The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-12-10
POSSIBILITY OF
ONE-PARTY STATE
II DISTINGUISHING Amendment Is
Approved.
A GREAT ISSUE NEXT YEAR
Democrats to Take Superhuman Eff
fort to Secure Vote Upon the Prop
Osition in Order That They nay
Entrench Themselves in Power.

AN4~0 Vi thS luIulS vi luS SONSlH-
ment of Maryland which are in
volved in the fate of the Stratus dis
franchising amendment, to be sub
mitted at the election next year to
the voters for their approval or re-
lection. If approved, and the
Democrats will use superhuman
efforts to this end, the government
of Maryland will be vested for a
generation or more in the hands of
one party. Boys now in their
knickerbockers may be bald-headed
and gray-haired and grandiathers
before they will see this one-party
power uprooted. Men now in the
prime of life, although they may
reach fourscore years and ten, will
probably have gone to join their
fathers before they will see the
ollgarcny OVerthrOWn.
1t is all nonsense, a snare and
delusion, for the advocates of the
amendment to say that with the
elimination of the colored vote the
Republican party will attract
thousands of men now Democrats.
They know full we'll that if the
amendment is approved sufficient
colored men will be permitted to
registered to serve the bugaboo
cry of the Democratic demagogues
that the Republican party is the
colored mans party. They know
it is falsehood, but they will be-
lieve that the baseless cry will
help them in their campaigns.
The time is at hand when the
DISTINGUISHING amendment, which
will be the paramount issue in the
campaign next year, must be seri-
ously contemplated, and when
cps must be taken to defeat it.
1t is not for the Republicans alone
to conduct the fight. 1t is the
fight of all good citizens, who con-
template the disastrous and dis
quieting effects to follow the ap-
proval of the amendment. Repub-
lican leaders are inviting the CO.
operation Of all good citizens in
the desperate struggle to come.
Realizing that somebody must
take the first step, the friends Of
Collector Stone in the city and
state have requested him to make
the preliminary move. He has
consented to do so, and about the
middle of next month he will have
as guests at dinner the leading
Republicans of the state and city.
At this function the seriousness of
the situation and the possibilities
of the future, if the amendment is
approved, will be fully and frank
ly discussed. All citizens with
the interests of their state and city
at heart, will be invited to CO.
operate in the movement to defeat
the proposition.
The whole question settles itself
down to this: Shall the people of
Maryland abridge their right to
participate in elections, to manacle
the state with the tether of race
prejudice and without reason to
join the DISTINGUISHED states of the
South that are now chatting under
the CALLING conditions of what is
substantially universal disfran.
chisement?
The disfranchisement amend
ment passed by the General As
sembly of 1908 was prepared in the
hour of victory and exultation by
a number of men who took an ac-
tive part to secure the election of
Governor Crothers. That cam
align was exceptionally bitter and
The only reasonable explanation
for the amendment receiving the
support of some of the men who
assented to it is that the feeling
engendered by that campaign had
not been permitted to subside. 1t
was born in prejudice and its
adoption by the people of the
state will mean a general disfran-
chisement.
1t is aimed at two classes of cit
liens.