The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-07-08

GEN. HORACE BINNEY SARGENT, OF Boston,
delivered the usual Fourth of July Grafton in
that city, and therein announced some quite
novel ideas. Being opposed to universal suf-
frage as it is now provided by the Constitution
he offers novel plan for compulsory voting as
follows:
To counterfeit the much Landed but undoubt-
ed and irrevocable evil of unqualified suffrage
the support of the republic by the most edu-
Gated, refined, opulent and Influential citizens
is to be especially desired. The machinery to
compel their attendance is simple. The alb
sence of a checking mark against a name, after
the polls were closed, would be prima facie
evidence of delinquency, subject of course, to
rebutting testimony. A fine, based on some
per centage of the delinquents next tax bill,
TO be added thereto and collected with the tax
would insure the anxious attendance of the
largest holders in the great joint stock concern
society. NOn-vOting, contemptuous grumblers
would become earnest debaters at primary
meetings Nominees who are not party hacks
would come before the people; for between
hight headed contempt for all parties, and com
PEELED action in support Of either, there is &
wide difference. --s-e
From his residence in Beacon street, Gen.
Sargent draws a very dark picture of the so
cial condition of Massachusetts, in which the
males are represented as "mob of dishonest
ot," and the women who should be happy
mothers are host of anxious women. HI
says:
Either we should provide employment fol
women at sufficient compensation, so that they
can be fit, pure mothers of the people; or We
should drown the female children, as they dc
in China, which originates the proverb, "Be
happy and you will be virtuous." God knows
it would be less cruel.
The next proposition is that the State should
raise money by taxation, to run factories.
The following is the plan, purpose and argu
ment all interwoven:
"The citizens are taxed for public schools tt
prevent ignorance. Why should they not bt
taxed for public factories to prevent theft ant
partners in grand cooperative system. Why
should not the government, which has factor
les OF ships and cannon, establish factories tt
create the cheap defense of nations? The ex
pense of police, penitentiaries, of civil wars, o.
republic lost, is more serious item than the
whole cost of State ne rmal factories The pro
lection of feeble girls, of broken down women,
the comfortable and virtuous rearing of thu
mothers of the people, is founded on the bare
selfish, common sense that makes the farmers
house his ewes from winter storms, and save
his heifers from the pillow. The cooperative
system should be initiated by legislative chart
ty, based on the power of inexhaustibie taxa
ton. The taxes of civil war are heavier 1t i.
better for the State to weave cotton at a loss
than to make the social warp and woof so rot
ten, that luxury and misery, Juggling at the
republic, can read it. 1t is better for the rich
to eat into accumulated capital, than for the
poor, the armed majority, to become Catilnes
in the fever of accommodating debt
Fourth of July orators are expected to say
things that sensible men would not on any
other occasion, but there is no reason why
Gen. Horace Binney Sargent should utter
such fourth rate nonsense as the above, even il
he does live in Beacon street.