Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-31
world from going hungry for many
years TO come.
rOsERs FoR MR. BRYAN.

The democratic platform is entirely
silent on the negro question. much TO
the disappointment Of Colonel Waiter
son and other democratic leaders who
have made advances looking to the an
%nexation of the negro vote, and Colonel
Bryan has declared that he has not
said a word about the negro and does
not intend to discuss any political
question not incorporated in the plat
form.
This position may please democrats
in the border states where the negro
vote holds the balance Of power, but II
is far from satisfactory to democrats
in the south. Editor Hemphill of the
Charleston News and Courier, who is
supporting Bryan because he must and
not from choice, wants to know where
Mr.. Bryan stands on the negro ques-
ton. In a recent issue the News and
Courier %propounds these four ques.
tions to Mr.. Bryan:
First-If elected president, Mr.. Bryan,
will you attempt any interference with the
'ouOlllOuS OF negro suffrage III ~ souNll-
crn states?
Second-Will you make any effort to re-
store the negro soldiers who were dis
missed from the military service Of the
country because of the affair at Browns
vile, Tex?
Third-wil you appoint negroes to Off
cial places in the federal service?
~Fourth-In the selection and appointment
" United States Judges for the supreme,
circuit or district benches would you be
controlled by political or factional consider
atoms or regard these offices as rewards
for assistance given to you and the party
you represent in the presidential election?
However much Mr.. Bryan may de-
sire to avoid discussing the negro
question, he must admit that the ques-
tons asked by Editor Hemphill are
pertinent and hat the negro voters
are entitled to know his position on
them. Fairness to the negroes should
induce him to answer at least the first
three questions, although he has in
former speeches attempted to make his
position on the first two propositions
clear.
In a speech at Cooper Union in New
York last April Mr.. Bryan, in response
to a question from a man in the audi
ence, stated in explicit terms that he
approved CT the laws adopted in the
Southern states for the disfranchise-
ment of the negro. He asserted that
the whites of the south were justified
in their course by conditions existing
there and that If similar conditions ex-
listed in any northern state the negroes
would be disfranchised in the north.
Mr.. Bryan has also defined his atti-
tude on the Brownsville case. When
the case was pending in Washington
he wrote an editorial in the Commoner
in which he approved of President
Roosevelt's course. The negroes who
have been opposing Mr.. Taft because
of President R~oosevelt's dealing with
the Brownsville soldiers have nothing
to expect from Mr.. Bryan on that
score.
On the question of appointing ne
groes to ONCE Mr.. Bryan is not on
record. President Cleveland thought
he was playing good politics when he
appointed a negro democrat to a high
federal Office in Washington, but it
was never demonstrated that the dem
ocratic party gained a vote thereby.
The democratic party never had and
has not now any real sympathy for the
negro and the few negroes associated
with the democratic party have always
found themselves in a forlorn position.