Show I SOUTHERN DISFRANCHISEMEnT The Tribune Is In receipt of a communication com-munication Which discusses the negro question and is on the whole a justification j justi-fication tor the dlKfrinchiscment of the negroes in the South It advances no neSoes l ncv Ideas and is not pertinent at the present urc The States establish the I qualifications of voters Voting Is not an Inherent right but only a privilege I and no ono has a right to criticise any restrictions which a State may put upon the franchise so long as no fundamental J fun-damental law Is violated and no Injua ticc Is done other States The com lce s plaint nt present Is that the dlsfran I I chlsemcnt which la going on In the I Southern States sofar as the election i of Congressmen and of President Is 1 concerned disfranchises a very large I proportion of the men of the North We do not think that our correspondent thinks It right lo rCQulre three times or thirty times as many voters to elect a Congressman or elector In the State of New YorIc as It dos In the State of Mississippi For instance Mr Bryan starts In with the certainty of having more than half enough votes to elect him President while In point of fact all the States that are thus fixed In tho Interest of the Democratic party will probably not cast as many votes this year as the two States of Illinois and New York The North stands that because there is a strong Democratic party In all the Northern States which never yet gave up an advantage in favor I fa-vor of Its ticket on any ground of justice I jus-tice not even when It Involved the degradation deg-radation of their own States Then the laws now being passed In the South arc manifestly Intended ns direct I di-rect violations of the Constitution of the United States and so conscious is 1 tho South of this that the law In North I Carolina for Instance Is not made to take effect until 1002 the hope being I that Mr Bryan may be elected and that there may be Democratic additions addi-tions enough to the Supreme court of the United States to declare the law constitutional Then It was passed by 1 creating 3 reign or terror and where I needed to sufficiently intimidate Republican Re-publican voters uniformed armed men were in attendance to put down any protest In favor of the right Thus the I grotesque spectacle is presented of men apparently afraid of Imperialism who are crying their eyes out over the violence vio-lence which is being Inflicted on the murderous Tagals but who glory In the fact that by murder and intimidation intimida-tion and by direct and open and pal pablp frauds they have killed the votes of some millions of native born Americans Amer-icans in the Southern States I |