The Labor enquirer., 1883-03-17


government Structure, we treat offices as
things to be aid for,
To make poor and rich alike eligible
to office, to 1revent public plunderers
having an advantage over honest men,
to give voter}freedom of choice, it is
necessary to tp order our elections that
any citizen nay run for office without
expense.
Let me dTelI for a moment on the
point that elections must be inexpensive
to get freedom Of choice. What we call
machine politics springs from the cost of
elections. Parties are necessary and
useful in popular government; but in
political organizations, as in< all other
organizations power tends to concentrate
in the hands of those who make a bust
ness Of ther management, and that in
proportion as the details and machinery
of organization become relatively i'm
portant. Evils which thus arise can be.
held in check only by the independence.
of mere organization on the part of
voters-byth ease with which new Or
ganizations can be formed, and Candi-I
dates can be run outside Of regular Or
carnations. Un der present conditions
the expenses of elections are so great
and organization so costly Y and important,
that it is a very difficult thing to start a
new party, and, except in very rare cases,
a hopeless, as well as a very expensive
thing for an independent candidate to
run. The two great existing party Or
ganizatiOns may be compared to two
railroad lines. Those who do not like
the terms Of the one must close with the
terms of the other, or else accept the
alternative as hopeless as building rail-
road for themselves, or trying to walk.
And as the competition between railroads
only operates. at terminal points, SO,
practically, does the competition be-
tween parties only operate as to the
heads of tickets. 1t is only to a few of
their nominees that party managers need
take public opinion into account; the
fortunes Of the rest, save in very rare
instances, depend upon the fate of the
head of the ticket. AS the same general
causes operate in both parties to put
their practical control into the hands of
men who make Of politics a business,
the voter is, in most cases, confined to a
choice between the nominee of a repub-
Iican machine and the nominee of a
democratic ring. And, too, the axiom
that railroads will not long compete
when they can combine is as true of our
political machines. Nothing is more
common than to find the same Combina- |
ton running both political parties, and
playing with the people game Of "heads,
l win tails, you lose" Thus freedom Of
choice is destroyed, and, under the forms
Of popular sovereignty, we are ruled as
completely as though our institutions
recognized a governing class.
To get rid of machine rule, we must
adopt such measures as will lessen the
importance of the political machines in
elections by lesBening the cost Of elect
ions. This must be sought in various
ways, adapted to the necessities Of the
case or the abuses that have grown up.
In addition to pointing out this as a
direction which effort for the publication
of our politics should take, I only wish
to offer some general suggestions.
The legitimate election expenses Of
political parties, which make it necessary
first to assess the candidates and then to
assess the ofice-hoIders, and to levy or
solicit contributions, are mainly the ex-
penses Of presenting the ticket to voters,
and the printing and distribution of bal
lots. Under the first head fall the ex-
pense8 of advertising, distributing docu-
ments, holding meetings; and in Presi-
dental elections, or strongly contested
state elections, of banners, Transparent
cies, uniformed clubs and torchlight pro-
ce8sions. Under the second comes not
merely the expense Of printing very
many more tickets than can by any pos
sibiIity be used, and of mailing or send
ing them to voters, but of employing
workers" to stand at the polls to offer
ballots and solicit voters. In some Sec
sions, where the payment of poll tax is
requisite to voting, it has become custo-
mary for the parties to pay poll taxes: in