The Washington herald., 1913-06-29
Mississippi Senator Not Only
Would Operate Jim Crow"
Cars, but Would Eliminate
Black Race from Politics.
By JAMES b. MORROW.

A policy latent with sensation and wal
has been brought to Washington b,
James Kimble vardaman. the new Sena
tor from Mississippi. 1t is being impa
tiently held back until the Underwood
tariff bill becomes law.
Let loose six months hence, II will start
10000 ready men to writing and speech
flying. There will be roars of protest In
the name of freedom. property rights
and the Constitution. but above the clash
Of words will be heard the mighty voict
of Vardaman himself, while fashins
through smoke and dust of battle will be
seen the cleaning light OF his ferocioui
eyes and countenance.
The sale of liquor and the giving away
OF liquor in the District of Columbia, SC
runs one item of the policy. Is to be
made unlawful by an act of Congress
Furthermore, the cause of prohibition
throughout the United States is to be
promoted wherever possible by national
legislation. The rum power, as Petro-
leum V. Nasty used to say. is to be pull
verified
Jim Crow" cars. IL another item of
the policy goes into the statute books, are
to be attached to all passenger trains on
every interstate railroad. North and
South-on the Pennsylvania, on the New
York Central, and on the lines to the
Pacific Coast.
he lives in Boston or Tallahassee, is to
be eliminated from politics. He is not
to vote anywhere or for any purpose; he
is not to hold office, either as a justice
Of the peace, a constable, a letter carrier.
or a policeman; he is not to sit on juries:
he is not to enter unlimited public places
freQuented by whites. Marriages between
the races is to be declared a penitentiary
offense.
Such is the policy in the rough. The
\ details of segregation are yet to be
worked out. 1t can be said. however.
that the white man who eats with a
negro will become a social outcast
The Caucasian and the African are to
stand apart. One is forever to be master
the other is forever to be in social servi-
tude- The Vardaman policy links the ne
gro to the saloon and seeks to extermi-
nate both-the saloon actually and the
negro as citizen with a citizens rights.
The Picture of n Fighting Man.
The policy in its intirety has been &C.
cepted in Mississippi and elsewhere in
the South. Senator Vardaman has
preached it and explained it all over the
England and the Middle West hear him
in eagerness and cheer him when he is
through.
The people, he is sure, are waiting to
vote the saloon out of existence and the
negro out of the equality now given him
with the whites by the Constitution of
the United States. He sneers at poll
ticians and vigorously asserts that most
OF them are towards and that many OF
them are faithless, in that they are prin-
cipally looking out for themselves.
Come H." he shouted when knocked
at his door. His voice doomed like a
h1It in baa
with any attempt to overawe the inter-
viewer. He arose and stood six feet in
his shoes and at a summer weight. so
he told me, of 1876 pounds. No soldier
was ever more rigidly erect: no Indian
ever carried his head more proudly or
on a better pair of shoulders.
1 had pictured a dark-skinned man
with a hook in his nose. Instead, I saw
a sandy-complexioned man with the
short, straight nose of a colonel of cav
airy or pugilist. The odor of Florida
water filled the room. 1 may be wrong,
but / suspected that it emanated from
his hair-Buffalo Bill hair. black, bril-
liant and carefully combed back from
his brow. to which Socrates or Solomon
might have pointed with vanity. The
eyes, oddly enough. were a friendly
brown, that shade of brown which is
supposed to denote a kind heart and a
helpful hand and which unconsciously
draws out the woes and condolences of
mankind
No one has ever said that James X.
Vardaman was AID of anybody. big or
little. white or bill X He killed a sa-
loon-keeper once in a hand-to-hand
fight. Hundreds of letter-writers have
threatened his life, yet he purposely sits
at an uncurtained window at night Mob,
have fallen back and leaked away into
alleys and streets at his command.
Though the Governor of his State, he
arrested a colored murderer on a rail-
way train and kept a pistol at his head
until Sheriff could be summoned by
telegraph.
Ecrybody is Fighting Him.
THE first sound that broke on my
infant ears" he said to me, was the !
rattle of musketry. The first sight that
came into my infant eyes was the fash |
of guns I was horn in Texas amid the |
noise of battle. Seemingly my whole life
since has been attuned to contradiction |
and strife.
why, SIR" he went on to say, eff |
I were to attend Sunday school con- !
vention and read the Sermon on the |
Mount of the Ten Commandments some |
Internal scoundrel would get up and deny |
my statements and question my au-
thorities.'
And now that you are in the Sen
ate" I remarked. you mean to bring /
your war out of Mississippi and fight II |
hereafter in all parts of the country"
Il am going to fight whisky and the /
negro" he replied They are the twin |
evils of our civilization. hope to see
outlawed everywhere as a bev-
erage. The best place for the opening l
of the Conflict is right here in WASH
ington Then ! shall work for a separa-
ton of the white and black races in
this city-compartments in street cars
for negroes and the segregation of col
Ored persons who have clerkships or eN-
ecutive positions in the departments of
the government. White women and white
men are now subordinate to negroes in
some offices. That infamy should not
be tolerated
so much for Washington. The coun-
try as whole, I believe is ready TO
repeal the fifteenth and to modify the
amendments to the Consti-
tuition of the United States. If the
pusillanimous politicians are not ready.
the people sooner or later will insist
that they be given an opportunity to
vote on the proposition"
But" I asked, will not the disfran-
chisement of the negroes by the repeal
Of the fifteenth amendment reduce the ,
number of Southern members of the
House of Representatives"
mo. Representation in the lower
House of Congress is based on popula-
ion. and not on the number of voters
n district. Women and children are