The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-28
SIDERATTON OF LIVE
QUESTIONS.

The Southern people are beginning
to understand that a very different
man from the pacific Mckinley is III
the White House and very different
leader from Blaine dominates Con-
gress. Roosevelt and Lodge are in
command of the Republican party.
They belong to the type of men, who,
beginning life and getting a start by
opposing the practical politicians. be-
come the most arrogant manipulators
of party machinery in the furtherance
of their ambitions. irving to convince
themselves and the public that they
are using the methods of the hitherto
despisei politician for aims not wholly
selfish.
Lodge has never given up the hope
of forcing his Force bill on the South
or something equally as good" for
perpetuating Republican rule. In
Roosevelt he has a twin rough rider
who would love to punish the South
for its unwavering allegiance to De-
mocracy and its expressed abhorren2e
of his introduction of social edualty
in the White House. In Fairbanks,
these two men who wish to punish the
South have an associate who will go TO
any length to further small and vicious
partisan ends. He may even go to the
extent of enforcing cloture in the Sen
ate. And then-is the South any
more part of the government except
for exploitation and payment of taxes
of taxes than the Philippines?
A few days ago the letter of Mr.
Crumpacker, of Indiana, the author
Of the bill to reduce Southern repre-
sentation in Congress. was published
in these columns. He decl lred that
1.-The President is all right" and said
that the coming Congress would enact
legislation along the line "f his bill
1t seems that Mr. Crumpacker was not
speaking for himself alone. but had
the authority of the leaders of the
party for the promise he made to the
negroes of Indianapolis The Repub
lican National Committee has issued
a circular and sent it broadcast
through the doubtful Northern States
I'm every one of which the negro voters
promising to reduce the representation
of the South in Congress. These eX
tracts are taken from the circular
'It has been asserted that The Re
publican platform in deman 1ilg that
representation in Congress ana in the
electoral college be reduced in States
where the elective franchise mas been
limited by special discrimination is
raising the race question. This is not
true The platform does not toucn The
race question. The clause in question
has to do with more vital and IN
portant matter, the equality of vo-
tiers.
There are States represented OH a
basis of population in which less than
two per cent, of the population votes.
while the average in others is any
where from fifteen to twenty-five per
cent Before the war these states
were allowed to count three-fifths of
their non-voting slave population;
now they count the whole of their
non-voting free 7ulation. Is this
equality?
"There is a district in Mississippi in
which one-half of one per cent. of the
population votes; in another only one
person in 1873 votes, and votes 1Cr
John Sharp Williams, who is protest
ing against government without rep
resentation in the Philippines. One
vote in Mississippi equals from seven
to twenty-five in any Northern State.
Judge Parker says he objects to
government by an olgarchy. Where
do you think the oligarchy is in this
country, and what -do you want to do
about it?''
In a big meeting, attended chiefly
by negro men and women in New York
;rrht la
didate for Governor, aroused the
greatest enthusiasm by his deuuncia-
ton of Southern laws disfranchisilg
the illiterate negroes. In part he said:
president Roosevelt is hated South
OF the Mason and Dixon line because
he judges q man by the qualities o.
heart and brain which go to make up
real manhood and refuses to close the
door of hope to HIM because of the
color of the skin. Our Democratic
friends apply the constitution to the
wards of the nation beyond the seas
and deny its guarantees to the black
citizens Of the United States. In the
Congressional election of 1902 in the
State of Mississippi the total vote cast
in the district that sent John Sharp
Williams the Democratic leader, TO
the House of Representatives was
1,433 In the same election in the
Ninth district in the city of New York,
nearly forty thousand votes were cast
for representatives in Congress
The Democratic party counts the
negro for representation, but denies
him the right to participate in the
choice of h representatives. White
suffrage is being established through
out the solid South so that the whites
now exercise grea Ger political power
than in slavery days when only three
fifths of the masters chattels were
counted for representation. This is I'M
just not only to the negro who loses
lis vote in the South, but also to the
voter in the North whose vote is rela-
lively reduced in weight
Hon. John Hay. Secretary of state
speaks in like vein, saying: