"EQUAL JUSTICE TO ALL MEN WITHOUT REGARD TO RACE OR COLOR."

The Demand of the Republican Party-Contrast the Attitude of the Democratic Leaders and Party.

THE ELECTION LAWS OF THE SOUTH.

The folowing are sections of some of the election laws of the South, many of them framed for the avowed purpose of depriving Afro-American citizens of the right to vote. It will be seen that the Louisiana and North Carolina laws are especially framed for the purpose of making the educational test apply only to the Afro-Americans, and all persons who were voters prior to January 1, 1867, and their lineal descendants are exempt from the provisions of the law, which disqualifies persons because of illiteracy:

Mississippi.

"Section 244. On and after the first day of January, 1892, every elector shall, in addition to the foregoing qualifications, be able to read any section of the Constitution of this State; or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or to give a reasonable interpretation hereof

Louisiana.

"Section 3. He (the voter) shall be able to read and write, and shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for registration, by making, under oath administered by the registration officer or his deputy, written application therefor, in the English language or his mother tongue,

which application shall contain the essential facts necessary to show that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be entirely written, dated and signed by him, in the presence of the registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the form of application hereinafter set forth.

"Section 5. No male person who was on January 1st, 1867, or at any date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the Constitution or statutes of any State of the United States, wherein he then resided, and no sou or grandson of any such person not less than twenty-one years of age at the date of the adoption of this Constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was naturalized prior to the first day of January, 1885, shall be denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason of his failure to possess the educational or property qualifications preEcribed by this Constitution; provided, he shall have resided in this State for five years next preeeding the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall have registered in accordance with the terms of this article prior to September 1, 1898, and no person shall be entitled to register under this section after that date."

North Carolina.

"Section 4. Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language. * * But no male person who was, on January 1, 1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any State in the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal descendant of any such persoon shall be denied the right to register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his failure to possess the educational qualifications herein prescribed; Provided, he shall have registered in accordance with the terms of this section prior to December 1, 1908.

"The General Assembly shall provide for the registration of all persons entitled to vote without the educational qualifications herein prescribed, and shall, on or before November 1, 1908, provide for the making of a permanent record of such registration, and all persons so registered shall forever thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by the people of this State, unless disqualified under section 2 of this article: Provided, such person shall have paid his poll tax as above prescribed."

Alabama.

1st. Those who can read and write any article of the Constitution of the United States in the English language, and who are physically unable to work; and those who can read and write any article of the Constitution of the United States in the English language and who have worked and been regularly engaged in some lawful employment, business or occupation, trade or calling for the greater part of the twelve months next preceding the time they offer to register, and those who are unable to read and write, if such inability is due solely to physical disability; or, 2nd. The owner in good faith in his own right, or the husband of a woman who is the owner in good faith in her own right, of forty acres of land situate in this State, upon which they reside; or the owner in good faith in his own right or the husband of any woman who is the owner in good faith in her own right of any real estate situate in the State assessed for taxation at the value of three hundred dollars or more, or the owner in good faith in his own right or the husband of any woman who is the owner in good faith of her own right of personal property in this State assessed at taxation at three hundred dollars or more; provided that the taxes due upon such real estate or personal property for the year next preceding the year for which he offers to register shall have been paid unless the assessment shall have been legally contested and is undetermined.

South Carolina.

Section 174. Every male citizen of this State and of the United States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, not laboring under disabilities named in the Constitution of 1895 of this State. and who shall have been a resident of the State for two years, in the county one year, in the polling precinct in which the elector offers to vote four months before any election, and shall have paid six months before any election any poll tax then due and payable, and who can read and write any section of the said Constitution submitted to him by the registration officers, or can show that he owns and has paid all taxes collectible due the previous year on property in the State assessed at $300 or more and who shall apply for registration shall be registered.

Virginia.

Sec. 20. Who may register after 1904.

