Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-11-08
THE COUNTRY HOME
BY MRS. w. H. FELTON,
IVl VOTE REATTV STANDS

a FTER reading Bishop Gamblers article
~ where he takes a text from "Listless
"A Patriotism and "Lifeless Piety,"'I feel
inclined to review the conditions ia Georgia
today, under which conditions we only mag
go to the polls on Tuesday and vote for
president of the United States.
There was no presidential primary in
Georgia for any but the national Democrats,
and the delegates who went to the Madison
Square convention were not selected by
even the Democrats in the various counties.
In all the states, except the SOUTH when
primary election is held both parties can
nominate candidates and both parties can
select and send delegates to each national
convention and the general election settles
the business so far as a real selection is
made, and the result is announced accord.
ing to the highest vote.
The non-voting ha bit in Georgia has grown
to this listless habit because the greater
number Of negroes were here, after the Civil
war, and the desire to maintain white SUI
premacy condOned the one-sided primary
business by sufferance not of choice This
one-sidedness had its evils, as any middle
aged Georgian can tell you, but the "Soid
South" stood for solidity against negro can
d1dates and negro voters for nearly sixty
years, and demagogueS played it to the linn
It, [ believe 1 correct when I say this
IS the first presidential election since 1858
mat the universal slogan for white suprem~
acy has not been the rallyng cry in the clos
Ing DAYS OF a presidential campaign. The
negro is no more popular than before but
the exodus OF southern negroes has made the
negro vote negligible in the SOUTH while the
negro vote in all other sections of the union
mas oeen determining quantity, the "bal-
dnce OF power, as we are informed. Both
the presidential nominees have made over
lures to the negro vote, and the state of
Georgia is sowed down now with propaganda
literature concerning the hitherto unknown
policy of playing for the negro vote. It is
charged against Mr.. Davis that he "let down
the bars" in Indiana and in New Yorl,
when advocating the duty Of colored voters
| to support the Democratic ticket The OBJ
jectors in Georgia do not approve of this
breaking down the barriers which have so
long held the south solid.
But the barriers will come down when
both parties accept the responsibility and
guarantee free ballot and fair count:
and the race question is going to give more
trouble, henceforth for long time to come
unless some reasonable attention is given
to the nature of a vote in itself and what
the vote shall be able to claim and defend
before the courts of justice, both of high
and low degree in every state in the Fed
eral Union. The same Democratic faction
(Which now includes both Jews and Catho-
Ics-with the colored race in the south)
made a determined fight in 1868 and 1872
against the negro 4mostly) and the con-
gressional investigation of 1871 gives details
'AAN Ao1Io W CnC luOuSduu, duu W0llS the
opposition to negroes has continued in the
south by specious illegal methods that citi-
zenship, per Sc, has rights and privileges
that VIII be controlling in any free govern
ment so long as the free government exists
and dominates in the spirit and the letter of
civil and religious liberty
When citizen of the United States is not
insane or criminal and pay taxes to sup
port the government no men, set of men,
political combine or secret combination can
fling that citizens ballot from the ballot
box or fail to count it in due time and or
der. The privilege of freedom is the highest
of all earthly benefits, and the token the
universal sign and badge of freedom lies
in the privilege to select ones rulers by.
personal choice of candidates a. the ballot
box. Men who would defraud the qualified
citizen from this privilege would do any 9TH
er act of personal damage or robbery to an
innocent voter