Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-02-19
THE DEMO RALIZATION OF POPULAR
ELECTIONS.
THE INTEI LIGENCER,S "WORD or
WARNING.'

tcemeu contemporary ulu Noi nnI lCS
voice to re-echo our sentiments then. The
abuse was quite as rife then as now, and
the campaign fund of the Republicans in,
this city in 1878 had great deal to do
with it. The g., 600 sent by Quay to Lam
caster on the Saturday before the elec-
tions; the orders telegraphed to fir;:! !
here by the political agent Of great cor
poratiol in Philadelphia to ''buy every
thing possible against Steinmetz and pay
any price," contributed to Demuth's cleo
ton by means Of the widest corruption.
The INTELLIeEScEB saw 1t in defeat the
Neu Era was bedazzled with victory. But
as the INTELLIGENCER has the same senti-
ments for fair weather and foul, it does not
hesitate to repeat now what it said then
and to give the New Era's long delayed
answer to our early CALL We are as ready to
becin the work Of reform now as We were
then, This is what the INTELLIGENcER
said in 1878:
There is no Disgusting the fact that year
/ after year elections have become agencies
frequent recurrence and the scenes and in
tiuences attending them comprise subject
we'll calculated to alarm the mOraiiSt no
less than to bewilder the politician. In
this city and county things have become
steadily worse eyer since the introduction
| Of the Crawford county system OF nOmiIa-
tions by the Republican party, That
system as now administered makes the Re-
publican campaign for nominations here a
carnival of corruption and immortality for
the several months during which it is
| wagsd actively, A class of bummers in
fest the city and county, l,csieging candi-
dates for beer and money, and to WOeful
extent getting them. Year after year their
| opportunities and the ready yielding to
them become worse. Votes are bought
and sold shamelessly in the market places,
and it is seldom that candidate reaches
the goal without running very close to
financial bankruptcy and utter demOraliza-
tiqn. We have the authority of one of the
most active politicians in the last Repnb-
lican campaign in this county for the cal
culation that the candidates for nomina=
tions spent in the aggregate between $685.
600 and $40. 900, of which at least 80 per
cent. was of the disreputable class of ex-
renditues to which we have referred. To
such pitch Of excitement and such length
of shamelessnesS had the campaiga pro
crossed, that OH election day the agents
of the candidates stood along the curb
stones in this city, with money in hand,
buying every thing that came along, re.
gardless of party, age or residence, and
putting the cash in one hand and the
ticket into the other.
These practices gradually induced a
large class Of Republican voters in this
city to expect the same treatment at the
general election, and during late years it
has be,;n the custom not only to ''beer"
them literally for weeks in advance of the
election, but to pay them well for their
votes and services on election day. A class
Of Democrats have naturally come to ex-
pect the same, and the institution of "poll
committees, " which once meant the pay
ment of days wages to a few needy men
who lost days work that they could lilly
spare, to hold the window book, distribute
tickets or run the carriages, has grown
into monstrous abuse which now means
the payment of from 81 S. per day each Oh
election day to anywhere from 500 to !, 900,
voters to hold or change their votes. To
be sure, many of these would vote their
ticket without this inducement, but as its
extension has become so general they eX-
pect it. and politicians fear to take the risk
of Withholding it. There remain hundreds
with whom it is virtually, if not techni-
cally, matter Of outright purchase, and
year by year the number Of this class is in
creasing.
For reasons which are obvious the Dem
ocracy must be the sufferers from this sys-
tenn. The unyarying liberal campaign
fund of the opposition, drawn from heavy
capitalists and corporations with great in
terests seeking legislation and raised by
assessments and levies on Office-hOlders,
utterly obliterates the slim, voluntary con-
tributiOns of Democrats. But we trust
there is higher and more patriotic view
of the question which lOlest men of all
parties can take. Aside from party ad-
vantages, and beyond regard for the
severe tax which the system entails upon
active partisans, decent people must view
with grave apprehensions the long train of
ensuing ills. Chief of these, of course. are
the general decentralization and debauchery
of the voters scarcely second to it is the
dangerous power given to money and
office to overcome the actual voice of the
people most of the patriotic sentiment of
politics is eliminated by the fact that the
most earnest and high-minded patriot is
balanced at the polls by the hummer
whose vote can be bought for the almighty
dollar-and single dollar at that. The
personal leadership which once gave such
enthusiasm and magnetism to campaigns
is rapidly becoming lost to us, and all the
legitimate powers of persuasion, the argu-
ment Of reason, the elOquence of the ora
tor, the ability of the editor, count for
naught against influences which are not
only unworthy, but yielding to which is,
in itself, vicious and demoralizing.
Phiianthropic citizens and honest citi-
zens cannot ignore these abuses. To meet
them in partisan spirit is only to perpetu-
ate them. We must unite tho better
classes of all parties to stamp them out. It
has become the leading question, not how
elections shall 90, but if there shall be
elections at all. A few more years of the
recent progress toward an utter abuse of
suffrage, and anarchy will be down ON lis
like night
This is what the Ner Etu now says:
eff half what is told of the money spent,
and the purposes for which it was spent,
in the late election, be true, it is burning
disgrace to both parties and a terribly dis
gusting commentary upon the venality of
a certain class of voters. 1t is an unden-
able fact that men were openly bought like
sheep in the shambles, their votes finally
going to the party which made the highest
bid. Both parties charge it upon the other,
and we will not pretend to say WHICH be-
gan it or who did the most of it although
there is pretty good reason for believing