After the first day of January, 1904, every male citizen of the United States having the qualifications of age and residence required by section 18 shall be entitled to register, provided:

1st. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all State poll taxes assessed or assessable against him under this or the former Constitution for the three years next preceding that in which he offers to register; or, if he comes of age at such time that no poll taxes shall have been assessed against him for the year preceding the year in which he offers to register, has paid one dollar and fifty cents in satisfaction of the first year's poll tax assessable against him; and

the

That unless physically unable, he makes application to register in his own handwriting without aid, suggestion or memorandum in presence of the registration officers, stating therein his name, age, date, and place of birth, residence and occupation at the time and whether he has previously voted, and if so, the State, county and precinct in which he voted last, and,

Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting his qualifications as an elector submitted to him by the officers of registration, which questions and his answers thereto shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said officers and preserved as part of their official records.

Sec. 22. No person who during the late war between the States served in the Army or Navy of the Confederate States shall at the time be required to pay a poll tax as a prerequisite to the right to vote.

The Georgia Constitutional Amendment.

* *

The amendment to the Constitution of Georgia, which is to be submitted to the voters of that State in November, is as follows:

"Section 1. Elections by the people shall be by ballot, and only those persons shall be allowed to vote who have first been registered in accordance with the requirements of law.

"Par. 2. Every male citizen of the State who is a citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old or upwards, not laboring under any of the disabilities named in this article, and possessing the qualifications provided by it, shall be an elector and entitled to register and vote at any election by the people; provided, that no soldier, sailor, or marine in the military or naval service of the United States shall acquire the rights of an elector by reason of being stationed on duty in this State.

"Par. 3. To entitle a person to register and vote at any election by the people, he shall have resided in the State one year next preceding the election, and in the county in which he offers to vote six months next preceding the election, and shall have paid all taxes which may have been required of him since the adoption of the Constitution of Georgia of 1877, that he may have had an opportunity of paying agreeably to law. Such payment must have been made at least six months prior to the election at which he offers to vote, except when such elections are held within six months from the expiration of the time fixed by law for the payment of such taxes.

"Par. 4. Every male citizen of this State shall be entitled to register as an elector and to vote at all elections of said State who is not disqualified under the provisions of section 2 of article 2 of this Constitution, and who possesses the qualifications prescribed in paragraphs 2 and 3 of this section or who will possess them at the date of the clection occurring next after his registration, and who in addition thereto comes within either of the classes provided for in the five following subdivisions of this paragraph.

"1. All persons who have honorably served in the land or naval forces of the United States in the Revolutionary war, or the war of 1812, or in the war with Mexico, or in any war with the Indians or in the war between the States, or in the war with Spain, or who honorably served in the land or naval forces of the Confederate States, or of the State of Georgia in the war between the States, or,

"2. All persons lawfully descended from those embraced in the sub-division next above, or, "3. All persons who are of good character, and understand the

4.

duties and obligations of citizenship under a republican form of governinent, or, All persons who can correctly read in the English language any paragraph of the Constitution of the United States or of this State, and correctly write the same in the English language when read to him by any one of the registrars, and all persons who, solely because of physical disability, are unable to comply with the above requirements, bur who can understand and give reasonable interpretation of any paragraph of the Constitution of the United States or of this State, that may be read to them by one of the registrars, or,

"5.

Any person who is the owner in good faith in his own right of at least forty acres of land situated in this State, upon which he resides, or is the owner in good faith in his own right, of property situated in this State and assessed for taxation at the value of five hundred dollars."

Par. 5. The right to register under sub-divisions 1 and 2 of paragraph 4 shall continue only until January 1, 1915. But the registrars shall prepare a roster of all persons who register under sub-divisions 1 and 2 of paragraph 4, and shall return the same to the Clerk's office of the Superior Court of their counties and the Clerks of the Superior Court shall send copies of the same to the Secretary of State, and it shall be the duty of these officers to record and permanently preserve these rosters. Any person who has been once registered under either of the sub-divisions 1 or 2 of paragraph 4, shall thereafter be permitted to vote, provided, he meets the requirements of paragraphs 2 and 3 of this section.

Par. 6. Any person to whom the right of registration is denied by the registrars on the ground that he lacks the qualifications set forth in the five sub-divisions of paragraph 4, shall have the right to take an appeal, and any citizen may enter an appeal from the decision of the registrars allowing any person to register under said sub-divisions. All appeals must be filed in writing with the registrars within ten days from the date of the decision complained of and shall be returned by the registrars to the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court to be tried as other appeals.

