Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1904-04-06
ROBT. D. HOFFECKER.
Editor and Proprietor.
RoBT. D. HOFFECKER, JR.,
Assocfate Editor.

ti>ements
PLANS afoot in Maryland for dis
franchising the negro seem to have
suffered serious check, says the New
York Tribune. A Democratic legls-
lature and a Democratic Governor
have locked horns over the submission
to the voters of the suffrage amend
ment to the constitution recently
pushed through the legislative branch
at Annapolis. We have already dis
cussed at length the limitations put |
on the right of suffrage by the pro-
posed amendment. 1t bOrrOws the |
Mississippi understanding" test and |
compels an applicant for registration
to read or ''construe intelligently"
when read to him any given, section OF
the State constitution. Then it ex-
empts from the application of this test
any person, or the lineal male de-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS qualifed-of any
person, competent to exercise the
right of suffrage under the laws of
Maryland prior to January /, 1868.
Under the constitution and laws of
Maryland prior to January l, 1868,
only white" citizens of the United
States could vote; and, in creating two
classes of exempts from the general
ilIiteracy test, the proposed amend
ment openly re-enacts restrictions on
the suffrage which it was the express
purpose of the Fifteenth Amendment
to the federal Constitution to sweep
away.
The Governor of Maryland, the
2 aaySiH >Ms=essld, a Democrat of
independence and character, strongly
opposes the submission of a suffrage
amendment so plainly repugnant to
the highest federal law. He favors
restriction of the right to vote which
will effectually shut out the negro
without DISTINGUISHING him on the
sole ground of color and race He
would impose a property as well as
literary qualification, and would give
every citizen of Maryland, whatever
his color, an equal chance before the
amended law. He would discard the
humbug grandfather clause" exemp-
tion, and let the illiterate whites as
we'll as illiterate blacks work out their
own salvation.
But partisan spirit in the legislature
condemns the Governors project as
too liberal and too honest. The Dem
Ocratic majority at Annapolis Goes
not want to pass an honest suffrage
restriction law. 1t wants to throw the
of agents of It's own choosing, who
will administer illiteracy and other
tests to partisan profit; and one of its
set purposes is to abolish as soon al
practicable the bipartisan election
boards at present authorized by Law
in Maryland, and substitute for then
Democratic registry and returning
boards, constituted after the Goebe
plan. Governor Warield also opposes
the Goebelization of the election laws
and, though his veto cannot overrid,
three-ffths Democratic majority il
each house, the party leaders great,
dread inviting clash with him whicI
will uncover the selfshness an,
crookedness of their political pro
, gramme.
The Governor holds that any bil
proposing a constitutional amendmen
must be submitted to him for veto o
approval. The legislature refuses t
give him a chance to pass on il
scheme of suffrage tinkering, an
holds that the amendment it sue
gested must be submitted to the voter
without executive intervention. Th
Governor has communicated to til
Legislature his disapproval of the Su
frage Amendment bill, but the legi
lature will not allow his message
be read. The situation is confusing
But 1t is also encouraging. 1t Civ,
some ground for believing either TIL
the proposed amendment will fail O.
tirely, or that out Of it will come son
honest and bona fide measure of So
frage restriction.