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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1903)
3f ff Vol. XV. , LINCOLN NEB., NOVEMBER 26, 1903. No. 27. THE HEW SOUTH A Retrospeetlre and : Prospective Yiew of the South byi Xdrthera Man Editor ' Independent: A new south is coming to the front. This must be kept in mind by those who would found a new party. The new south will demand protection instead of tar iffs for revenue only, ' r There are places In the south, now, where the negroes do not know that they are free. But this will not al- i.i, ways be so. Ever since the civil war they have been gradually .gaining in knowledge and prosperity. Northern capital has been going there. Mills and factories have also been : going there. Gradually the south is becom ing northernized. The negroes, as well as the whites, , are feeling this new force. There is a great deal of discussion throughout the country with reference to repealing the, 14th and 15th amend ments of the constitution of the United States. Why do they want to repeal these amendments? Why not '' also ' repeal the : 13th amendment, which declares that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude ... shall exist within the United States, or any ; place subject to? tneir jurisdiction?" ! The 14th amendment declares that "all ' ' persons born or naturalized in the : f ' United States, and ' subject to the jur isdiction thereof, are citizens of the ' . United States and :of the state wherein " they reside." This declaration Is ; ' , " broad; enough to , include negroes as well as foreigners, because negroes are "persons, born" in this country; and, therefore, ' we have a solemn, constitutional declaration that negroes are citizens not ; only of the United States, but of the state wherein they reside. This gives colored citizens all the rights that white citizens have, and If this amendment can be re pealed, the 13th amendment abolish ing slavery will also bo "repealed and become null , and void, ; : , " i The object of repealing the 14th amendment then is to deprive negroes of all the rights of citizenship, which would certainly reduce them to slav ery. ' The 15th ' amendment declares that "the right' of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be de . nied or abridged, by the; United States or. by any state on account; of race, color or previous condition of servi tude." This gives our. colored fellow citizens the same right of suffrage that our white fellow-citizens enjoy. It does not, 'however, give them the right to vote, if they are ignorant and don't know what civil government means; but It does give ignorant ne groes the right to vote, .if ignorant white m,en have the right. In other words, it . makes ignorance among white people as bad as ignorance among black people. It says that the right to "vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color or t previous condition of servitude," which means that the vote shall not be given to the white, man unless it is given to the black man on the same conditions; that If the black man 13 disfranchised on account of ignor ance, the white man must be dis franchised for the same reason; that if the black man is disfranchised on account of poverty, the white man must be disfranchised on the same ac count. It docs not compel the states to con fer the suffrage upon th" blacks, but it doog prevent the states from dis criminating against the blacks on ac count of their color. It'1s a glorious declaration" and will eventually help the states to make suffrage depend upon intelligence and virtue. It .will bo a great benefit to the south. The several states can make such laws aj they please on thin subject, provided they give equal right to alt and special privlle to none; but If the supreme court of the I'nlted State End that there U discrimination against ner.n' either by making a ptato w or by adopting a state con atltutlon. the court will aet aaido the atate htiUute or lat ronMlt'ttlon at null nnd void and compel the atatea to mako equal law a. The new party nmt rUt the movmont fr rilUm th tlth and 15th amendment, an a movement n tended to revive uiro aUvery; If not io Intended, thl I at leaat the ten dency; nod tho flvUUatlon of our day revolt from any aiwh tendeney. If th otjevt of repealing the llth and 15th atneodnjttiti Ja not to keep colored people in slavery, what is the object? i If the 14th amendment Is repealed, then negroes cease to be citizens, un less the state ' legislatures choose to make them citizens . And the states tuat seceded and thereby produced civil war (simply because Abraham Lincoln was elected president and it could be seen that there could be no more slave states and that slavery must be restricted to the states where it was)certainly will reduce negroes o slavery, as soon as the 14th amend ment " is repealed. This ' amendment certainly maKes them citizens, and if the southern people do not Intend that negroes shall be citizens, what do they intend that they shall be? There is no middle ground. They must eith er., be citizens or else reduced to the condition of horses, cattle and other animals, that can be bought and sold and