The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-11
Working Up-The Citizen
Fly CARL H. MILAN Director Public Library

Fly CARL
 Director Pub
 Make this Fourth of July. 1915. Day. is the advice sent out over the country by a society whose chief interest is the welfare of our new citizens.
 It was thought for time that some. thing could be done in Birmingham on that day to make the new Americans feel at home. but it seemed impossible to make the arrangements and the demonstration was called off
 There is at least one place in the city of Birmingham, however, where every possible effort Is made to gis these new citizens a welcome. That it the public library.
 There are now on the library shelves on civil government in the United States, not only many books in Eng fish. but one or two books in each of several foreign languages
 
 were no restrictions upon the eleotor in the vote for the adoption of the constitution. Therefore, it must be con- ceded that unless some provision of
  tory enactments of the legislature con travene some provision of the federal statute, and for the purpose of this |discussion, the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States. the suffrage provisions of Alabama must be upheld,
 The decision of the United States court In the Oklahoma case. opinion by White, chief justice, is very clear, and there is no ground for concludin g that the judgment rendered would have been reached by the court but for the objections raised and discussed in the opinion.
 Oklahoma Case
 Take the Oklahoma case It is fairly I inferable from the opinion that the lit eracy test would have been sustained, but for the carving out of a class of citizens who were exempted from this test, for the given reason that they were voters on the first day of July, 1866, date preceding the date of the fifteenth amendment. It is common knowledge that on January l, 1866, the negro was not voter and the White man was a voter. If the fifteenth avendment "proprio vigore" struck out the word white" from all existing laws which discriminated for the one and against the other, 1t is difficult to conceive of valid enactment subse- quent to amendment which inserts the word white" or its equivalent to take effect prior to the date of the amend ment. If such law had been on the statute books on the date of the adop- tion of the fifteenth amendment, It would have fallen before the force of the amendment. The statute cannot be stronger because of it's adoption sub- sequent to the amendment, than an ex- isting statute prior to the amendment would have been.
 Now, recur to the Alabama educa- tional qualification, both constitutional and legislative, and. in fact, every qualification required to constitute a legal voter. They are wide open, or to use the language of Chief Justice White, "all inclusive. general in ex- pression and contain no word of dis elimination on account of race or color or any other reason" It matters not whether he or his ancestors fought in | any war, could read and write, or was | voter before January 1. 1866, or at 1 any other time, if he Is not a legal | voter already, and wishes to qualify 1 and register as such, he must come UT ! to the same standard walk the same plank as the others. That is what the | Alabama constitution and statutory legislation require, and no discrimi-
 nation can be found in any operating
 constitution or legislative provisions | favoring one class and excluding oth- | CTS who have the right and wish tt | qualify and register.
 Illegal votes may have been re
 ceived. There are provisions to chal l lenge any voter There are laws tc | try any disputed right. The courts ar' | open to try all issues and punish al 1 offenders.
 1 Grandfather Clause
 l I might close here. but probably I ] would not be complete without soms | reference to what has been denomi- hated as the grandfather clause. The | discussions in the committee on sui l frage and elections, and in the consti- l tutional convention, and before the ] people, rarely, if ever. made reference | to the special temporary provision oi l the constitution of 1901. It was no generally understood, at least not dis l cussed, that the proposed constitution contained temporary plan, and also 6 | permanent plan, and that the tempo rary plan expired soon after the adop- | tion of the constitution as whole, anc l the permanent plan remained and is the constitution of today.
 l Attention is here called to the differ ence in that respect between the Okla homa and the Alabama constitutions i and the legislation of Maryland. The | latter state retained the discriminatory ! ClauSe auQ they ItiIldlHtu, uHll 1 stricken down by the supreme court Alabama provided for the expiration of any such objectionable clause, Il | such indeed were included, but which l is not conceded.
 | The question naturally arises. why | this apparently unnecessary double | policy? The reasons here assigned are l those of the writer, and he does moi | pretend to represent others. though many no doubt were influenced by the same convictions and purposes. It is difficult for those living in other parts | of the country to appreciate our then | political situation. It makes one shud- der now to contemplate the days of re- construction, in what is usually known as the black belt Something had to l be done and whether commendable or not, 1t was done. But the methods, as all such in the end must general ec corruption and recklessness of virtue and good citizenship A qualified suf- | frage seemed the only remedy. Those | favoring this movement labored fof about 12 years to secure a constitu- tional convention before the movement was successful I could give the ir-