Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-04-28
aslisesllansolls BEADING.
vARDAMAN ON SUFFRAGE
Mississippi Senator Discusses Four
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

L was DclOIe luS SChdlC was
state should decide who should be
given the ballot In order to make 1t
possible for the south to support the
resolution 1 proposed an amendment
abolishing the Fifteenth amendment
to the Federal Constitution. Without
the negro being eliminated from suf-
frage the south cannot accept a ma
tion-wide suffrage law.
| am not one of those who share
the apprehension that women will be
Injured by giving her the ballot; nor
do l believe that her participation in
politics will lower the standard OF
citizenship or result detrimentally to
the country. The truth about the
matter is 1 believe, the inherent vir-
tues and superior qualities of woman
will necessarily improve anything
with which she has to do. 1 think we
are indebted to her more for what
has been accomplished in America
than we are to man. / would rather
rely upon her intuition to lead me
right 1 would rather trust her heart
than the ratiocinations or the painful
logical processes Of man.
That she will become a voter In all
the states of this republic in the very
near future l have no more doubt
| than I have that tomorrow's sun Will
rise. That the ballot will be purified;
that the influences surrounding poll
L lNA ;,,nTN
moral sentiment her sacred presence
will generate, will write more just and
wiser laws, 1 have not the slightest
doubt, because her influences are al
ways elevating, always purifying, al
ways ennobling. When the time shall
come that women want to vote, when
the women OF the different states de-
sire the ballot, it will be placed into
their hands.
In some of the states, however a
large majority of the white women do
not care to vote at this time. That Is
in some of the states the conditions
are such that white women would not
&C to the polls if permitted by law to
do so. In the settlement Of this ques-
ton 1 would prefer, and 1 think II
would be infinitely better and more in
accord with the original plan upon
which our government Is builded, to
leave the matter with the states. 1t
is my great privilege to represent, in
part, in the senate a state where con-
ditions are such that the women who
ought to vote in the very nature or
things could not and would not go to
the polls.
A decent white woman will not put
herself in a position where she Is to
be elbowed, pushed around and in
suited by a vulgar, vicious and ignor-
ant negro woman, who has no more
conception of the Importance or the
Significance of the elective franchise
than the chimpanzee Is capable OF
comprehending or understanding the
nebular hypothesis The question may
be asked why, If negro men are cap
able of voting, why not the negro wo-
men? To one who understands the
nature of the negro an answer to that
question is superfluous. Neither the
man nor the woman is capable OF per-
forming properly the supreme func-
ton of citizenship, but the negro man
is much more easily controlled, less
turbulent and more tractable. Verify
'the female of the species is more
deadly than the male" in this in
stance. 1 think the most lawless and
abandoned creature On earth Is the
drunken, insolent negro woman. And,
further, the white man has the ply
sical strength and ability to command
obedience and defend himself. And
the negro man knows that and acts
accordingly.
| 1t is unfortunate that when an eco
nomic or governmental question Is
presented the people Of the south are
confronted at once with that para
mount problem, the race question.
This question has resulted in the po-
litical isolation of the southern states.
The white people cannot divide at all
| on economic issues in those states.
There are probably $4,000 more adult
male negroes in Mississippi than there
are white men, and fully $4,000 more
negro women than there are white
women. A large majority of the ne
groes are congenitally, racially and
unalterably incompetent and unfit to
perform the supreme function Of cit
izenship You cannot educate them
so as to make them capable Of gov
erning the white man, either.
That accounts for the fact that our
white women naturally shrink, invol-
unfairly recoil, from participation in
those public or civic functions which
usually belong to men. 1t is the over
whelming influence which prevents
them from considering the question
of participating in government at the
ballot box. Remove that barrier, take
that impediment away, and then the
women of Mississippi, the women OF
Arkansas, and the women of the 9TH
er southern states, where the great
problem is in it's most acute, intense
aggravated and difficult form, may
consider the question Of participating
with their brothers, their husbands
and their fathers in matters of gov
ernment.
| While these conditions exist the
only safe way to approach women
suffrage is through the individual
states and not by forcing it upon
states that are not ready for it. If H.
linois, if Pennsylvania, if any state in
the Republic wants to give women the
suffrage equal with the men. they
have the right under their state con-
stitution to do so. There Is no diff
Guilty about that. What will suit the
people of one state may not be adapt
able to conditions in another state. II
you are going to preserve the Federal
Union, If you are going to preserve
that harmony so essential to perfect
government, you must maintain, you
must preserve inviolate, the autono-
my, the sovereignty of the states by