treated as property. Should these people be reduced to merchandise? If we repeal the 14th amendment and go back to the constitution, as we' had It, before the civil war, then we shall be called upon to allow the southern states to count three-fifths of the slaves in making up the num ber of representatives which each state is entitled to in the house of representatives In congress. The con ttitution readson this subject: "Rep resentatives shall be apportioned by adding the whole number of free per sons . . . three-fifths of all other per sons." Here "all other' persons" means negroes. If, then, we repeal the 14th amendment and make negroes slaves, these slaves (or property) shall be counted, in making up the number of representatives each southern slave state will be entitled to in congress. Do the southern people want to do this? Do they really want to make slaves out of their negroes and yet have them counted as almost equal to their owners," in making representa tion in congress? If so, then a white man, by owning a lot of slaves, can be very powerful in congress, and wealth would go to make up representation of the southern states in congress, while freemen would make such representa tion of the north. After the civil war, by force of the 14th amendment, negroes became citi zens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. What would be gained .by going back to days previous to the civil war? Why not go forward and try to make good citizens out of negroes instead of re ducing them to slavery again? Have not they improved since the , war? Don't many of the ex-slaves own the plantations that their masters once owned? Haven't many of them be- "! "f A HI tl A fVirvO Captain Blllingsley Com- I I A fl M A IVI I IN meats on Recent Lavatory Vyi-l-rl llrlUJ9 Experiments. Some people have confidence of hav ing clean hands with chunks of char ity. Others again think there is great efficacy in kindness. t v Justice alone wilf clean that which is soiled. Young Rockefeller is of the opinion that a great - Sunday school, created, dominated and maintained by him . and through . which . he injects scriptural wisdom will give him clean hands. John By- Rockefeller,' the father of the Sunday school saint.who has done more diplomatic grand larceny, scien tific bunko work, and brought more distress to fireside homes than any other trust magnate on earth, thinks he is cleaning hl3 hands with col lege and church donations. Even Lincoln is about to get some of his blood money. Andrew Carnegie, who probably has crushed less competing steel plants than any trust lord, bitt who has gar nered rich harvests on fictitious val ues, is in the hand-washing business; is handing out public library packages all over the land. J. Picrpont Morgan is soaping his hands for a redeeming and purifying wash by donating to the city of New York a well filled art hall near the scene of most of his gigantic robberies. The bold trust buccaneer, Charles Schwab, gave summer outings to many boatloads of impoverished hu manity, hoping thereby to cover his dirty hands with a halo of charity. Ho has faith that he can thus post pone or frighten away avenging jus tice. . . , i The modern champions of greed and enemies of society are resorting to many artifices to escape the services of justice. - Justice will refuse such alluring overtures. She demands an answer. She wilj not accept such soap, water, towel and sponge as an atonement. . She is ; blind to them, ',, , - Justice says to the 'oppressor and, despoiler, "there is blood on your hands." "Macbeth has, murdered sleep." You are In the broad day Usht of righteousness, and your palms are soiled with dirty dollars. , You tried to murder justice and "Banquo's guest will not down." Only justice can clean your hands. To the venal vanTpires, justice says to their pleadings for a continuance, "You have swindled and impoverished men, women and little ones. You have heaped sharp stones in their path way of life. You seek the remission of sins at the confessionals of priests, editors and statesmen, followed with rich gifts. I will none of it the men, women and children are still pinched and starving from your greed." The day of reckoning must come. You cannot with unwashed hands conjure up some miracle to save you. The time is coming when justice will challenge again the dirt on your hands. "The mills of the gods grind slowly, but exceedingly fine." You men with unclean hands, do you ob serve that roses have left the cheeks of the children of your victims? They are working hard to give fathers and mothers a chance to live. L. W. BILLINGSLEY. Lincoln, Neb. Mark Foster's Plan. Knowledge of Populism. I Mr. Foster's letter quoted on one of the editorial pages this week la worthy of consideration. He ask a for one thousand volunteers who are able to expend fl a year a dollar every three month to Join him in propa ganda work. Ilia plan la thla: Pend Th Independent a dollar for four 3 month aubstrlptlona. all to be sent to tho 8ubrrlhi'r,a own addrea. Hand the papers out where they may do the mnt cood. At the end of three montha aend another doiUr, and thua keep It up fir the year. A Kfeat many