The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-01-07
THE AMENDMENT MAY BE THE
LAST STRAW.

The News prints elsewhere an article
by Alfred Henry Lewis on the proposed
suffrage amendment in this State. Mr.
Lewis is one of the best known of the
Washington newspaper and magazine
writers and fairly expresses, no doubt,
the view many of them will take of the
effort to disfranchise the negro in Mary
land and how they will picture it to the
people of the country.
There are two reasons why The News
has argued that Maryland ought not to
pass this amendment. One OF them is
that the elimination of the negro vote
will make this One-party State; that
there will not be enough Independent
voters to hold the scales even. 1t is all
right to talk about parties splitting up
as soon as the negro is disposed of; but
we have not a particle of faith in the
prediction. Party loyalty grips many
persons as strongly as does religion, and
they would as soon think of changing
one as the other We do not think many
persons stay out of the Republican
party of Maryland because it is the
negro party" In any event f the
negro is what holds them to the Demo-
cratic party. the suffrage amendment
will not change their attitude, since we
do not understand anyone to contend
that all the negroes will be disfranchis-
ed. There will still be enough of them
in politics to serve as the negro buga-
boo" The idea that the amendment
will get rid of the negro issue is an
iridescent dream.
Another reason why we object to the
amendment is that Northern States
have been chatting under conditions that
give the South disproportionate repre-
sentation in Congress and in the nation
al conventions, and that this may be
last straw. This feeling may not be en-
tirely logical, but it is intensely human.
There have been mutterings of discon-
tent as the Acknowledgement of the
negro farther South has proceeded, but
there has been a disposition, on the
whole, not to look too closely at what
was done or how 1t was done. But it
would be great mistake to assume, be-
cause there has not been more resent
ment displayed at the disregard of the
Fifteenth Amendment, that many fair
minded men are not FESTIVE under it.
Unless we are much mistaken, there
will be constant protest that the Mary
land amendment is a thing meant not
for the good of the negro and not for
the good of the white man, but that it
is political trick designed to give
coterie of politicians control Of the
State.
What shall be said in reply to the
statement that, but for the Republican
party and its negro vote, the indepen-
dent vote would not have been able to
rescue this city or the State from the
old ring that frightfully misgoverned it?
Or what shall be said in reply to the
statement that each time the State has
been saved from following MIR. Bryan
that in order to save it even in 1896,
when the credit of the nation was be-
lieved to he at stake-the Independent
vote was again effective by reason of
the fact that 1t combines with the Re-
publicans and their negro allies? What
is to be said when, in view of political
history in this State and city, the ques-
ton is asked, "Why is Maryland dis
franchising the negro?'
And if the efforts succeed and the
case is taken to the Supreme Court of
the United States, where the best
authorities believe it will be pronounced
unconstitutional, what will happen to
the States south of US which have been
compelled by entirely different circum-
stances to seek to get rid of the negro
as political issue? There will be many
more warnings like that conveyed in
the article we reprint, and it is tempt
ing fate-not only so much our owr,
but that of the whole South-to ignore
them. Baltimore News.