Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1889 — THE SOUTHERN DARKY. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTHERN DARKY.

A Feature of the Negro Question that No Law Can Grapple With. C. S. Burt is remembered by lowans as a heavyweight in lowa Republican politics in times gone by when he lived at Dubuque and was a member of the Legislature. He is at the Palmer House from his home in the South, where he has been living for five years. “I am in about the blackest section of the whole South,” said Mr. Burt. “Around Baton Rouge the blacks outnumber the whites two to one. I’ve been a pretty consistent Republican all my life, and when I waß in politics up here I thought I knew all about how to settle the negro question. I have lived in the midst of it for five years, and I must say I have not the slightest idea now what the answer is. There is one thing you may be- sure of: the whites have no notion of allowing the negroes to dominate the government. It doesn’t matter at all what their number is. There is no bulldozing in the cities; other ways are easier. I have seen a hundred negroes put in a stockake over night and taken out and voted in a body by the men who bought their votes. The price ranged from 50 cents up—and not far up either. That is the feature of the question that no law can grapple with. The negroes as a class have not the slightest interest in politics and regard the sale of a vote no differently than the sale of a day’s work. They have been given the franchise and they know no more what it means than a child. They really are nothing but overgrown children. That is the condition of the negro question. What are you going to do about it? I’m sure I don’t know. “The South is prosperous. Northern capital and Northern men are changing many things.” —Chicago Tribune, Rep. Tweoty-four women were graduated as lawyers in Michigan last year.