The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-04-18

of the race problem, consisted in stop
ping the education of negroes at white
peoples expense, how does it come about
that in such short time afterwards til.
sole solution, the great desideratum, has
ceased to be that, and has come to be
the repeal of the Fifteenth amendment?
No change has come except that the
Governor is running for different Of
fice
"The Governor says that he did not
promise to relieve the white people of
taxation to educate negroes without the
aid Of the legislature, and of course hs
did not. Everybody understood that he
had to have their aid. But, when Mr..
Noel and others had said upon the stump
that the Governor was promising to do
something that he could not, that could
not be done constitutionally, the Gov
ernor made all manner of fun of them.
even to likening their reasoning to the
braying of donkey. As he imper
sonated them he ridiculed them as men
who said, you can't, you can't, you
can't giving the imitation of the bray
in those words. Now, / do not know
whether the Governor could or not, but
do know that he did not I do know
that he rode into office upon one phase
of the negro question. 1t seems to
me that he is trying to ride into another
upon another phase of it, and the only
difference between the two positions
which he has assumed is this: That
what he now proposes to do is a hundred
times more difficult of consummation
than that which he proposed to do when
L olo ~ L..
confessedly failed to do. 1t is true
that the Governor did put some SEN
fences in his message, in which he urged
the legislature to enact laws along the
lines of his gubernatorial contention, but
I do not think that his best friend will
say that he put half the spirit and in
dustry and energy in the effort to ac
complish that purpose that he has put
in a great many minor things. Nor will
his best friend say that he has pointed
out or attempted to point out any con-
stitutional method of arriving at the
promised result.
II do not charge the Governor with
using his academic project of the repeal
of the Fifteenth amendment as veil to
conceal his opinions, or lack Of opinions
on the real questions. l only say that
the people have right to know spe-
ciically and accurately what he will
stand for in real matters of Federal leg
islation, and that they will require
something more than mere antinigger
utterances to convince them that he
is the best man to send to the Senate.
Most of us are as white as the Governor
in our politics and as true to the ira
ditions, ideals, civilization and suprem-
acy of our race
"The difference between the impor-
lance of Mr.. Bryan's proposition to have
the Federal government buy, own and
operate the railroads and Governor
Vardaman's proposition to repeal the
Fifteenth amendment, is that the former
will be during his term of office, if he
gets to the Senate, a real issue, and is
now being discussed as a thing that
some people hope and others fear to see,
whereas the latter, Governor Varda-
mans project, will not be accomplished
during his or my term of office, even if
it will ever be.
Senator George said that whoever
looked for a repeal of the war amend
ments was deceiving himself. Mr.. Till
man of South Carolina said in the Sen
ate of January 81, 1907: I do not ex-
pect to live to see any changes in the
constitution of the United States one
way or the other. I doubt if there is
a man in this chamber who will ever see
it changed by amendment He
added: 1T is not worth while for Us
(meaning the South) to propose any
thing. All we can do is to maintain
our present attitude of resistance, to
maintain control of our State govern
ments,' etc. Senator Morgan in recent
letter to me pronounces against the agi-
tation for the repeal of the Fifteenth
amendment as hopeless and harmful.
SIN special to the New Orleans
Times Democrat, dated Jackson, Novem-
Der Is, 1906, occurs this language in a
quoted interview from Governor Varda-
man: I have no patience with the cow
ardly and stupid policy pursued by
some of our people of waiting for the
North to take the initiative If this
does not mean that the South is to
pitch in and do it what does it mean
And yet Governor Vardaman, in his last
interview, says that | know that he
never said anything of the sort. 1t all
refers back to my Walthan speech at
which he was taking a passing slap.
If the Governor had read my Walthall
speech with care he would have seen
that never said that he proposed TO
have the South alone repeal the Fiji
teenth Amendment What I said, on
the contrary, was that the South alone
could not do it, and further that it
would never be done by Southern mi
tiative, or upon partisan initiative, and
that It was dangerous to reinject the
race question into the arena of national
politics, to become football to be
played with by politicians in the SEN
ate and in the House.
/ "The Governor says he never ex--
pressed the idea, nor entertained a de-
sire that the Federal government should
deal with the race problem for the
States further than to remove the pro-
scriptions put upon the States by the
Fifteenth and Fourteenth Amendments
That is to say that he has never ex-
pressed the idea of having the Federal
government, after it had undertaken to
deal with the race question, to deal with
it otherwise than just as the Governor
wishes, and up to the point where he
desires it to stop and beyond which he
would not have it 60. That is just ex-
actly what said his proposition was,
except that we used slightly different
language It was this very proposition
that I described as child like and bland
IA proposition appealing to Caesar and
then telling Caesar just how far he must
go after the appeal was lodged. That
is how st. Paul came to be crucifed-
not knowing Caesar. Unfortunately for
the Governor and for his 'child-like and
bland confidence, tribunals which take
jurisdiction of questions do not bind
themselves to 60 just as far as the ap-