The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-30
SOME FOOLISH PRovrsroNs.

Senator Quay Is a man of inteiligence on most subjects. but his bill providins for the admission into the Union of Okla. homa and Indian Territory as a single State. and some of the provisions of his bill. do not exhibit any remarkable de- gree of sanity. He visited that country last summer and while there made some speeches. He evidently made some prom. ises. also, for one of the provisions of his bill is that one of the two Senators for all time to come shall be an Indian, or a man of Indian descent.
 This is an absurdity, of course. It is true that the Indians and their descend ants form large proportion of the pop ulation of those territories, and it is also true that there are men of Indian descent who are well qualified to represent a State in the national Senate. but to insist on a race qualification for one of her Senators would be contrary to the spirit of our in- stitutions, and to the whole theory of our government. It would be equally as req sonable to provide that one of the Sena- tors shall be an IriShman. a German, a Frenchman, or any rother nationality. If new State is formed, such a provision would be outrageous. and we are curious to understand how it could be enforced after the State had become one of the CO., equal members of the Union. Its Legis- lature could not be compelled, by any power existing in the Federal govern ment, to select an Indian Senator. The provision is an absurdity. But foolish as this provision is, he pro- poses another which is very much more so, and that is the inserting into the bill the fifteenth amendment to the Constitu- tion, coupled with the further condition: Nor shall any educational qualification ever be imposed on the right of suffrage" This is plainly intended as a sop to the negroes, of whom there are now about S0.oo0 in the two Territories. Speaking of this feature of the bill the Washington correspondent of The New York Tribune says:
 It happens that Indian Territory, which MT; Quay proposes to join in Statehood negroes. Should the two territories be- come State with any such provision in the Constitution, it would be the negroes paradise, and the negro vote would in all probability prove a tremendous factor in the control of the new State. Further more. many of the people who have set tied in Oklahoma and Indian Territory are Of Southern extraction, and will fear ne- gro domination. Such suffrage provisions would preclude the. enactment of such auallncations as many of the most en- frightened States of the Union now en- force.
 Is it not plain that State with such | an iron-clad feature as that is would not only be the negroes paradise, but would be the Mecca of the most turbulent and dissatisfied elements of the race in the South? They would flock to the new State as to a place where they would be the political equals-possibly the rulers-of the white race, and the country, to quote pr. Parkhurst, would be ''hell with the lid off' in very short time. As the cor. respondent says, many of the residents Of that country are Southern men who know what negro domination means and who would not submit to 1t. If such A vicious enabling act should get through Congress. we doubt if the people would accept 1t. and still more seriously doubt the possibility of enforcing the provision. Quay would better confine himself to bossing his own State.