Par. 7. Pending an appeal and until the final decision of the case, the judgment of the registrars shall remain in full force.

Par. 8. No person shall be allowed to participate in a primary of rny political party or a convention of any political party in the State who is not a qualified voter.

Maryland.

The following is the text of the amendment to the Constitution of the State of Maryland, which is to be submitted to the voters of that State at the November election:

Section 1. All elections shall be by ballot, and every male citizen of the United States of the age of twenty-one or upward, who has been a resident of the State for two years and of the Legislative District of Baltimore City or in the county in which he may offer to vote, for one year next preceding the election, and who, moreover, is duly registered as a qualified voter as provided in this article, and shall be entitled to vote in the ward or election district in which he resides, at all elections hereafter to be held in this State, and in case any county or city shall be so divided as to form portions of different electoral districts for the election of Representatives in Congress, Senators, Delegates or other officers, then, to entitle a person to vote for such officers, he must have been a resident of that part of the county or city which shall form a part of the electoral district in which he offers to vote for one year next preceding the election; but a person who shall have acquired & residence in such county or city entitling him to vote at any such election shall be entitled to vote in the election district from which he removed until he shall have acquired a residence in the part of the county or city to which he has removed.

Every male citizen of the United States having the above prescribed qualifications of age and residence shall be entitled to be registered so as to become a qualified voter if he be:

First. A person who, on the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, or prior thereto, was entitled to vote under the laws of this State, or of any other State of the United States, wherein he then resided; or

Second. A male descendant of such last mentioned person; or

Third. A foreign-born citizen of the United States, naturalized between the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and sixtynine and the date of the adoption of this section of this article; or

Fourth. A male descendant of such last mentioned person or Fifth. A person who, in the presence of the officers or registration, shall, in his own hand-writing, with pen and ink, without any aid, suggestion, or memorandum whatsoever, and without any question or direction addressed to him by any of the officers of registration, make application to register, correctly stating in such application his name, age, date and place of birth, residence and occupation at the time and for the two years next preceding; the name or names of his employer or employers, if any, at the time and for the next two years preceding, and whether he has previously voted, and if so, the State, county or city, and district or precinct in which he voted last, and also the name in full of the President of the United States, of one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, of the Governor of Maryland, of one of the Judges of the Court of Appeals of Maryland and of the Mayor of Baltimore City, if the applicant resides in Baltimore City, or of one of the County Commissioners of the county in which the applicant resides; and any person who is unable to comply with the foregoing requirements as to making application for registration in his own hand-writing, solely because he is physically disabled from so doing; or

Sixth. A person, or the husband of a person, who, at the time of his application for registration, is the bona fide owner of real or personal property in an amount of not less than five hundred dollars, is assessed therefor on the tax books of the City of Baltimore, or of one of the counties of this State, has been such owner and so assessed for two years. next preceding his application for registration, shall have paid, and shall produce receipts for, the taxes on said property for said two years, and shall at the time of his application make affidavit before the officers of registration that he is, or that he is the husband of the person who is, the bona fide owner of the property so assessed to him or to her, as the case may be, and that he or she has been the owner for two years next preceding his application.

No person not qualified under some one of the above clauses shall be entitled to be registered as a qualified voter or be entitled to vote.

Every written application to be registered, presented to the officers of registration by any person applying to be registered under the above fifth clause, shall be carefully preserved by said officers of registration and shall be produced in any Court, if required, as herein before provided.

The affidavit of any applicant for registration, duly made to the officers of registration or in Court, that he, the applicant, is a person who was entitled to vote on or before the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, as aforesaid, or that he has become a naturalized citizen of the United States between the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-nine and the date of the adoption of this section of this article, as aforesaid, or his affidavit upon information and belief that he is a descendant of a person who was entitled to vote on or before the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, or that he is a descendant of a person who has become a naturalized citizen of the United States between the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-nine and the date of the adoption of this section of this article, shall be prima facie evidence of any of said facts so sworn to.

