Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-10
CAN WE IMPROVE UPON TIE PLAN
OF UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE?

Inc EXPERIMENT. OF universal Suffrage.
The paper is awakening wide and most
interesting discussion. A syllabus of the
points he makes is timely. He begins with
the statement that there are serious in
herent defects in cur political system. The
factors OF national welfare include the en-
actment of judicious laws rejecting pro
gressive ideas a just enforcement of the
laws, and tribunals 70 administer equity.
National welfare must be grounded on in
teliigence and virtue. The exercise of
political functions requires an acquaintance
with history, enactment OF useful laws,
knowledge of the history and results of
legislation, Of financial science, and OF the
principles of justice. The administration
Of the laws demands intelligent compre-
bension, Interpretation, and application of
chem. A high civilization depends on the
Increase Of knowledge of the laws of the
natural world, and is the product OF
intense intellectual activity aud noble de-
velopment of the moral sentiments. To-
telligence and virtue have, therefore,
created modern civilization, and hence they
have an inherent right to control it. A
high civilization is the product of the
! highest wisdom and virtue of people,
| the Government should reflect them. But
modern civilization does not reflect them.
As the highest civilization is the best for
| all, it follows that all should conserve the
highest intelligence and virtue, and as
natural sequence absolute political control
should not be exercised by the masses.
Those not having these high qualities
should, for their own sakes, consent to the
control of those who have, TO secure to all
the broadcast protection from political evils.
Political equality disfrauchises virtue and
intelligence, because ignorance and vice
are clothed with equal power.
Then follows the recital of the political
evils Of the day, which may be summed
up in the rule of @ the machine and the
tyranny of the bosses" resulting in
packed conventions and ward primaries,
corruption, the exclusion of the best men
from Office to the elevation OF the dema.
gogue, the degradation of political science
to trade, and the dissipation of patriot
ism. The best do not aspire to Office, as
rule, because voters misjudge what is po-
litically wise for them, and the best citi-
zen cannot afford to grapple with dema-
gogism, and civilization cannot afford to
| have him do so. Civil service reform treats
only the sores on the body-what is need
ed, is constitutional treatment.
This treatment he proposes shall be,
limitation of the right of suffrage so as to
place virtue and intelligence in supreme
control. He would establish standards
for the exercise of political suffrage, and
these should be: Good judgment and ade-
quate knowledge virtue, as measured by
rectitude, temperance, unseltishness, ETC.;
personal suffrage, including women con.
sideration of property, and lastly, the
ramily, for the influence of the children
should be felt in government Through the
father). To attain the desired end he
would establish Commission of Suffrage,
holding it to be no more difficult to ascer-
tain suffrage competency than to ascertain
competency in teacher, medical prac.
titioner, or the financial ability Of a
surety on bond. The one thing
of all Prof. Winchell does not make
clear, and in which he becomes involved is
the consideration of means to be employed
TO bring the voters who would be disfran-
ment.
1t must be admitted that there ia a world
of truth in what he advances, and unques-
tionable need for radical reform in our
political methods. But, as we recently
suggested, do the statistics establish that
the classes most intelligent reflect the high
est state of virtue? Do not the French
statistics show that they do not, but, on
the contrary, present to us the highest per-
centage of crime where there is the high
est intelligence? It may also be well to
consider whether the extension Of the suf.
frage right, rather than its abridgment,
will not turn the current, since the natural
instincts of woman incline to right and
justice. Again, as has been suggested,
modern civilization is for all men, and not
for the intelligent alone, while the pro.
posed system would tend TO the establish.
ment of an aristocracy Of culture, as much
to be dreaded ss an aristocracy of wealth
or of blood, for there is nothing more true
than that selfish culture, which such
system might develop, renders the man
less susceptible to natural warm impulses,
inclines its victim to despise, or regard
with contempt, all not equally cultured,
to lose that common interest in mankind ali
should feel for, as the late DR.. Holland
stated it in one Of his admirable essays,
"when culture is selfish, all its sympathies
are clannish." We shall doubt the policy of
recognizing any class as holding mort.
gage on the intelligence and culture OF
people. If the desirable results that in.
vitc to a high state of intelligence and
virtue are not sufficient to stimulate men
to realize them, we do not believe that the
reward of the exercise of the right of suf-
frage will move them and there would
result permanent division into classes
that would settle one into complete subjec.
ton to the other, and ont of which it would
have little ambition to RISE If we advance
the liberty of the man and protect him in
it, will it not be wiser to leave his further
elevation in his own hands, after insisting
upon common school course for the child,
and which finds its defense in other reasons