The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-08
THEY BEGIN TO SEE.


 The Chicago Chronicle, like num- Der of other Northern Republicans. is beginning to realise the possibilities. or the probabilities, rather, of a large colored voting population. The Chron- icle plainly foresees the time when these colored voters will break away from the party to which they have heretofore considered themselves wedd- ed for all time, and when that day comes they will hold the balance of power in several Northern States, and some of those which are now steadfast- | ly Republican will become certainly Democratic. Tn view of this contin- gency what would the Southern breth- ren adviser it asks with apparent se- riousness. But 1t spells the force of the question by asking. if the Demo- I'crats could influence the Northern ne- groes to ally themselves solidly with the Democrats would the Southern people advise their disfranchisement? Southern newspapers have found it
 a thankless job to offer advice or in-
 formation to the Northern brethren on
 any phase of the race question. In the
 main the newspapers and statesmen up there. the Republicans, at least. have assumed q knowledge of the negro which left no chink or crevice through which information could be driven. They have felt so sure of knowing 1t all. and they have kept themselves so busy giving us advice, and telling us what to do and what not to do that
 they have had neither the time nor in- clination to learn anything. But The Chronicle is disturbed. as the following will show:
 of the South at the time when they voted more numerously than they now
 do was that they did not have intelli-
 gence enough to array themselves po- element of the whites. If the blacks at
 the South had become Democrats as the blacks of the North became Republi-
 esns % they would have fared better po- - A great negro migration to the
 lem which already exists here. The
 and % nationalitiss Who W are e Influenced, aeS particularly in local elections, by un-
 worthy considerations ts already too
 sou ss osnd fh for remsay sssh %ash ns will be or can be enforced here remains to be seen.
 The Advertiser does not hesitate to predict that the negro problem will be
 mcuh more serious in the North than
 in the South. and that for a variety of
 reasons. One of them Is because of the
 unreliable character of much of the voting population up there. Recent exposures in a number of Northern
 States have made it plain that an hon.
 est vote is almost unknown. The
 whites are as unreliable as the negroes.
 Votes are bought and sold as freely and almost as openly as any other com
 modity. A thoroughly honest election
 in Rhode Island, Delaware. Pennsyl- vania and In some other States is not looked for or thought of., If that is | true when the voters are nearly all
 white what is to be extected if there
 should be large influx of the worst
 class of negroes from the South? The candidate then who could offer most for colored votes would get them. When that time comes. as it seems
 bound to come, those States will find l themselves compelled, as a measure of
 self-protection, to curtail the suffrage,
 just as we have done 1t here. What plan they may adopt is immaterial, but the probability is that they will do just what they have so bitterly con-.
 demned US for doing. and will place such safeguards around the electorate | as will save them from going through
 what most of the Southern States suf-
 fered.
 The Chronicle is correct when 1t says that if the Southern negroes had be-
 conn Democrats at the start they
 would have fared better politically than they have" but that Is only a par tial statement of the case. Had the | negroes ,ot been seddced and cajoled by Northern men. who were only lock- ing out for their own advancement. l they would have fared better at the time and would now be enjoying a de- gree of political liberty. influence and
 respect which is not possible for them
 in the future. at least for a long time, And that is not all. But for outside influences which made of the negro, | just out of slavery, the mere tool of designing white men from the North.
 the white people Of the South would | have been immeasurably better of. They would have been spared the years of misrule, corruption, stealage and degradation, the black heels on white
 necks," and the devilish experiences of
 the years of reconstruction and later.
 Had the negroes been suffered to
 choose for themselves they would to
 & great extent have fallen in line with
 their old masters who were then as | now their best friends and both races
 would have gotten along better and peace and prosperity would have been their lot instead of the lamentable con-
 ditions that existed so long. All this
 is known down here and 1t Is some en- | cou-agement to know that papers like
 The Chronicle are getting their eyes | open.
 SHALL IT BE A SEA LEVELf