A willfully false statement upon the part of any applicant for registration in relation to any of the matters aforesaid shall be perjury, and punishable as perjury is punished by the laws of this State.

Any person who feels aggrieved by the action of any board of officers of registration in refusing to register him as a qualified voter, or in registering any disqualified person, may at any time, either before or after the last session of the board of officers of registration, but not later than the Tuesday next preceding the election, file a petition, verified by affidavit, in the Circuit Court for the county in which the cause of complaint arises, or, if the cause of complaint arises in Baltimore City, in any court of common-law jurisdiction in said city, setting forth the grounds of his application and asking to have the action of the board of officers of registration corrected.

The court shall forthwith set the petition for hearing and direct summons to be issued requiring the board of officers of registration complained against in said petition to attend at the hearing in person or

by counsel, and where the object of the petition is to strike off the name of any person, summons shall also be issued for such person, which shall be served by the Sheriff within the time therein designated; and said several courts shall have full jurisdiction and power to review the action of any board of officers of registration and to grant or withhold, as it may seem lawful and proper, the relief prayed for in the premises.

THE JIM-CROW CAR.

How the Democratic Legislators of the South Endeavor to Degrade and Humiliate the Afro-American.

In their efforts to degrade and humiliate the race, the Democratic legislators of every Southern State have provided a system of "jim-crow" cars for Afro-Americans.

The laws say that the accommodations "shall be equal, but separate." As a matter of fact, they are seldom equal and usually very inferior, especially on the smaller lines, where wornout cars, which are generally in a filthy condition, are used for Afro-Americans.

On the larger roads better cars are used, but the "jimcrow" car is generally placed next to the locomotive, where the occupants get the full benefit of the dust and smoke.

Several States have enacted laws forbidding sleeping car companies to sell berths to Afro-Americans.

These laws were not passed for the reason that Southern Democrats are anxious to avoid close proximity to Afro-Americans, for servants are allowed under the law to ride in the same car with the whites. The idea, which is to humiliate the race, is clearly expressed by H. D. Wilson, a Southern Democrat, member of the Louisiana Legislature and author of the Louisiana jincrow car law, who said:

"It is not only the desire to separate the whites and blacks on the railroad for the comfort it will provide, but also for the moral effect. The separation of the races is one of benefit, but the demonstration of the superiority of the white man over the negro is a greater thing. There is nothing which shows it more conclusively than the compelling of negroes to ride in cars marked for their especial use."

Recently a number of Afro-American bishops, ministers, doctors, lawyers, and other prominent men visited the White House and called the attention of President Roosevelt to the condition of affairs on the Southern railroads, and he at once directed the Interstate Commerce Commission to institute proceedings against the roads and compel them to furnish equal accommodations.

Afro-Americans in Government Service.

In a number of speeches William J. Bryan has said. "The Afro-American has bestowed presidencies upon the Republican party and received janitorships in return."

The statement is absolutely false. The Afro-American has received more recognition under the Roosevelt Administration than ever before in the history of this country. That the places have not been confined to janitorships will be seen by the following list showing the official positions and occupations of Afro-Americans in the service of the United States Government:

Auditor of the Navy Department, assistant district attorneys, assistant librarians, architects, assistant postmasters, assistant weighers, attorneys, bookbinders, bookkeepers, boatmen, collectors of customs, collectors of internal revenue, consuls, chiefs of division, compositors, chaplains, custodians, cleaners, caster helpers, clerks, counters, charwomen, carriage drivers, deputy collectors of customs, deputy collectors of internal revenue, deputy United States marshals, domestics and waiters, draughtsmen, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, examiners of merchandise, engineers, elevator conductors, folders, farmers, firemen, floor hands, gaugers, guards, heads of departments, helpers, inspectors of customs, immigrant inspectors, imposers, janitors, letter carriers, laboratory assistant laborers, minister resident and consul general, musicians, messengers, messenger boys, machine operators, monotype keyboard operators, mimeograph operators, openers and packers, postmasters, patent examiners, pressmen, press feeders, pay clerks, private secretaries, receivers of public monies, register of treasury, registers of land offices, recorder of deeds, railway postal clerks, rural delivery carriers, surveyor-general, superintendents of construction, sam