The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-03
UNDERWOOD TALKS
 OF NEGRO PLANK Not Regarded as Idle Words to
 Catch Votes
  THE PRESIDENTS POSITION Would Send Committee Through South to Convict and Dlsbar Southern
 Members-A Panic Prob
 able Result.
 
THE PRESIDENTS POSITION

Congressman Oscar w. Underwood left for St. Louis yesterday to attend the dem ocratic convention. Just before his de- parture he gave the following interview on one of the vicious blanks in the re- publican platform. He said:
 T regard the election of MT. Roosevelt to the Presidency as the most serious menace that the business interests or the country has had to face since the civil war. do not regard the Insertion or the plank in the republican platform seeking to cut down the representation Of the south in the electoral college and Tn the | house of representatives as mere lole words intended to catch votes. As vote catcher it is unquestionaby a failure. ! Looking at it from that standpoint 1t could only have been intended to solidify the negro vote for the republican party.
 sBut Mr. Roosevelt's well known posi- ton in favor of negro suffrage ana negro equality would have given him practl- cally all of the negro votes in the coun- try without the insertion of this plank in the platform, For man who IS personally honest unqHestionably cour- ageous, and endowed with more than or-
  most unsafe man I know of in public office, because he allows his enthusiasm and prejudice to carry him to the border of fanaticism. Undoubtedly, he and he alone is responsible for the insertion of the plank in the republican platform that seeks to reduce the representation Of the southern states. If he is elected and car ries with him a republican congress, what does he intend to do? Some say that there will merely be an investigation-a report of the facts-and that there the matter will end. But the gentlemen who hold these optimistic opinions evidently are not acquainted with the President. He does not do business that way. He would not have put the plank in the plat form unless he intended to accomplish some result by 1t.
 What Practical Result?
 Now, what practical result can he ac- complish? The southern states have their representation in the electoral college and in the house of representatives fixed by law, and that law has been passed since many of them have adopted their new constitutions for suffrage. It was adopted by a republican congress and signed by republican President-Mr. Mckinley.
 Tn electing and sending their represen- tatives to congress these southern states are only complying with the law that has already been made by the republicans In congress. This law cannot be changed until after the census of 1910. The consti- tuion of the United States provides that congl ess shall fix the basis of represen- tation after each decenneal census. The basis of representation under the census of 1900 has been fixed. Congress having exercised the power given it by the con stitution cannot again exercise it until after the census of 1910. Another req son why the present law cannot be changed, even if 1t was constitutional to change 1t, is the fact that the United States senate has no cloture rule and that southern senators would undoubtedly re- gard an attempt to change the basis of representation at this time as revolution ary and would use all lawful means to prevent it. There being no cloture rule in the senate. such a law cannot possi- bly, pass that body at this time These facts are known to the President and to those in congress who advocate the Crum- packer resolution. Then, what do they intend to do provided they are elected?
 Tt can mean but one thing, and that Is they propose to organize a committee to convict; send 1t through the south and declare that those states which have adopted an educational and property qual- ification as the basis of suffrage have violated the constitution, and any cleo tion they hold on the present basis of representation is void. When the mem bers from these states present themselves at the bar of the house to take the oath of office they will prevent their doing so as they did in the Roberts case, and simp- ly deprive these states of representation in the house of representatives.
 sfNNhat will ha inc requlfp cOI1rsa so far as the south is concerned, their members will have to come home and they will await an enlightened public sem timent in the country to do them justice But what effect would this have on the business and commercial world, with half of the southern states deprived of their representation in congress?
 The Business World.
 "would not the business world say that this is what happened at the time of the civil war? Would they not fear that this action on the part of the President would mean sectional strife and discord? Would not the business man in the north who had credits in the south withdraw them and would not the business man of the south who had credits in the north bring them home? Would it not disturb the entire business relations of the two sec tions and throw the country into the greatest panic that we have ever known?
 "In my judgment that would be the real and ultimate result of the carrying out of the policy that the President is attempting to inaugurate. The southern states in adopting educational and prop erty qualifications, by which a portion of the negro vote has become disfranchised, has done nothing more than Massachus- etts did in 1859; and most of the New England states are doing today. Nothing more than the state of California did when 1t refused to allow the Chinese to vote. Yet the illiterate vote in Massa- chusetts and the New England states and the Chinese vote in California have al-