, 1875-05-09

! vented
TEE MAN WHO NEVER VOTES,
There has been committee appointed b
the Bar Association of Chicago to report 10
discussion by that body scheme for RENE
dying the evils Of our suffrage system. An
scheme for that purpose must necessarily b
incomplete unless it make some provision
| for tho case Of the man who won't vote. Th
non-voting population Of large cities is in
creasing annually. The recent elections il
Cincinnati and st. Louis show very marke
! falling of in the number of votes polled- L
1873, there were 10000 votes pol1ed at th
| charter election in Chicago, which WAS tn
highestvote since 1868. As in other cities, tn
vote polled does not keep pace with tbs in
crease of the population. Under acarefu1 reg
isry, if all the persons legally entitled to vot'
| were registered, the list would show q tota
OF not less than 70, 600 legal voters in Chicago
As general thing, not over one-half O.
these go near the polls on election
| day. In 1868, there was strong
! vote polled at the Presidential election,
but there has been no election since then
which has had adsuficientinterestt to cal ont any.
thing like full vote So general Is this,
that comparison of the List Of voters will
show that the voting is done pretty much by
the same persons, there being rarely any new
names added to the list
Now, the class Of persons who do not vote
are not those who arc uninterested in the
elections or unaffected by its results. On
the contrary, these persons have large inter-
ests at stake, and are perhaps OF all others
most deeply interested in good government,
and in the honest aid efficient execution Of
the laws. On election day these persons are
at their stores, warehouses, factories, banks,
counting-rooms, and Offices, and on the day
after election they ara tho 1oudest and
most vehement in their denunciations Of the
result Of the election in which they had
omitted to take part.
4 preventive of non-voting and Of absent
eeism in legislative bodies has been wisely
provided for in the Constitution Of Illinois,
and in other States, and ought to be pro-
vided in the Constitution Of the United
States Our State Constitution provides that
no act Of legislation can pass either House
without the formal cal Of the yeas md nays
thereon, and the affirmative vote of major-
ity of the whole number Of membersof each
House. A quorum is essential to transact
business, and no law can be enacted, amend
ed, or repealed, OF appropriation mads or tax
levied without the recorded assent Of the
majority Of the peoples representatives
Here is remedy for non-yoting, absenteeism,
negligence, and evasion On the part Of MEN,
bers, and the remedy consists in the fact
that votes not cast are counted in the mega
tive The people continue to be represented,
because, if their member fail to vote, he is
counted in the negative, and the negntive
side in the great multitude Of Legislative ques-
tons is the side Of safety and wisdom
This rule, however, cannot ba made ap-
plicable to ordinary elections Of officers, where
the matter to be determined is the election Of
one or another individual; but perhaps the
Bar Association may be ingenious enough to
devise some scheme by which the non-Toting
legal voters may be represented in determin-
ing the result If this be imprncticable,
there may be found some way in which per-
sons legally entitled to vote, who do not vote,
may be subjected to some penalty therefor, or
be put under TN obligation to render some
other service to the State in compensation for
their failure to vote.
The greatest and most difficult problem in
American government IS how to obtain good,
honest, and competent city governments.
The evil Of the day is the failure Of city gov
Tint evil owes it's origin, and its
continuance, and its alarming growth, more
to the non-Totng Of large bodies Of tbs pub
Lie than it does TO the successful voting OF
the cfdce-seeking class; and there can be 10
radical q permanent improvement Of munic-
ipal governments until this public crime Of
by half the legal voters is rooted
out and abandoned.