The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-27
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
An Alarming Condition.


 Will the white people of Alabama 1 stop and reflect? The new Constitution of Alabama I makes an educational qualification for the negroes to vote; but under the grandfather clause" no such qualifi- | cation is required of the whites. A stimulus is thus given to the negro to improve himself mentally so as to be- come qualified voter; but premium is put upon ignorance among the whites. While this clause was put in to re- tard the negro and advance the while voter, blind man ought to see that
 A great cry is now being raised against licensing the negro dives" in our cities. High license is being put upon the saloons so as 70 make 1t im- possible to maintain a saloon where the meanest and cheapest liquors are dealt out to negroes. Governor Vardaman, of Mississippi, is out as an advocate for prohibiting the sale of liquor to ne- the sale of liquor to the Indians. This. he argues, would help to keep the ne- gro from criminal life. No argument Is needed to prove to thinking per the negro. He would greatly inn prove morally and that means inevir- ably social and financial improvement also. But what about the whites? Un- elusive right to drink liquor. Is argu- ment needed to prove to any man that 9 law which keeps liquor away from the negro and leaves the white man free to use it, insures to the better ment of the negro's condition in every way, and the ruin of the white race?
 It Is notorious that the negroes are sending their children to school. After the schools open 1t Is next to impossi- ble to hire a negro child to nurge the baby in any home. It is equally noto- rious that many white parents are care- less abe the schooling of their chil- dren. Almost any country teacher, will tell you of the many white children who do not avail themselves of tho op- portunitles they have. Senator Rev. eridge, in a speech in the United States Senate the other day on the Child La bor Bill. now before Congress, used the following language:
 While the white working people of the South, composing the enormous ma jority of the entire white stock of that section, are increasingly sending their childreh to the mills and thus wrecking the future of the white race, the ne- groes of the South are increasingly thus improving the future of the black race. We are deliberately weakening the white race of the South, whiie gradually strengthening the black race of the South.
 T am glad to see the negro children going tC school; but it is heart-break- 7 ing to know that the white children are being made their interiors, physically ana nerVcuSly, anu, III tue Tar IuluTS, mentally. And to what end? To tho end that the already unhealthy fortunes of Northern capitalists who own these Southern Cotton Mile shall be made still greater. The nation is alarmed over the unrighteous power of unright> eous fortunes; and yet we go on swell ing these fortunes with the blood and lives of American children.
 Are the negroes ~te--'- be~blarred TOT their desire for an education? Are they to be cursed and bemeaned If they im- prove under prohibition laws, which re- moves from them the greatest enemy to their progress? Certainly not; 1t IS heart-breaking" to see how blindly We are rushing on to the destruction of the white race. Often while we are try ing to enact laws to put the negro at d -aisadvantage; we Tnwittingiy m do on ex- A'''' 'Ae 0fp'S x 4s
 For Regulating Railroad Telegraph EmpIOyes.
 Editor Advertiser;
 I wish to call attention to, and com mend, House Bill No. Al by Hon. c. M Sherrod of Lawrence.
 , This bill proposes to regulate the employment Of Railroad Telegraph Op- orators. and establish a Board of EX- amlners. Being an old railr7ad tel egrapher. I can appreciate more fully, perhaps, than can the public, generally, | the great benefits this bill would con fer. The great number of disastrous wrecks which have recently occurred give evidence of dereiiction somewhere In several instances--no tapiy the wreck in Kansas two or three weeks ago--the derelictian was with the tel egraph operator. This operator was boy Boys are lacking In judgment and discretion sometimes. He failed to display the proper signal for pas senRer train and it crashed into an other train with the disastrous result of thirty-three fatalities.
 This letter is in no way intended as l AN-- T. l.. Aa.,s In general. They are generally higt class men; but too often boys of i'm l mature judgment, failing to appreciate the responsibility of their positions of incorporate habits are able to cen 1 ceal their unfitness from the chief dis patcher whose duty 1t is to employ i operators, and when their true merits price of discovery has been paid in hu man life or destruction of valuable
 Mir. sherrods bill seeks to remed! these evils and put in the service onll men of ability, judgment and correc | habits, and should 1t become a law. MT Sherrod will have conferred upon thu public. as well as the careful. pains taking operator, great and lasting
 During my eighteen years of actlv service I have had frequent occasion t? note the necessity TOT some henef'
 l most heartily comment MT. Sher rol's till to my brother operators, am the public generally.
 To the operator, the license bn means as much as does the licensing O lawyers, doctors and other professions
 It eliminates the incompetent an
 irresponsible element. and protects th
 interests and reputation of the opera
 tor of proficiency and good character
 and incidentally protects the railroa
 companies by improving the servict
 reducing the number of accidents an consequent damage sutts, and sustain ing the character pf the road for gooC
 safe and competent service.
 Operator. Supply and Demand.