The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1916-10-27
QUALIFIED VOTERS
IN PUTNAM COUNTY
Reaches Total of E2,301, of
Which 1853 are White
and 53S Colored.

qualified to vote in Putnam county in
the approaching general election.
The list Of qualified voters will be
published this week in the Times
Herald. Those names which have
been stricken from the list are pub
lished in another column of this pa
per. This list consists Of those vo-
ters who have died, or have removed
during the past four years.
The qualified list shows a total of
2,301 voters, of which number 1,763
are white, and 53S are colored.
The number Of negro voters will be
a disappointment to many of that race
Several hundred more had paid their
poll tax and thought themselves quail
lIied, but somehow they failed to reg
lister. That is true to a lesser degree
among white voters. They got tire
notion that because they registered
for the primary that was all they had
to do. The News has been pointing
out this false notion for several weeks.
Now and then you will find a negro
who Is democrat, but they are few.
Those who registered in the primary
| BOOKS as democrats have been long in
the land and look upon the democratic
party as their friend. 1t hasn't been
trying to use them. 1t has stood for
getting them fair deal, but draws
the line at elevating them to official
place. 1t isn't asking their votes un-
der the false notion that they are to
get something in return that looks like
an office. The democratic party
pledges that the negro shall have d
square deal and that he shall have
every opportunity to make of himself
a useful citizen; it opens to him the
door Of opportunity, but not the door
Of official place. For this one reason
he has not been a democrat, if for no
other. The negro is republican be-
cause that party feeds him on promis-
es. They are false promises, of
course, but the negro hasn't fully
realized that yet. Once in while he
gets an inkIing that he is merely be-
ing used by designing politicians, and
begins to bolt, but he's soon won
back by more false promises and the
story of Abe Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation. He prefers to make
his bed with republicans Gnd sinners.
Maybe when he divides into sepa-
rate political camps the white man
will divide, but just now the great
bulk Of Florida and other southern
states white men are democrats.
When you see d white republican put
him down as a member of the federal
republican machine. Though here and
there you will find one that was born
that way and can't get out of the re-
publican habit.
Democrats as q rule will support
the party nominees; they look upon
an Independent as down-and-outer
who hasn't awakened to his real con-
dition. They are sorry for him and
show their charity by listening pa
tientIy to his tale Of woe. But they
rarely help him with vote.
The Putnam county registration list
looks like a big democratic vote this
year, but it isn't as good as it looks.
This is a presidential year and great
quantities of republican money has
been sent into this and other southern
states with the view Of breaking demo-
cracy's hold.
Men who are willing to listen to
reason know that there was no other
purpose in the campaign Of Billy
Parker and those northern politicians
whom he has been representing, then
to break up the democratic party. The
Roman hierarchy, or the menace OF
the Catholic church was used to play
upon the preiudices of the ignorant,
the unthinking and the narroW-minded
who harborcd these fears. a secret
orgai2ation was used to bind men to-
gether. The headquarters O. the or
der is in Philadelphia, and a paper
called The American Citizen was sent
broadcast through the state to stir up
strife and cater to religious prejudice.
Well, we have the prejudice and 1t
has been spread out among the l,IOO
white democratic voters Of the coun- /
tv and has caught some of them in the
net of independency. Now, however,
that they are beginning to understand .
that the net is really made of lnde- /
pendent strings many are struggling .
to get through the meshes. Hundreds .
have succeeded. They now see that .
the man Cats is an independent can
iidate, and your average Florida DEM .
ocrat has little sympathy with politi-
clans of that breed A republican ,
can be man of principle; he at least .
belongs to an organization of men who .
work for certain principles. But the
independent-he's just selfish indi-
vidual with an exaggerated notion OF
his own importace, and-they pass
him up. -.
Mr.. Knott, the regular democratic |
nominee for Governor, will carry Put
nam county by big majority, no mat
fer what these loud-voiced fanatics .
NAV say to the contrary. The editor
of their organ in this county is not .
even citizen of the United States
and has only lived in the country. a ,
few years. When he gets to know the
people of Putnam county better, he'll /
wake to the notion that it takes some |
thing more than a fake alarm to seat ,
ter them politically.