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The Commoner
WILLIAH J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
VoL 3; No. 37.
Lincoln, Nebraska, October 2, 1903.
'Whole No. 141.'
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THE RACE PROBLEM AGAIN
Editor "Evening Post," New York City. Dear
Sir: The pressure of other work has delayed an
answer to your inquiry. The questions which you
ask are predicated upon the assertions of the ap
pellant in the case referred to, and it is hardly
necessary to discuss the subject until the case is
decided. You say, "Granting the authority of
these statements and failing intervention by the
eupremo court, has congress any duty in the
premises?" The first thing to do is to ascertain
the truth of the statements, and the second is to
learn whether the court will Intervene. It will
then be time for congress to act, and in acting it
will have befor.e it the facts as ascertained and
the reasons as given by the court.
The second question also begins with an "if
and is based upon an assumption.
The third question -begins with an "if" and
the answering of it would require a prophecy, and
as Speaker Reed once said, "It is nevor safe to
prophesy unless you know."
The suffrage question is one of the most im
portant ones that can come up for consideration,
and if by your inquiries you mean to raise that
.question, I take pleasure in submitting the fol
lowing: Conditions aredmposed upon suffrage every
where. Age is always made a condition. It is
'also required that the voter shall be present at
the polls, and this exciudes any one who may bo
necessarily away from home, or who may be un
able on account of ill health to leave the house.
This provision has sometimes been suspended in
the case- of soldiers, but it is generally made ono
of the prerequisites to suffrage. In cities regis
tration is often required, and sometimes it is nec
essary for tne voter to be at a certain place on a
day previous to the election as well as at the
polls on election day. "
Communities differ also on another phase of
the suffrage question. Most of the states limit
euffrage to men, while in other states men and
women vote on exactly the same f,erms. borne of
the states give to women a limited suffrage, that
is, a suffrage on certain questions. Often the payr
ment of a poll tax is made a condition to man
hood suffrage and a criminal conviction is usual
ly a bar to suffrage. Many of the states have
at one time or another had educational qualifica
tions, and some cf them have had property quali
fications. In view of the experience through
which we haf e passed in this country, it is- diffi
cult to lay down a rule upon this subject that
can be applied everywhere. We ought to start
wk the proposition that universal suffrage is the
thing to be desired, and where a limitation is
placed upon it there must be a satisfactory reason
to justify it. That is to say, the presumption is
in favor of suffrage and the burden of proof is
Wpon those who would limit it.
An educational qualification is less objec
tionable than a property qualification, because
knowledge is more needed than the possession of
property for the proper performance of one's civic
duty. An educational qualification is easier to
Gfcrmount than a property qualification, and then,
too, those who prescribe an educational Quallfl
.catlon are not so apt to be influenced by purely
uelfish reasons as those who prescribe, a property
qualification. Sometimes the property qualifica
tion is made to relieve the educational qualification
rather than to aggravate it, that is, one possess
ing a certain amount of property can vote oven
without complying with the educational provisions
and vice versa.
As the race question in the south has given -rise
to the present controversy, it is sufficient for
the present to consider it alone, and the argu-
ments made upon the race question as it now ap
pears could not be used in discussing the
suffrage question unless the same principles were
involved and the same conditions had to be met.
Whether or not a given state should adopt a
Qualification aimed at the black race is a ques
tion which must be decided upon the facts in the
case, and no person w? -e judgment is Worth con
sidering would announce a decision without know
ing the facts, li-e race question does not present
itself to the people of the north as it does to
the people of the south. The colored population of
the north is small compared to the white popula
tion, and therefore white supremacy is never
menaced. Very few colored men hold elective
offices in the north, although the colored votes
help to elect a great many republicans. Negroes
do not hold offices even in the north in propor
tion to their voting strength, and much less in
proportion to their voting strength in the party
with which they usually cast their votes. Even
where a colored man holds office in the north, It
is a colored man who has commended himself
to the white people of the community, because
in no instance is there a colored majority in any
considerable territory in the north.
It is different In the south. In many sections
the black population outnumbers ttic white andif
every male adult voted, the colored population
cculd fill all the offices with negroes selected by
the colored population regardless of the opinions
of the whites. It is hardly fair for a man who
lives where white supremacy is not menaced,
and who has never lived or visited the black sec
tions to state dogmatically what ought to be, done
by the white population who have lived under the
reign of the carpet bag legislatures. The admin
istration of government during the reconstruction
period just after the war took on a somber hue
that the people of the south still remember, and
they have reason to dread a -return to it. The
question which the white people of the south have
to meet is whether the white race, with Its more
advanced civilization and its higher ideals, shall
permit its progress to" be turned backward by the
dominance of the black race. This is the question
which the citizen of the north has nevor had to
contemplate.
The republican officeholder who is drawing a
salary given to him by colored voters- Is hardly
in a position to set himself up as an impartial
judge as to what should be done by the people
o? the south who live under the shadow of the
race problem. It is' no reflection upon the. black
man to say that he is behind the white man in
progress. It would be a miracle, indeed, if in a
period of forty years the slave could become
the Intellectual equal of his former master. For
centuries the white race has been toiling up the
bill and it has not by any means rcaohed the
top. However rapidly the black man may have
advanced, who is so blind as to say that the
Caucasian is not in front? This question cannot
be settled by comparing a few individual cases;
it must be judged by the mass. If the black man
was inhabiting this country and a few whito men
without invitation and without necessity entered
bis domain, attempted to bring him into subjec
tion and then to exploit him, the case would b
different. That condition wo have now to meet "
in the Philippine islands, but not here. Hore
the white man and the black man aro living to
gether, and while they live together one raca
must be dominant Lincoln expressed what every
white man must feel when ho said that as the two
races could not live together on terms of perfect
equality, he was In favor of the race to which he
belonged "having the superior position."
Unless all r.rguments In favor of civilization
are without, foundation, the superior raco, if dom-'
inant, would be more considerate toward the In
ferior race than the inferior race would, if domi
nant, be toward the superior race. A superior
raco, when dealing with an inferior one (where
It is necessary that one shall bo dominant), Is
restrained, first, by its conscience, and, second, by
Its'JJpw of its own interests; and it is only fair
to assume that the stipsrior race will be more re
sponsive to the dictates of conscience and will
take a broader view of its own interests, than an
inferior race will. To make the application, the
whito people of the south, if in control, will be
more apt to deal justly with the blacks than the
blacks would be, If in control, to deal justly with
the whites. And the whites, if in control, will be
more amenable to public opinion and will take
more comprehensive view of their own Interest
than the blacks would If In the same position.
People differ not so much in the pocsession of
a selfish spirit as they-do in their breadth of view
when they consider their own interests. The man
who steals is selfish, and yet the man who re
frains from stealing takes better care of his own
interests than the man does who steals. If the
white people of the south make laws that are
unjust to the blacks, the more Intelligent blacks
wljl leave the south, and the whites of the south
will" ouner because of the absence of a refining
and elevating element among the blacks. The
provision which the white people of the south
have, at heavy expense, made for the education of
the negro, shows that they realize that it is to
their interest to raise the standard and elevaU
the condition of the black man. The excesses o
the black legislatures after the'war show, on the
other hand, the indifference of the blacks to their
own interests as well as to the interests of the
-white people.
I am sure that you will pardon me, my dear
sir, for putting aside the hypothetical and one
sided questions which you submitted, and taking
up the principles which are involved in this sub
ject. If I lived in the south and had to act upom
the question, I would act upon it in accordance
with the principles which I have suggested, favor
ing such qualifications as seemed to me necessary,
to protect, the interests of all, making those quail-
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