Franklin's paper the statesman., 1908-09-26
WOULD DISFRANCHlSE NEGRO
VOTERS.
Manager of Bryan's Speaks Bureau
Would Disfranchse Negro Voters
and Restrict Educational Privi-
leges.


cratic national committeeman for
Kansas and chairman of the speak
ers' bureau of the national Demo
cratic committee in charge of W. j
Bryans campaign, advocated the dis
franchisement of the negro voters of
Kansas and proposed also to bar
Negro children from receiving an edu.
cation
Mr.. Atwoods letter was printed in
the Kansas City Post, the Democratic
organ for Kansas, under date of Nav
6, 1908, couple of months in ad-
vance of Mr.. Bryan's nomination, and
before it had been decided to play
the hypocrite to capture the Negro
vote for the Democratic party.
Mr.. Atwood does not propose in set
terms to disfranchise the entire
Negro vote of Kansas; he names only
the vicious and ignorant, but the en-
tire record of Democracy and its lead
ers shows conclusively that it is the
disfranchisement of the whole race
that he is after, and if Mr.. Bryan and
his party should come into control of
the government for any considerable
period the inevitable result would be
the disfranchisement of the colored
voters of the country.
The letter of National Committee
man Atwood reads as follows:
TO the Kansas City Post: By one
of those strange ironies of fate which
sometimes overtake the benefactora
of individuals, peoples or races, the
state of Kansas, which has done more,
perhaps, for the Negro than any other
state in the Union, is now suffering a
grievous political wrong from the
hands of the freedman and his de
scendants.
William A. Harris would now be
governor Of Kansas had it not been
for the ignorant Negro vote, and there
have been times in the past when the
Democratic party could have electe,
its state ticket had it not been fol-
the ignorant black vote of Kansa
City Kan, Leavenworth, Atchison
Lawrence and Topeka.
There was time when the Negr
vote was not considerable factor il
Kansas politics, but that time ha
passed. The influx of negroes from tn
South, the rapid multiplication
those native to Kansas soil, and the
increasing insistence of the Negro
upon social equality, make the Kan
sas Negro not only political factor,
but social and political menace.
"If the last general election be 2
criterion, the Negro now holds the
balance of political powel in Kansas,
as he does in Missouri. This in it.
self is bad enough, but in Kansas we
have suffered for long years the out
rage of mixed schools, fastened upon
us by the Republican politicians.
mixed schools lead the Negroes to
aspire to mixed society ard this
close contact of the races is produc-
tive of troubles from which Kansas
would be free if the Negro had less
political power and were not admit
ted to the same schools with the
whites.
kansas has long been weary of the
Negro politician, and it is more than
weary Of the mixed school. Patience
has Its limits, and ] believe that the
time has come when the people OF
Kansas will join with the people OF
Missouri In restricting Negro suf-
frage.
II do not advocate the disfranchise.
ment Of the Negro on the ground OF
his color. That idea is abhorrent to
the principles Of our free government
and its execution would be in conflicl