Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/340

 Constitution is ratified by the people, then haste will no doubt be made to have its constitutionality tested, in which case the validity of the Fifteenth Amendment will be directly raised. The Southern States, as a rule, deplore this action on the part of Maryland because they fear that it will open up the whole suffrage question. It is deplored by people over the country as a whole because they fear that it will revive the ill feeling among the sections occasioned by Reconstruction.

EXTENT OF ACTUAL DISFRANCHISEMENT

It is imposible to say how many persons have been disfranchised under the suffrage laws. No doubt many who are capable of satisfying the qualifications do not register, or, if they register, do not vote. This is probably due to the one-party system in the South. The following figures show either the extent of actual disfranchisement or the political apathy in the Southern States: In one county in Mississippi, with a population of about 8,000 whites and 11,700 Negroes in 1900, there were only twenty-five or thirty qualified Negro voters in 1908, the rest being disqualified, it is said, on the educational test. In another county, with 30,000 Negroes, only about 175 were registered voters. In still another county of Mississippi, with 8,000 whites and 12,000 Negroes, only 400 white men and about 30 Negroes are qualified electors. The clerk of court of a county in North Carolina, with a population of 5,700 whites and 6,700 Negroes, writes that a Negro has never voted in the County. As a general rule, taking the country at large, about one person in five is a male of voting age. In Iowa four out of five possible voters have