of The Independent'! mm rlbr;i l;eep a fl! of their papers and for thit rean dUUke to perma nently part with their file copy. Heme. If any number of The Inde pendents readers wUh to Join Mr. Porter In thtt propaganda work, w will rahke the following termai Five coplea to one address for $1 ft year one for your own uae and four to give away. The l can bo paid quarterly, a dollar at a time, or alt at once aa the aubn rlber prefers. Let no reader of The Independent attempt thla unle h la abundantly able to a pa re the money. It would add wonderfully to The Independents circulation and usefulness, and Rive an Impetus to the revival of populUm, t havo a thousand men join Mr. Fos ter In the work h m:Keta; but a Rood many of Th Independents tct worMra r.nnnot afford to apeinj quite at much. However, there are no doubt tiore than a thousand im The Inde pndent'a Iht row who might do ro without n'onenlenfe. KuppoiM we ee how miny will join Mr. Foster. Mention "Mark Awter'a I'lau" when yvni write. come very intelligent citizens? Why, then, move backward instead of for ward?1 If we should attempt to go backward, would it not produce an other civil war? If the determination on the part of the north to restrict slavery to the states Where it was, produced a civil war, Why would not a movement to revive slavery now n rt n 4 ir 1 nrA.9 In the old ante-bellum 'days the slave owners who ruled the south, preached and believed in free trade (or tariff for revenue only). This was caused hv siaverv. isui me ume is coming when negroes and, white folks will preach and believe in pro tective tariffs. They will see that the backward ( sfate of manufactures in ; the HBdtrth will need protection, whe ther the north needs Jt or not. And they will be as determined fn favor of protection as they were once in favor of free trade. The same men or their descendants who once talked free trade will be found to talk the oppo site doctrine. This we, are certain to see. And, If we see this, we shall only be seeing what we saw in the south before slavery became a prominent issue, because it is a fact, that previ ous to 1820, when slavery became the paramount issue in our national poli tics, and to a large extent In state politics, the south believed in protec tion, much more than the north did. It is also a fact that after 1820 the .south became more and more in favor of free trade, while the ' north be came more and more in favor of pro tection. The cause was slavery. The south found, or thought she found, that wealth could be Increased . more rapidly under free trade than under protection, while the north found that wealth could be produced more rapid-' ly under protection. The, cause of this change of opinion, was slave- labor in the south and free labor in the north. The south found slave labor profita ble; the north did not. The climate of the south demanded negro labor; and, -inasmuch as negroes could not . exist the south without being de privedUof citizenship and reduced to slavery, slave labor became a neces sity. The ruling class there, the land owners, who . were the only Wealthy people, demanded slave labor, because it.was about the only labor they could get and it was the cheapest labor in the world. Instead of this the north Invented machines and in this way partly did away with the necessity of slavery. The northern machines proved a little cheaper than the south ern . machines. , It is a fact that manufactures In the south are In their infancy, compared with the north. This will make pro tection much more necessary for the south than for the north. The south will have to travel over the same ground industrially that the north has been traveling over. In the south la bor is cheaper than in the north. This will make capital more profitable there than in the north for many years to come, if the policy of protec tion is continued. This will cause capital to leave the north and go to the south. The great and growing country of the future, then, is the south, provided only the policy of protection-is kept up; if not kept up, slavery will be restored; If not re stored, progress of the south, In wealth and intelligence, will be slow.. The new party, then, must go for freedom and protection if it would find favor in the south. J NO a I)K 1 1 ART. Jersey City, N. J. The same Doston literary critic from whoso letter a quotation was made, has sent "a supplementary nolo"' on the same question. In this she says: "There la one term of great valu which The Independent uses, and I would be glad to see it adopted by every writer dealing with political af fairs, It b the term 'partisan (inan ity.' The more a writer studies that term, thrt more uaeful It will appear. What la It that makes fannera who sell everything In a free trade market and buy everything In a hiRh tariff, protected market, go out Into a cam palicn, nnreh long dUtanie.t, carry aooty, itreany larup and about for hlKh tarltTa? The wholii thin tan b numtned up In the two worda, partl fan Incantty.' That tella the whole tnth and to tell It In any othr way would require rtdumna. The name two word etiUfn the action of thoiuandt of other men wage-wnrkira amen? the number, .