Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1904-03-12
GOV. vARDAMAN STILL AFTER US.

1T mas Deen the 1nydr1aOle rule Tor q
decade or more that whenever a politi-
cian desired to ride into power over a
political antagonist in the southland,
he took the Negro as his theme and his
debasement as his text, and the result
was expected to be all that the most
virulent Negro-hater could wish.
This mode of campaigning became SO
popular and resulted in the foisting up
on the people, of white men so objec-
tionable, that general crusade was
made by the white men, who were be-
ing side-tracked to eliminate the Negro
as a political feature, in order that
white men might divide upon economic
questions and not be swayed by APP
peals to race prejudice.
Accordingly, constitutional provisions
were unconstitutionally enacted and
Negroes were boldly and systematically
DISTINGUISHED. The dawn of new era
was announced and the cry of Negro
domination by the unprincipled charla-
tans, who had ridden into power was
presumed to be silenced forever. Vain
hope this! Being robbed of their main
weapon Of offense, new schemes were
devised to arouse the white men, who
had grown careless and cold and indif-
ferent in their support of the Negro
hating spell binders. They proceeded
to show the white men in the South the
amount of money that they were paying
for the education of the Negro and at
the same time called attention to the
small amount of money paid for taxa
ton by these same Negroes whom their
white EMPLOYERS had paid starvation
wages.
This was done too in the face of the
fact that the Negroes of the South pro-
duce more than $3.50, 0O0. OOO) three
hundred and fifty million dollars worth
of the products Of the section per year.
The better class of Southern whites
presumed that with the elimination of
the Negro as a political factor, the day
Of the FLANNEL mouth" demagogue had
passed.
We knew better and time has demon
strated the wisdom of our conclusions,
for Hon. JAMES A. VAKDAMAN made a
stirring canvass in Mississippi with the
Negro as an issue, and in this day of
enlightenment, won out. He advocated
the destruction Of the public school sys-
tom, announcing that in ignorance rest
ed the only hope Of the Negroes saliva
ton from white mans standpoint of
view. This radical proposition met
with condemnation from all quarters,
save in Mississippi.
So unguarded was he in his utter
ances that he soon was upon a battle
field with the advo Gates of education as
his foemen. Negroes had little to do
in the matter of meeting his argument,
for his utterances embraced an attack
upon education itself. Thus far we
have seen no educator, who has come to
his defense. Most of them regard him
as harmless crank and are charitable
enough to give him only the benefit of
their silence.
In the New York AMERICAN AND
JOURNAL of Sunday, March 9th, 1904,
an interview with Gov. JAMES A. VAR
DAMAN is given in which he says:
al arm opposed to the Negro voting; it
matters not what his advertised moral
and mental qualifications may be. /
am just as much opposed to Booker
Washington, with all his Anglo-Saxon
reinforcements, veting as / am to the
cocoanut-headed,c chocolate colored typi-
cal little coon, Andy Dotson, who
blacks my shoes every morning. Nei
ther is fit to perform the supreme func-
tions Of citizenship.
"Some people may say that Is preju-
dice. 1t may be. But it is a wise prejn-