The San Francisco call., 1904-06-24
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.


4 matter Of The pledge that our merchant
marine shall be revived Is repeated and Will be carried
out L IS rot only economic necessity but IS 4
necessary adjunct the upbuding Of navy. With
the majority OF foreign commerce carried n
foreign bottoms at the mercy OF events II the
tiags under which goes and comes should be al
Not only would our export trade suffer, but impairment
of our imports would OF the tariff OF the
country the embarrassment OF the treasgTy
The declaration that labor and capital alike sub
nit to the law satisfactory every orderly citizen and
good American Only those who advocate partial ad
rlnisration Of the law It's complete subersion IN
.he interest OF class and against the great principles
OF civil liberty object the platform pzrzphrase OF
President Roosevelts declaration, that no man IS
above The law and IS below Il
The demand that or nationals have the pro
lection OF their Government everywhere, against the
tempt OF any foreign Government deny them JUS
tice timely. Even II this hemisphere pride has
been too often shzned by unpunished invasion OF the
rights OF Americans BY the small spitfre Governments Of
Lztin-Areriez-
The rev proposition OF the platform viii not be novel
readers Of The Cal, since responds demands
made II columns frequently during the last three
years The constitution Of the United States requires
that when classes OF DISTINGUISHED for
which they have control such race, color
previous condition Of servitude the representation In
the House and the electoral college Of the State which
such dsfrznchiseuent shall be decreased the
proportion that the DISTINGUISHED class bears the
whole population When the constitution adopted
OF rs compromises provided that the Congress
sionzI zpportionent five slaves should three
IT the enumeration OF population determine the ratio
Of representation IN Congress
This thr-efhs representation OF non-voting chattel
slaves grew be obnoxious the Of justice
the free States But 1t constitutional and it stood
and the means Of giving the South her supremacy
national affairs before the Civil War. If the
South can now do twohfths better for herself by count
ing every negro as one in the ratio OF representation and
the tine deprive them OF the franchise the Fed
eral constitution viii be grossly violated AS the North
stood threefths slave representation, because
the constitution. the South stand the com
pete eson OF the negro from the ratio OF repre-
senation because It IS in the constitution She cannot
cat her cake and keep It
The negro disfrznchsement has been before the Su-
pren- Court which decides that Il IS political ques-
ton for Congress- the political branch Of the Govern
ent to decide The constitution fixes the penalty for
denial OF the negro franchise 1t reduction Of repre-
sentation The Republican party does propose to
force negro suffrage upon the South 1t does pro-
pose strike down the constitutions OF the Southern
States which by the grandfather" clause and other de-
vices rob the negro Of the ballot II does propose to
IN any way plant footprint inside the boundary Of
State rights But It does propose that the constitutional
penalty shall be enforced and that the South shall
tske away the negro ballot and the time enjoy
Unconstitutional excess OF votes the House and
the electoral college. To this policy reasonable
IN the South object II the South have sixty mem
bers Of House and sixty electoral votes in violation
OF the constitution pride and seIrespect should dictate
her leaders the policy of surrenderng them that
may be purgcd Of the ofense.
II IS well here quote the language Of the con-
sution, found in the second section of the fourteenth
amendment: Representatives shall be apportioned
among the several States according their respective
numbers counting the whole number Of persons in each
State excluding Indians not taxed But when the right
any election for the choice of electors for
President and VicePredent, Representatives in Con-
gress, the executive and judicial officers of State or
the members Of the Legislature thereof denied TO any
OF the male inhabitants of such State being years of
age citizens OF the United States or in any wav
abridged except for participation in rebellion or other
crime the basis OF representation therein shall be re-
duced in the proportion which the number of such male
citizens shall bear the whole number OF male citizens
years Of age, in such State"
close examination and strict construction of that
section taken in connection with the preceding section
that grants negro suffrage make plain that the authors
OF the fourteenth amendment contemplated the denial of
Suffrage the negro and aware that the Federal
Government could State in the rnatter and
that its power ceased when the penalty of reduced
representation enforced The South has incurred
that penalty by dsranchiseent and should take
It's medicine The free States did by enduring three
ffths slave representation from I73o to 1864
At last the wee sma voice of the newspaper CORE.
dents has been hear in min q,