The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-05
Tavern Polling Booths - Reform
Needed.

Needed.
WERE IL not for the brutal murder of Colonel
Riddle by drunken rufian, in the bar
room where an assessor had established
his Office, it might have been years before
popular attention would have been so directly
called TO the evil of which we are about to
complain, as to secure remedy. As it is,
popular indignation is naturally and properly
aroused against both the character of the
scoundrel who committed or aided in commit
ting the murder, and also against the disrepu-
table den in which he had chosen to establish
his Office. This melancholy occurrence will,
we hope, secure a remedy for the two evils.
In the first place, the character of the men
who have been elevated to various political
Offices demands improvement. Within the
past twenty years the field of politics has been
abandoned to a class of men with whom no
gentleman would be willing to associate. We
know there are exceptions, but the rule is the
same for all that. Many of the assessors are
totally unworthy of the position accorded
them. and it is well known that the Ward
Offices are filled with the lowest grade of politi-
clans. The drunken assessor who instigated
the murder of the gallant soldier for
whom so many are to-day mourning, is but
an extreme type of his class. And yet with
these men all our citizens are compelled to be
brought in contact. Women and children
must accord them interviews, and the safety of
those leastoapableo of selfdefense is placed in the
power of the low denizens of drinking brothels.
1t seems idle to expect that gentlemen will
oondescend to accept such positions; and as the
choice of the lower orders never falls on the
competent we are compelled to favor the in
crease of the appointing power, and see no
remedy except to rest the selection of these
local officers with the Jadges of our Courts, or
some other competent and honest official.
Some such change is needed to prevent the
entire system of public service from falling
into disrepute.
The second evil, which would probably be
obviated by a remedy of the first is the hold
ing of public offices in taverns and places
where liquor is sold. 1t may be that many of
these taverns are respectable and orderly, but
it is in opposition to the proper principle to
allow public servants to compel the people to
frequent, ON business, location which they
would willingly avoid. Many of the people
having necessary interviews with the officer
are women, and to compel them to frequent a
liquor shop is disgraceful There is no good
reason why some other place should not be
selected. 1t would seem that of late the only
object of dividing wards into precincts is to
increase the patronage of the various taverns.
1t is time that the English law, which forbids
the.sale of liquor within several hundred yards
of the place of election, should be adopted
here. By it much of the violence and un-
seemAy quarrelling which disgrace our cleo
tions would be avoided, and no future case o.
a crime like that of Colonel Riddles murder
ever arise to disgrace our city. We hope thai
some definite shape will be accorded to thu
needed reform, and that, while we are seeking
for remedies for delegate elections, we shal
also purify our whole system of choosing
public officers, and allowing them to administe
their duties as they see fit.