the negro. They fear him not from a
social standpoint. His status is fixed.
The law is an unwritten law, but like the
laws OF the ancient Medes and Persians,
it Is irreparable. There is no negro
question in Mississippi, say the conser-
vatives, hence why is it necessary that
1t be dragged into the campaign? They
polnI out that the negro is threatening
no one; that he is needed to work; that
h. has accepted the station that the
Waite man has made for him; therefore,
he should not have been lugged into the
campaign.
The primary election cannot, under
lawpassed by the last Legislature, be held
after Aug. 10, and between now and thai
time the people are called on to choose q
chief magistrate for another four years
they will have been made familiar with
all the issues, and the electorate of Mis-
sissippi being an intelligent one, made
SO by our new Constitution, that the vo.
ters will have no trouble in selecting thu
| proper man for Governor and sitting tn,
chaff from the wheat. +. l.. b.