The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-02-13
DlSFRANCHISEMENT.


The Washington Herald commenting
upon the efforts of Maryland and Okla
homa'to disfranchise the negro voters
by constitutional amendment says:
1.-TWO states have now under consid-
GRAFTON legislation for the disfranchise-
ment sof NEGRO voters Maryland and
Oklahoma. In both of these Common
wealths..the whites for outnumber the
blacks-in Oklahoma the population be-
ing ten to one and in Maryland five to
one; so that in neither state is there
any:danger of negro domination, the
possibility which has been held to JUS
tify the disfranchisement legislation of
the. South. The negro has, in fact,
voted for many years in Maryland with
out challenging white supremacy, save
in a few counties where the blacks are
more numerous than the whites. Thus
the necessity for disfranchisement felt
by Southerners generally has not
strongly Impressed the people of this
state, land. two years ago a constitu-
tional' for the suppression
of the negro vote was overwhelmingly
defeated
Under. these circumstances the pro-
blem of. disfranchisement has this year
been approached with extreme caution
by thesMaryland Democracy The Bal
timore Sun,Ethe leading party organ, is
conspicuously lukewarm on the subject,
andsthe Baltimore News, an independ-
ent paper frankly confesses that mo
intrinsic and unavoidable necessity eX-
lists" for a suffrage amendment. 1t
asserts that, the negro vote has not
been an injurious factor in the state or
municipal government or in Federal
elections, but would not object to a
reasonable disfranchisement measure
one that allowed considerable number
of theIbetter class of negroes to vote
II it could be counted on to put stop
to the ceaseles agitation of the race
question. b Having regard to the rather
uncertain state of public sentiment in
the disfranchisement proposition, the
Democratic leaders have evoluted a
constitutional amendment establishing
new suffrage qualifications which in
their judgment will meet the objections
that led to the defeat of the former
measure.
''TheIproposed amendment contains
some novel features. Native-bom
whites are granted the suffrage by in
herltanee by the familiar grandfather
clause. But as there is large foreign
population in Maryland, it has been
found politically expedient to confer on
foreign-born citizens or their descen-
dants the rights to vote on the same
terms as theEnatives thus creating two
classes of.scitizens entitled to the suf-
frage byinheritance. No time limit is
fixed to the operation of the heredity
clauses, as in the case of the grand
father clauses of other states, so that
the Maryland Democracy proposes to es-
tablished for the first time in American
history, perpetually hereditary cleo
torate. A wide difference of opinion
has developed concerning the propriety
and constitutionality of this proposition,
but its advocates insist that it will
strengthen the amendment at the polls,
even if it should prove to weaken it
from constitutional standpoint. Negro
voters are required to have either a
property sor AM educational qualifica-
ton, neither of which is onerous. Curl
ously enough, tits provided that negro
may vote if his wife owns property,
though he may have none himself If
approved by the people, the disfran,
chisement amendment will be brought
before the bar of the United States Su-
preme Court, where Republican leaders
feel confident it will lbe annulled, as do
also the more timorous Of the Demo
Gratis.
oklahoma Acknowledgement law,
while containing grandfather clause,
seeks to exclude negro voters by re-
quiring satisfactory construction of
some provision of the Oklahoma or
Federal Constitution. This test is to
be applied, not at the time of registra-
ton, but at the polls, andmay apparent
ly be required of any voter, so that it
places in the hands Of partisan election
boards powerful weapon of fraud and