Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-05-24
49,, .
TlLLMAN AND THE NEGRO.

. ~
Senator Tillman's views with refer
ence to the negro are well known. He
has made himself character of ma
tional interest through the yigor of
his debates, the acidity of his temper
sometimes, and through what he him
self refers to his "pitchforky'' nature.
Senator Tillman is a southerner with
old time southern instincts ami
hereditary beliefs and he has had :,
whole lot of the bitter unpleasant
nesses of the reconstruction period, in
which, students of history admit, seri
GUS and fragrant mistakes were made
and the pendulum swung from the ex-
IRENE of secession to the other ex-
treme of humiliation. Naturally
enough he has harbored up deal of
hatred against the negro, as the negro
appeared to him through this trying
and bitter period, and he is a firm
and unalterable believer in the state
ment that the white man is superior
to the negro and that no law will ever
put them both on the plane of social
or political equality. A good many
people of the north, not at all rabid on
the subject of equal rights and equal
social station for negroes and whites,
do not hold views entirely different
from Senator Tillman, although they
do not express them so brutally or SO
vigorously, neither do they hold so
hopeless view of the ultimate work
ing out by the negro of his own
destiny.
Senator TnIman's address is vitriol-
Tc rather than argumentative, savage
rather than logical, inimical rather
than persuasive. He begins with the
theory that the negro is a naturally
inferior class and cannot ever be
raised to plane from which he can
\ meet the white man with any racial
or social equality. He says this an
tagonism between the races is in
stinctiVe and bred in races, and illus
trates the feeling by abiding to the
disinclination the Caucasian would
have to going to bed@with China
man. This is a forceful comparison
and no doubt expresses caste or race
feeling. He holds that as long as the
negro question is a dominant issue
the south will remain solidly demo
cratic, as EVERY white man in ths
south is democrat" and will remai1
so as long as there is danger of Negro
domination. He takes it for granted
that the north is not informed on tht
negro question, which is no doub
true to some extent. There are six O
the great states of the south where
the total negro population exceeds tn,
total white population by thirty tflous
and. Two of the southern states
Il South Carolina and Mississippi, hav.
negro population largely in excess o
the white. Four of the other state,
have SO large proportion of negroes
that the balance of power is not !;
great number. With complete negr.
suffrage, he holds that it would b.
"a racial struggle for supremacy, al
4 either one or the other race must rule
Disfranchisement Of negroes in tn,
south has been worked by the passag
of law requiring every elector to b,
able to read and write or have
property qualification of $500. Thi
lis an alternative requirement, work
Ing the Acknowledgement of th
negroes but not affecting the whit
vote. The state will never pass
strict property qualification, as
would disfranchise many whites. TIL
negroes are learning to read an,
write. Therefore, he argues, the tim
is coming when, under the constitu
ton OF the United States, the negroe
must be allowed to yotesa that vii
precipitate the race issue The negr
he Iikens to an old man OF the sea
q The Acknowledgement Of the presen
4 Ioosens his grip for time, but he viii
crawl back up again and insist on be
B ing carried And as he puts 1t brutal
" the people Of South Carolina vii
see their state red before they see /
black. He declares that the white
people are prepared to kill them i
there IL no other solution Of TIKI
iiifficulty. no doubt, this IS an Elk
treme statement and due to bis bruta
Irankness Of belief and earnestness