Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1909-09-24
MIR. Taft and the Amendment.

President Tafts attitude in favor of illit
crate negro suffrage in Maryland is no
consistent with his attitude toward thu
people of the Philippine Islands. The Presi
dent in recent letter sent to this city
said that the pending franchise amendment
TO the Constitution of the State is de-
hDerately drawn to impose educational and
other qualifications for the suffrage upon
negroes and to exempt everybody else from
such qualifications. This is gross injus-
tice and is violation of the spirit of the
Fifteenth Amendment" The President
added that the amendment should be voted
down by everyone who is in favor of a
square deal"
Apparently the President is not in favor
OF square deal for the illiterate Filipinos.
For under the laws formulated and APP
proved by the commission of which Mr..
Taft was the head, only about one-thrd of
the adult male population of the islands
is permitted to vote. The qualifications
for voting fixed by Mr.. Taft for these Fill
Pine people in their own country are in
some respects singularly similar to the
qualifications fixed in the Maryland amend
ment which he denOunces. For many years
while Mr.. Taft was Governor of the island
the natives were not permitted to vote at
Ni'' DNSduoC II WIS that lHtY
were not prepared to exercise the right of
suffrage intelligently. Here in Maryland
Mr.. Taft is in favor of permitting the ne
eroes to vote whether they are prepared to
exercise the right of suffrage intelligently
or not.
Mr.. Taft bestowed the right to vote in
the Philippines upon three classes of the
population, divided not unlike the division
OF classes in the Maryland amendment.
The first class comprised all who before
August 10, 1908, held any vi certain petty
Offices which had been held by the natives
These were permitted to vote without fur
ther qualification, whether literate or illit-
crate. The Maryland amendment permits
all to vote, literate or illiterate, who had
the right to vote in any State in the Union
on or before January |, 1869, and their
descendants and all who have been since
naturaliZed.
In class 3 Mr.. Taft allowed all to vote
in the Philippines, literate or iliterate,
who owned property to the amount of 500
pesos, the peso being the Spanish dollar
The Maryland amendment permits all to
vote, literate or illiterate, white and black
who own or whose wives own property to
the value of five hundred American dollars
In class 3 Mr.. Taft allowed all to vote in
the Philippine Islands who could pass an
educational test. The Maryland amend
ment permits all to vote who can qualify
under the educational test prescribed in the
article.
Is it square deal to the great body of
FilipinOs to impose educational and other
qualifications to the suffrage" upon them
and to exempt the Office holding class from
such qualifications"
President Taft's ways are not equal and
he stands convicted on this point of Glar-
ing inconsistency.
1t has been contended by many of the
opponents of the amendment that it will,
if ratified, result in the dsfranchisement
of many white citizens, to wit those of
foreign birth. Mr. Taft has doubtless taken
the trouble to read the measure sufficiently
to be able to testify that there is no truth
in this charge. and he affirms what The
Sun had already said, namely, that the
ratification of the amendment would dis
franchise no white citizen of Maryland.
The President is in error, however, when
he says that this amendment violates the
spirit of the Fifteenth Amendment of the
Federal Constitution. 1t does not deny the
right of the negro to vote because "Of his
race, color or previous condition of servi-
tude." Those who will be deprived by its
provisions of the right to vote will be de-
prived of it, not because of race or color,
but because of ignorance and shftlessness.
If the discrimination was on account of
race, all of the race would be excluded from
the electorate. But. in point of fact, there
will be large number of negroes who will
retain their right to vote if the amendment
is ratified. All who have been sufficiently
thrifty and industrious to accumulate five
hundred dollars worth of property will be
able to vote; all who can qualify under a
test of literacy and intelligence which the
average schoOlboy could master will retain
their vote. There are thousands of other
negroes in this State, and more are coming
from other States. who cannot read the
ballots they vote and have not the faintest
of what they are voting about,
who have to be guided in marking the bal
lots by calling the letter "B' an OK yoke
and the letter ID" a goose yoke, and tell
ing them to make their mark after the
name that has an OK yoke or goose yoke.
In one county of this State some years ago
hundreds of these voters were DISTINGUISHED
by turning LincOln's nose in different di-
rectiOn from the direction they were told
it would point
Mr.. Taft says these people ought to have
a square deal. Is it not more important
that the State and the counties and the
taxpayers should have square deal and
be freed from the dangers to property in
terests and good government involved in
large ignorant electorate, subject to the
will of few Republican leaders ?-Batti
more Sun