St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1938-08-12
Here And
There
By w. M. Smith

TUT WluJcS Will SCI q UAOcsh az
Southern polls. Due to the aboli-
ton of the two-thirds rule Mason
Dixon politicians must increase
state vote or lose power in Demo-
cratic conventions. Result: poll
taxes are vanishing right and left.
Negroes may win the ballot in
some DISTRICTS" says Ken Magazine
for August.
The bold face type is mine. The
sentiment thus emphasized is the
reluctant admission of Southern
Democrat who feels the deep dis
tress of his party and comedies
that in such an emergency, to give
a few Negroes the ballot is not too
great price to pay.
The implications in the situation
may easily escape the casual read
err. Those of us who have a deep
interest in, and a quickened under
standing of the value of the ballot
to the Negro people will give to
this item the careful thought it
should evoke.
No part of Southern policy has
been more faithfully adhered to
than this: that under no circum-
stances must the Negro be permit
ted the voting privilege. Constitu-
tional guarantee to the contrary
Notwithstanding. Political pres
tige, South has been built upon
this fundamental base. For years
every Democrat from that section
in the House or Senate has held his
seat in the light of this cardinal
principle of Acknowledgement for
the Negro. Upon the power thus
obtained the party erected the two
thirds rule. This enabled the
Southern branch of the party to
block every effort to secure candi-
dates for the presidency who would
threaten this strangle-hold upon
Negro advancement.
But time changes things. Among
others this rule which hog-tied the
most important elements of the
Democratic organization of the
North has been abolished. To build
back toward the position of doni-
nance thus lost, the Southerner is
losing some of his exclusiveness.
Barriers which kept the poor white
submerged are being broken down
and if this does not do the trick
then enough Negroes may be add
ed here and there to permit the
new strategy to function.
If the policy of self-preservation
makes possible a dent in the ar
mour in which the South has en-
cased itself it establishes the pos
sibility of making larger holes in
its defensive mechanism, holes
through which the entire Negro
group may find escape.
The members of the Race who
will be permitted to use the ballot
because of the present emergency
will, without doubt, be small. They
will be permitted to vote possibly
only against their own best inter-
ests. But a precedent will have
been set. Selfish human nature may
be counted upon to extend the
scope of that participation as it
serves selfish aims. Let US hope
that full advantage will be taken
of this unexpected weakness of the
enemy.
That a breach may be made in
the walls that have kept US so long
from this most precious American
privilege. That our young people
who are coming by the thousands
from our schools annually may find
this incentive awaiting them. An
opening through which they may
win to real citizenship and chance
to battle full armed against the en-
II
tire army of Jim Crow.
A chance to help prove the truth
of the Urban League declaration
e.. and no helpful social change
is permanent without programs
that offer all mankind equal and
full Indignation"