Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-25
DEMOCRATS LINING UP
Maryland Farmers Favor Con-
StitutionaI Amendment.
TALBOT COUNTY SITUATION
Disfranchisement Of Colored Voters
Seemingly Popular
IN FACE OF STRONG APPEALS
Baltimore Association Issues Pam
phlet Denouncing Policy of
Dominant Party.
TALBOT COUNTY SITUATION
IN FACE OF STRONG APPEALS

Special From a STAFF Correspondent.
EASTON. Nd. September 24.-On many
a colonial porch these autumn afternoons,
overlooking the stately Tired Avon river
and other waters that lap the shores OF
aristocratic Talbot county, the constitu-
tional amendment is an earnest subject OF
discussion. Here is where you find the
eastern shoreman at his best. Prosperous
Travelled, educated, the gentry of the coun-
try side rank high in Maryland citizen
ship Proud of family and ancestry.
tenacious OF privilege. politicians to the
core, the Talbot county men have ever
figured prominently in the history Of the
state and are In the fore front OF all
political movements.
Talbo: county seems fertile soil for the
growth of sentiment favorable to the dis
Iranchisen. mt OF the negroes and shutting
them out from participation in politics.
At any rate, the feeling is strong in this
county in favor of the dis1ranchis1ng
amendment, and a heavy majority Tor IL
the negro vote can be polled In the race
of the Wilson ballot law handicap me
democratic vote will be practically unani-
NOUS for the amendment.
Yet strong appeals are being mace 70
these democrats Of birth, breeding and
education to vote against the amendment,
proceeding from democratic sources IN
Baltimore. These arguments have 1ur-
nished some pretty difficult problems for
the high-minded and intelligent Talbot
county people to solve and are causing
| the discussions.
Outline Of Opposition.
1 found the county flooded with litera-
ture bearing the caption Published by
the Democratic Association Opposed to
the DISTINGUISHING Amendment" One Of
these pamphlets, circulated among the
eastern shore country squires for perusal,
is entitled 1.-The DISTINGUISHING Amend
states which," AS it presents the ar
amendment will quote it verbatim:
1.-The fifteenth amendment declares
that the right of citizens to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any state on account of race.
color or previous condition of kervitude.
and yet this Is precisely what the pro-
posed DISTINGUISHING amendment TO the
Maryland constitution avowedly attempts
to do. How any one can vote for the
adoption of such an amendment without
violating his obligation to support the
Constitution of the United States 1t is
hard to see. Many of US may doubt the
wisdom of the fifteenth amendment but
If one Is at liberty to disregard any law
simply because he does not approve of IT..
we might as we'll not have any law at all.
Abridgement Of Rights.
"That the purpose Of the proposed
amendment is to abridge the right Of ne
gro citizens to vote simply because they
are negroes is too plain for argument, al
though it is quite apparent that the de-
vices which have been necessarily resort
ed to in seeking to accomplish this nulli-
flcation of the fifteenth amendment by
an attempted evasion of the letter Of Its
prohibition against Acknowledgement on
account of race, color or previous condi-
ton of servtude will undoubtedly have
at the same time the effect of disfran-
chising a greater or less number OF white
men.
1.-THE grandfather clause processes to
give the right to vote to all who were en-
titled to vote in any state on or before
January /. 1869 (when practically all
white men. and only white men. were en-
titled to vote in this state). and to their
descendants. Another clause s gives ,s,ut the
naturalized between January l. 1869. and
November 2, 1909, and their descendants
Advocates Of the amendment allege that IT
gives the right to vote to practically an
white citizens In fact. however. all white
men, naturalized subsequently to Novem-
Der 2, 1909, and their descendants for un-
counted generations. are put by this
amendment in precisely the same situa-
llOn as are lIc HC6IOCS.
Affects the White Voter.
Moreover, every white man. native or
naturalized, may be called on to prove
that he or his ancestor had the right to
vote before 1869 or was naturalized be-
fore 1909 This proof would often be hard
to give especially II the registrars want
ed to keep the applicant off the registra-
ton books. Those who cannot give the
proof lose the right to vote unless they
pass the impossible so-called educational
test, which is skillfully framed for the
purpose of excluding everybody attempt
ing to pass it. or unless they pay taxes
on $500 worth of property standing in
their own or their wives names.
The educational test, which requires
every person seeking to register under 1t
to make application in the presence OF
the officers of registration In his own
handwriting with pen and INK without IN, ut
whatsoever. and without any question or
direction addressed to him by any of the
officers of registration, correctly stating
seventeen separate and distinct irrelevant
to vote under 1t conditional upon the ex-
ercise Of a feat Of memory which not one
man in a thousand could perform and
even then only after a special course OF
training for the purpose. which. when
performed would be no better evidence
Of the performers fitness to vote than
would his ability to rattle of rapidly the
old rigmarole about Peter Piper picking
a peck of picked peppers
Alleged Violation Of Constitution.
Its friends admit that the amendment
is q bare-faced attempt to get around the
express prohibition Of the fifteenth
amendment. AS such it would be an in
suit to common intelligence to deny that
it Is a violation of the duty to support
the Constitution, and 1t is hard to>find a
lawyer of any standing who really believes
that the Supreme Court of the United
States, II it ever passes upon the ques-
ton at all. can fail to declare that the
adoption Of the proposed amendment
would be in violation of the fifteenth
amendment to the Constitution of the
United States. although there are some
| who hope that the court might evade de-
| Gliding the question by throwing out upon
| some technicality any suit that might be
| brought to test 1t, as 1t has heretofore
| thrown out suits brought to test the
| validity of somewhat similar unconstftu-
tional provisions in some Of the southern
| states"
| The literature Of this association scores
| mercilessy the so-cailed educational test
| of the constitutional amendment The
| test that Is called for by the proposed
| amendment. and which applies to every
| body who does not come In under the
| grandfather clause or under the prop
| erfy uualifcation admits to the Suffra pe