Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-01-16

sion during the early autumn. The
state is asked to cede to the United States
jurisdiction over the ground included in the
home reservation.
THE PRICE RAID CLAIMS.
Certain claims growing out of the alleged
diversion or misrepresentation Of money
paid the state by the United States govern
ment, to reimburse Kansas for expenses in
CURED in equipping, arming, transporting
and paying the militia called out to aid in
rcpelling the Price raid of 1864, will be pre-
appropriated for specific payments, the state
did, as alleged, divert or misapply any por
ton of the amount, it is in honor bound to
repair the wrong done. A full investigation
ard final and equitable settlement of the
long-pending and confused question involv-
ed in those claims ought tc be had.
THE NEW ORLEANS EXPOSITION.
The commissioners in charge of the Kan
sas exhibit Mt the New Orleans exposition
advise me that they are laboring under great
disadvantages because of the limited appro-
priation made for collecting and arranging
display of our products and industries.
The legislature appropriated $1,000, and this
was supplemented by 5000 from the expo
sition managers. With this sum the COM
missioners have done all in their power to
maintain the reputation of Kansas, but they
report, and other gentleman who have Wis
tied the exposition have advised me, that
our display does not do justice to the re-
sources and development of the state. None
of the state institutions have contributed to
it, and educational exhibits are practically
lacking.
The exposition closes on the 3lst of May
next, so that if you deem it advisable TO en-
large the Kansas department Jour action
must be prompt. Undoubtedly the magnif-
icent display made by Kansas at the centen-
NAL exhibition in 1876 was OF vast and per-
manent benefit to the state. Whether the
New Orleans exposition will be such a sue
cess, in its exhibits and attendance, As to
| Justify additional expenditures on the Kan
sas department, is submitted for your con-
| sideration.
STATE PRINTING.
Our system of state printing has been
| found to work we'll. At a moderate cost, it
gives us very superior class of work. The
office of the state printer is in excellent cen
dtion, the present incumbent having renew
ed and materially enlarged and improved it.
SAFEGUARDS FOR THE BALLOT Box.
The present registry law should be repeal
ed, and an act embodying adequate provis-
ions for protecting the rights Of legal voters
and preventing illegal voting, should be
placed on the statute books. The present
law accomplishes neither of these purposes.
1t places in the hands of petty city officer
a dangerous power. No scrutiny or revis-
ion of his acts is provided for; he may be
careless or strict, as his partisan prejudices
incline him, in registering names; and if he
registers hundreds of Illegal voters, or names
of mythical persons, there is no way pro-
1 yt1a1 for ha lists Of fta-a
or of detecting and furnishing his malfeas-
ance in Office.
A registry law should not apply in cities
of less than five thousand inhabitants. In
small communities such laws are hin
drance rather than, a protection to legal vot-
ing. The personal acquaintanceship of one
voter with all the others should afford ade-
quate guarantee against Illegal voting. But
IN larger centres of population a careful
registration of the legal voters, under the
provisions of law carefully framed, is neces-
sary for the protection of the ballot-box
against frauds. Such law, to be effective,
should provide for a non-partisan board OF
registration, which should have power to
administer oaths. This board should sit
during a stated period prior to each election;
the names of the voters it enrolls should be
published; and after such publication an
other session should be held when the names
of legal voters omitted could be placed on
the lists, and those of illegal voters could be
challenged and removed. A law Of this
character would be valuable. The present
law is worse than useless.
HONEST ELECTIONS.
| The great question of the hour is that. of
| free, pure, honest ballot box. The foam
DAFT on stone on which the whole fabric of
! = l. II - l..
republic cannot long endure if honest votes
are not honestly counted, or if legal voters
are deprived of their right to vote by init
midaton or violence. The developments
following recent national elections are start
ling, and should admonish all honest Ameri-
can citizens of the danger that menaces our
| form of government. The returns of these
elections show that in number of states lately
in rebellion, one vote has usurped, by force
| or fraud, as much electoral power is exercis-
| ed by two or three voters in the northern
states. At the congressional election of
| 1882. the average vote polled in the thirty
seven congressional districts of Georgia,
Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi and
Louisiana, was only 1894, while that poll
ed in the thirty-eight congressional districts
of Iowa, Wisconsin, New jersey, Maryland
and Minnesota, was 26,74s, and for the seven
congressman representing Kansas the vote
averaged 26,l6S. That this extraordinary
contrast was not the result of an unusual in
terest in the one section, and in the apathy
of voters in the other, is shown by the vote
cast in the late presidential election. The
! five southern states named above polled for
president total of 61S,811 votes and elected
forty-seven presidential electors and twenty
seven congressman, or one presidential cleo
q. 4. A
man for every 1924 votes. At the same
election the five northern states of Iowa.
Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New
Jersey, polled total of 1855 1876 votes, and
elected only forty-fve presidential electors
and thirty-fve congressman, or one pres
idential elector for every 1888 votes
and one congressman for every 36,453
votes. Our own state, at this election,
polled a total of 265, 6S4 votes. electing nine
presidential electors and seven congressman,
or one presidential elector for every 29,52O
votes, and one congressman for every 81, 955
votes. 1t will be seen BY these facts, that in
each of the five southern states named, one
voter exercised more political power than
two voters in the six northern states named.
The same comparisons might be made be-
tween the voters of nearly all southern and
northern states, showing similar results.
No government assuming to derive its
authority from the popular will can long
endure if such systematic and persistent
crimes against the ballot box as these fig
ures reveal 60 on UNPUBLISHED and
triumphant, from year to year and cleo
ton TO election. No fair-minded, right
thinking American citizen can uphold such
injustice. No question of political economy
or of administrative reform. or of foreign
mol s1 IL g., . x.
free. fair, honest ballot box. No crime
against the constitution, the laws, the prin-
cples or the traditions of the republic is so
monstrous as that of subverting the rule of
the majority, and substituting for it govern
ment by minority. Honest men of all par
ties should unite on the issues thus presented, !
and demand that every law and every proper /,
power which can be exercised BY the gov |
eminent shall be brought to bear to protect |
the sanctity of the ballot box, and establish |
beyond question or dispute the right of every |
legal voter to cast one free, unintimidated |
ballot, and TO have that ballot counted us il |
was cast.
1t may be said that Kansas has no power
to remedy wrongs of this character. But \
Kansas, speaking through her legislature /
and her senators and representatives in con-
gress, can at least enter her earnest and in
dignant protest against any system, or
wrongs, or crime, by means of which her
voters are deprived of their equal rights and
powers, as citizens of the United States. in
the control of the general government.
The record of the pioneers of Kansas
tell the story Of the brave, good fight
they unfinchingly waged for equal
Kansas into the union was the final triumph
hrna-f fr..,l