The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-30
FRAUDULEN7 REGISTRATION.

WHEN the Registration law was passed the
Democrats were loud in their protestations
against it as an attempt to interfere with the
freedom of elections, to throw obstacles in the
way of voters exercising their rights of
suffrage and especially as a radical device to
cut down the number of Democratic votes
and thereby swell the Republican majorities
and maintain the Republican ascendancy.
Fair-minded and impartial men, however,
who desired to see check placed upon the
operations of corrupt political managers,
and the purity of the ballot-box secured
so far as it is possible to secure it by legal
enactments, were able to see nothing in the
Registry law but a fair and bipartisan effort
to carry out these ends, and to make the cleo
tions really the expression of the wishes of
the majority. We will not undertake to say
that the Registry law is the best that could
be devised for the purpose, as it is now on
trial and its value will be tested by experience;
but it is at least move in the right direc-
tion, and its provisions are as fair for one
party as the other. The Democrats objected
to it, as they have objected to the attempts at
reforming the naturalization laws proposed in
Congress- and to all other safeguards against
fraud and corruption that have been advo-
Gated by the friends of law and order, who
believe that the safety of our republican in
stitutions mainly depends upon the purity of
the ballot-box being secured. In spite of
the opposition of the Democrats to the
Registry law, however, they have availed
themselves of it to pursue their usual tactics
with greater boldness and audacity than ever,
and the Investigation now being conducted
by United States Commissioner Biddle proves
the existence of gigantic Democratic con-
spiracy to carry the coming election at
all hazards by system of fraudulent re-
gistration that would literally overwhelm the
honest voters of Philadelphia. 1t is perfectly
useless for the Age to fill its editorial columns
with asseverations that this investigation is
Republican device to throw discredit on the
Democracy, when the evidence clearly and
Enthusiastically shows that the guilty parties
are Democrats, and that most of them were
vouched for by Democratic policemen. The
police force have shown themselves
to be the active agents of the De-
mocratic managers in this whole affair;
and Mayor Fox owes it to himself and
to the public to clear himself from the suspi-
cion of being in any way the alder and abettor
of the outrage by making an official investiga-
tion into the conduct of the men on the police
force, and promptly dismiss such as are guilty.
This is the least that the Mayor can do, and
his plea of lack of official information on the
subject will scarcely be accepted by honest
men of either party.
The efficiency of the Registry law as a pro-
;c .;,1
of vastly more importance that this efficiency
should be demonstrated in the most decided
and unmistakable manner than that mere
party triumph should be secured. If any So
called Republicans are in any way implicated
in fraudulent registration, let them be Disco
vered and promptly brought to JUS
tice. The Republican plrty, which
relies for support upon the intelligent and
thinking portion of the public, cannot afford
to appear as the apologist for dishonesty of
any kind, and we would rather be fairly de-
feated than win a triumph by unfair means.
At the same time we do not intend to be de-
feated by any but fair means, and the Demo
cratic managers may rely upon it that any
improper device they may resort to
for the purpose of gaining the ascen.
dancy in this city will be promptly met
and exposed; and as a warning to those un-
partisan voters who may be laboring under
the deusion that Democratic success would
lead to an improvement in the administration
of our public affairs, we need only suggest
that the men who are interested in the sue
cess of the conspiracy now being ventilated
before Commissioner Biddle are not likely tc
be models of purity if they ever get intc
offices of trust and emolument.
THE RUSSIAN RIDDLE