The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-01-05

4 J9cI Oh the MAT II ny
the North Carolina amendment, is Ito
| d~isfranchise the bulk Of tic negro
vote as the News correctly puts It.
| That paper says that without reser-
yation'' Mr.. Taft is opposed to It, and
the reasons of his opposition is tnat
it would "disfranchise the bulk OF the
| negro vote That was the reason the
Republican party in North Carolina
| fought the North Carolina act so Wig
| orously and SO viciously. They do not
want to have the bulk of h negro
vote disfranchised," and if the day
ever comes that North Carolina is
| again cursed with Republican rule
that party will find a way TO restore
the bulk of the negro vote
After printing the letter of Mr.. Taft,
the News says editorially:
obviously, Mr.. Taft cannot brinS
himself to look with favor upon a
constitutional amendment, the aVoW-
ed object of which is to discriminate
against the negro, as such. AS the
address delivered before the North
Carolina Society by Judge Taft has
been the subject of much discussion,
and as it has been given a humble OF
interpretations, his letter to Mr. stone
VIII DC Iedu Will
Not a suggestion of dissent to Mr.
Taft's desire to have the bulk OF the
negro vote at the ballot and reintro-
duce the race troubles now so happily
settled everywhere in the South except
in Maryland. where the compact and
unreasoning negro, vote is a menace
to intelligent voting and to good gov
eminent. No Republican in authority
in North Carolina has dared to de-
fend the suffrage amendment that gets
rid of the bulk Of the negro vote be-
cause they know the National Repub-
lican leaders want all the negroes to
vote, but they have gone about among
the people pretending they were glad
to have the negro disfranchised anu
appealing to white voters to restore |
Republicans to power because the
negro is now out of politics. !,
The grandfather clause" to which
most objection is made is not a con-
tinuing part of the suffrage law 1t
u~neducated old Confederate soldiers
and old Federal soldiers. who bore
arms in the War Between the States
and other patriotic men should not
have the right of suffrage taken from
them after they had long exercised it
wisely and patriotically. 1t merely
put in effect in North Carolina in
1906 the provision of suffrage pro-
posed Ey Mr.. Lincoln to Louisiana to-
wit: Continue the suffrage to all men
now voters and give it to the ne
groes gradually as they qualify them
selves by educational or other test.
The Wisest men in the North favored
plan when Thad Stevens put the
ballot in the hand of every negro
had been taken. the horrors of Re
would have been averted.
Under the grandfather clause no
white young mani coming of age this
year can vote unless he can read and
write, and i'll all the future the educa-
tlonal provision applies alike to both
races. The old men are passing
away and before many, years any OBJ,
lection to continuing suffrage to the
old patriots who cannot read will not
exist. The Wisest Northern Repub-
Leans lave acQuiesced in this temper
airy policy because they saw it was
based upon necessity. 1t. is to b. re
GREETED that Mr.. Taft has denounced
It and is seeking to defeat Maryland's
light to rid itself of the incubus Of
t bulk Of the negro vote If Mr..
1aft shall secure q reversal of the
present suffrage settlement in the
south, it will be necessary for the
south to seek some other method of
itself from rule by "the bulk
1f the negro vote" and the selfish and
corrupt men who use them to make
corrupt and inefficient government.
ihe southern people have sworn that
-hey VIII find a way or make one by
which they Will control their local
governments. They will never again
ubmit to the sort Of government
North Carolina was cursed with in
LS6S-69 and 1S94-'99.
But the North Carolina Republicans
IN the suffrage question, like all other
matters, Will sneeZe every time Taft
snuff. They know no indie
'endence of the Federal executive and
his slightest whim more seryiIelv
nan any negro ever obeyed his
master in the day of slavery.
Il Sr~