The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-22
INTERESTING INTERVIEW
MAN GAYS IT IS SET
 TILED IN HIS STATE.
Railroad Commissioner Smith Talks About the Negro in . Sensible and Conservative Way-Not Worrying Over the
 csx,s.a.

tGntlOh htTt, iS S6pthlu JOuu V. smith or Alabama. He is the President of the Rail- road Commissioners of that State and in- Is a man who is prominent in politics and who has been the manager of many political campaigns.
 Captain Smith told a Press reporter last night something about his State and also something about the negro question. for no newspaper man could be expected to talk with a man from the Black Belt" as 1t Is sometimes called. without drift ing into a discussicn of that question.
 In the first place MT. Smith believes in Alabama's future and incidentally 1t might be mentioned he is not worrying about the negro problem. If you folks here in the North would allow us to settle that question for ourselves there would be no need to worry about it," said MT. Smith. "We know about 1t and all about 1t and you don't. We know what the ne- gro wants better than you do and we are better fitted to deal with this question than the people of the North.
 T don't want to be misunderstood about this matter" said MT. Smith. We have no feeling against the North in Alabama. We recognize the fact that the issues which made the Southern man once con- sidered an enemy of the Northern man are long since dead and buried. We are living in new age, in a progressive age, and with fewer prejudices between sec tions than we had once. There are sev- eral things which have happened to unite the sections of the country and l may say that one of the greatest factors in this have been such gatherings as this l have journeyed way up here to attend.
 "The man from the South comes to the Northern cities to such meetings as this. He meets Northern people, he talks with them and obtains their views about all matters, political as well as social and commercial. He may perhaps fall in love with some Northern girl and take her back with him to the Sunny South. Your capitalists come to our State, and all the Southern States as far as that is con- cerned, and invest their money with us and help us to develop our resources. W @ are no longer a divided nation and want to tell you that we don't begin to worry as much about that negro question, as you term 1t here in the North, as some of your own people do who are the farthest removed from 1t.
 "As far as the negro is concerned we have settled the question for all time in Alabama and I believe, and hundreds of other Southern men and Northern men too, think we have settled it right. We have eliminated the vicious, the ignorant and the shiftless negro and white man from the political game.
 We adopted constitutional amendment last year which has effectually effaced the negro from politics and in doing this we have done justice to ourselves and our sens and daughters, to our country and to the negro himself.
 You think that that Is a pretty broad assertion but 1 want to tell you that you people don't understand the matter and if you did you would agree with me and with Alabama that what she has done has been the right thing to do.
 For eight years I was the prosecuting officer in five of the black counties in Ala bama and I know what I am talking about. There are good negroes, there are men among them who are entitled to and do receive all consideration and respect, but there are heap more who are abso- utely ignorant, shiftless and some few of them vicious.
 Take Russell County for example. That Is my native county. There are In that County 6OO0 white people. There are also in that County 1S,0O0 negroes. The negro is living in most cases on the white mans land. He occupies a miserable hut. he will not work as long as he can help il and one out of every hundred of them Is not only worthless but absolutely dan- gerous to the community. That one out of the hundred Is the negro who gets killed, who rapes some white woman anc Is lynched.
 "On election day a white man who 1: | practically keeping a lot of worthless
 shiftless, ignorant negroes from starving and on whom they all depend for food anC
 help in times of hard luck on electior day I say, the white man goes to the
 polls. There he finds hundred negroes One of them is the meanest, most con
 temptible, most vicious man alive. Blu
 his vote counts just as much as that O
 the white man. The other negroes arr Ignorant of good government. They don understand anything about the needs O
 the community. They pay no taxes t' speak of and they have no responsibilt.
 but they out voted us by the hundred.
 Tt reached the point when we coul' not stand this. Alabama is growing State. She will In the course of the mex
 ten years be reckoned as one of the mos
 prosperous States of this nation. Sh
 needs good government and her peopl
 mean that she shall have 1t. When sa,
 her people, I also am referring to tn
 Northern man who has come down ther
 to Ire with us and who has invested hi
 money there. He is. as rule, far mor
 interested in thls question than are tn
 native born whites because doubtless tn
 contrast between the conditions he kney
 ab ,ut in the North and those which exist
 ed with us. were so great.
 "When Alabama made up her mind tha
 she had got enough of this she passed a
 amendment to her constitution. Thi
 practically disfranchises all of the ignc rant and vicious in Alabama, white a
 well as black. A negro who has $3(
 worth of property may vote. So can on
 whose wife holds that much property.
 negro who can read and write and wh
 can readily comprehend and understan 7 the constitution of the United States ( any clause of it which Is read to him ma z also vote, but the others cannot. Tn includes the white man who is vicious an
 ignorant as well as the negro. We ha something like 55.OoO negroes In Alaham who were voters. We have only 3300 o y the voting lists today. This number S largely increasing year hY year and whe e the are entitled to vote they will be a e lowed to do so."
 O Captain Smith was asked if the State t Alabama believed 1t right to maintain o representation in the National House l. Representatives based on its negroes WI
 are not allowed to vote for such repr IT bama believed that it had a right to i |. present representation and Congre = would have to decide that issue.
 a Mir. Smith then went on to tell of tl n wonderful growth of his State, of the irc 'i industry at Birmingham nd fats metal di r trict The State will become in a fe , years the greatest iron and steel produ d ing State in the nation and he told of q
 wonderful profits that are being ma ,- there by manufacturers of iron and
 cotton manufacturers IS we'll
 ''It is the place for the Northern cal
 talist to go with his wealth for large !