The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-06


slature have approved the pigses
registration bill after heated debate, and
the finished measure only awaits the
Governors signature to become a law.
iUn1er its provisions the registrars are
TO list only the names of white voters
in all State and municipal elections.
Negroes who apply for registration
are to be denied that privilege from
the very fact that they are negroes.
OF course, the law will not stand
lncontested. AS soon as it can be cried
in the courts it will be attacked by
the Republicans, whose political death
knoll it sounds The Maryland Re-
publican machine will fight the law.
tooth and nail, and will not let 1T
remain on the statute books unless the
Federal Supreme Court shall say in
unequivocal terms that the Maryland
Assembly had perfect right to do as
1T has done. Indeed. Republicans will
hardly stop at this high tribunal if
the law should be upheld. They are
already talking of Federal force"
law, and are promising many woes TO
the people of Maryland.
The Democrats of the Legislature
passed the Digges bill because they
wanted to get the negro out of poll
tics, and because they wanted to test,
once and for all, the constitutionality
of the. fifteenth amendment. This
amendment provides that "the right
OF the citizens of the United states 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 servitude." Maryland be-
leves, as every Southern State De.
lieses, that this amendment Is men
ace to the domination of the white
race in America. The Democrats be-
lieve also as do all fair-minded men
that the amendment is unconstitu-
tional and should not stand with the
organic law of this country.
The only doubtful question in the
( whole action taken by the Maryland
Legislature is whether or not the bill,
which has been passed, will really
bring the question before the Supreme
| Court in final and definite form The pro-
posed Maryland law does not deny the
negro the right to vote as citizen OF
the United states in elections to Offices
under the government of the United
hat
| the registrars shall deny a place on
the election rolls to negroes only in
municipal and state elections Can
the United states object to such a law
or hold that it touches the constitu-
tionality of the fifteenth amendment,
when it does not affect Federal cleo
tons? This is a question which the
Maryland Legislators have not been
able to determine in their own mind.
| II is argued, to be sure, that where
the Constitution provides that a cti
zen of one state shall have all the
rights of citizen of any otherState,
he is entitled to vote in Any State.
But is this really the case applied TO
negroes? The South held for years,
at the time OF the Missouri compro-
mise and during long controversy in
Georgia, that a free negro was not
and could not be a citizen of the United
States in the original meaning of the
term. This view was never formally
denied by the Supreme Court II a
negro was not a citizen of the United
States in 1910, when he was free, why
should a free negro be a citizen of
the United States in 1910?
These arguments Will doubtless go
the rounds in Maryland and will he
threshed out to the very chaff before
the matter Is finally decided. We hope
the Supreme Court viii decide the con-
sututionality OF the black amendment
one way or another. II it find that
the Maryland law do not really test
the fifteenth amendment, we trust the
court will stun be able TO settle all
doubt by an obiter dictum
This is white mans country, and
the sooner the courts acknowledge that
fact the better for Both races,
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