The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-02-27
W ritten for TIL MONITOR.
TO TIL CITIZENS OF SALEM COUNTY.

During the existence of the Anti-Bribery
Association. only at the first meeting has
there been any approach to a full represen-
tation of its members, and at that it was
not so full as was desirable. Since then
the executive committee, without special
instruction from the general body, has
taken such measures as seemed to it best
adapted to accomplish the ends sought.
So far as is known no complaint has
been made by any member as regards what
has been lone by their direction. But how
ever wise their plans and effective the ex-
e~cution, it is evident that the action of a
few representatives of a reform movement,
several years after a general meeting of
those interested. must exert much less
moral power upon the community, both as
an educational force and as a restraining
influence, than if yearly assemblies with an
increased attendance had earnestly renew
ed the old authority and delegated new.
Every one connected with this movement
is believed to desire that corrupt methods
may be stopped without legal prosecution
of any one. But if prosecution be neces-
sary it is intended that it shall occur and
shall not be child's play. Whoever, there
fore, need other than patriotic reasons to in
duce them to join with us, will find them
in the fact that by so doing they may pre-
vent some of our citizens, generally es-
teemed very respectable, from suffering
disgrace, fine and imprisonment; and who
ever ~refrains from lending their aid to the
association because they do not wish to be
engaged in an undertaking which may
cause their friends or neighbors to suffer,
may thus be the indirect cause of a viola
ton by those friends, and hence directly
responsible should they suffer punishment.
Few truths seem so little appreciated as
that no man can correctly estimate the
~far-reaching extent OF individual influence.
Much less can one correctly estimate the
influence of an aggregation of individuals.
Ii every citizen who recognizes the need
and importance of the movement and its
possible ~far-reaching effects, would per-
form his perceived duty, ample success
would soon crown the effort. But if that
perceived duty be stunned and our repub-
lie falls, as great republics heretofore have
fallen. through the selfshness and cor
ruption of its own citizens, who are the
guilty ?-the impoverished instruments of
corporation a~varice, possessing little edu-
cation and less consciousness of the N
ger, or they in the great middle class, who,
clearly seeing the ruin impending, make no
effort to PREVENT If the duties of citizen
ship be faithfully discharged, it is no Wis
ionary hope to expect an organization in
each county of this state, and of every
state, which shall effectively secure an un-
corrupt vote at all elections. Such a vote
must be restored or our government will
cease to be republican in form, as in por-
tions of many states it has already ceased
to be republican in fact. In how many
states and legislative and congressional
districts do oligarchial corporations. and
not the true citizens. elect the lawmakers,
aye. and the law-executors. No reform
can be more important than the reform of
the ballot, since a pure ballot is not only
the basis of all other political reforms but is
their only sure guarantee of a continued
existence following a successful initiation.
The advocate of the restoration to wo-
men of those usurped duties, which the
Creator, by giving them equal qualifica-
lions and equal interests as men, has equally
fitted them to perform; the prohibitionist,
who sees hat the liquor traffic is sapping
the constitutional vigor Of the physical, as
well as that of the mental and spiritual en-
dowments of the human family, and that
it is the direct cause of so large a portion