The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1907-08-15

AnoASAOSSScStiyS dAiy COlOioO uou WuO
can read or write, or is Intelligent
enough. to understand the use of the
ballot, or, who pays taxes on $500
or more, can register and vote.
But to the election officers Is given
the discretion of deciding whether
the applicant for registration, has
proper conception Of his duty to his
state or his nation" There Is also
the test Of expounding g clause of
the federal or state constitution,
which has enabled low and worthless
white registration officers to disfran-
chise many men greatly their sup
errors In knowledge, manners, and
moraAs. Such hypocritical subter-
fuges are merely resorted to in Or
der to preserve the fiction of consti-
nationality. 1t would have been at
least honest If bill offered by q
Mr.. Payton had been adopted. That
provided briefly for the disfranchise-
ment OF every person with one-eighth
Negro blood in his veins. But the
result would would have been prac-
tically the same.
Nothing startling will, of course,
follow the adoption Of this law. The
Negroes have not yet learned the
value of unions, or organization, of
lawful agitation. The words general
strike, or boycott, or the other terms
that describe the ways inferior races
serfs, and oppressed peoples have
found of making their masters I'M
easy in wrong, mean but little to
them as yet. How will it be fifty or
a hundred, years hence? None of
these Georgia Legislators, we venture
to say, has thought Of that; few can
see beyond their noses, and still fewer
know how to measure economic chan
geS which occur right before their
eyes. But that is when the test of
the law will come. He who thinks
that the Negro will submit forever,
unknowing of his strength, reckons
without knowledge of human ma
ture.> Only total enslavement, with
the destroying of every colored
child's textbook that tells of Its,
could promise permanent subpection.
AS the Post says, nothing startling
will develop from the adoption of
Acknowledgement in Georgia. AS
elsewhere, the leaders are councell-
ing resignation and preparation to
meet the requirements. But will it
be ever so? Does the Post speak with
the prescience of prophet when it
says, 'He who thinks that the Negro
will submit forever, unknowing of
his strength, reckons without
knowledge of human nature?"
Each successive encroachment up
on the Negroes civil or political
rights evokes a louder protest than it's
been seemingly content with an ex-
preston of indignation through mass
meetings and resolutions, but these
resolutions are beginning to take on
much Of a request, as of yore. They
have begun to assume the tone of a
demand coming from one who feels
himself unjustly deprived of a cher
ished possession.
Fifty or a hundred years hence
is long call and to predict what
Wit happen at the expiration of that
time would be but a waste Of time,
but history teaches a lesson that
even the most obtuse can under
stand. The Egyptians, the Assay
rians, the PersianS the Greeks and
the Romans alike abused their
transitory power and held up to con
tempt the struggling races below
them. Today their names are almost
forgotten and crumbling ruins
mark the site Of their imposing pal
aces,
For all unnatural relations curse
xxrl>
thereby.
Therefore the man who wrongs his
fellows. wrongs
His own departing manhood most of
ALL"