The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-22

l Ignorant and shiftless and some few of them vicious" One in a hundred Is his | estimate of the proportion of the vicious ana dangerous; the majority are ignorant and shiftless. and flew" are doing we'll In most cases the negro Is living on the white mans land, in @ miserable hut, and wiu not work unless obliged to.
 He justifles the suppression of the col ored vote on the ground of the natural law of self-preservaton. The community found itself and its civilization in danger Of being swamped by political prepon- derance Of this ignorance and shiftless- ness, and 1t turned to and snuffed out the dangerous vote by a constitutional amend ment. "As far as the negro is concerned we have settled the question for all time In Alabama" says MT. Smith, "and be- lieve we have settled it right. We have eliminated the vicious, the ignorant and the shiftless negro and white man from the political game and no longer can few worthless and vagabond politicians run our government for us."
 This elimination has been done by means of constitutional amendment which, as described by Mir. Smith practically disfranchises all of the ignorant ond vi- cious in Alabama, white as well as black" A negro who has property worth $500 can vote, and so may one who can read and write and who can readily understand and comprehend the constitution of the United States or any clause of it when read to him." may also vote. This sounds fair and on it's face seems to make no discrimination on account of color, but there is understood to be a catch in that clause about ready understanding of the constitution when read to the applicant, which in practical operation bars out the black man and lets In the white. There are clauses in the constitution that would not be clearly comprehensible to men of average intelligence unless they had made some study of them and 1t Is readily seen how a registration board so desiring could stump the negro by picking out the hard places and help the white applicant by choosing simple passages for him to ex- plain. This is the objection to the Ala bama amendment that has been raised in ! the North, that while theoretically impar- tial 1t is capable of being made to discrm- mate against the colored man. and that 1t does in practice what it was intended to do.
 The North has no objection to any Southern State qualifying the suffrage within It's borders as 1t sees fit provided this is done fairly and lawfully. What the North objects to is nullifcation of the national constitution by a trick and avold- ance of the penalty of restricted suffrage which Is reduced representation. It ob- jects to man at the South having double the voting power of a man at the North, in Congressional and Presidential cleo tions, by reason of this suffrage restric- ton. If we in Maine were in Alabama's place, very likely we should do as Ala bama has done, at least to the extent of eliminating a positively dangerous suf- frage. Candid people everywhere must admit that the negro problem is a stag gering one and that the South has been
 placed in a terribly hard position by req
 son of the admission to full citizenship of millions of colored men before they were
 fitted for such responsibility. No doubt that what with lynching. terrorism. fraud at the polls and latterly by disfranchise- ment under form of law, the South has made bad record, but there are hopeful signs. It Is encouraging to hear repre- sentative man like Captain Smith speak in such a fair and optimistic spirit. He does not seem at all cast down by the outlook. and so far from evincing spirit of race prejudice he shows a spirit of sympathy with the colored people and an appreciation of both their good and bad qualities that strangers could not have. He is opposed not to negro suffrage as such, but 10 ignorant suffrage. and he is in favor of giving the negro chance to
 rise by means of industry and education.
 That Is what Booker Washington Is do- ing with his Tuskegee Institute In MT.
 Smiths State of Alabama, and what
 seems to be needed is more Tuskegees to train up the negro in the practical work
 of life and make him industrious as well
 as intelligent. By MT. Smiths own ad- mission ignorance and shiftlessness are al the bottom of the negro problem In that case the solution lies in changing these } into thrift and intelligence.