Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1885-01-22


THE NEW ORLEANS EXPOSITION.
The Commissioners in charge of the
Kansas exhibit at the New Orleans Ex-
position advise me that they are labor.
ing under great disadvantages because of
the limited appropriation made for COL
Letting and arranging display of our
products and industries. The Legislature
appropriated $1,000, and this was supple
mented by $4,000 from the Exposition
managers. With this sum the commits
sioners have done all in their power to
maintain the reputation of Kansas, but
they report, and other gentlemen who
have visited the Exposition have advised
me, that our display does rot do justice to
the resources 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 31st OF
May next, so that if you deem it advisa
BILE to enlarge the Kansas department
your action must be prompt. Undoubt-
eddy the magnificent display made by
Kansas at the Centennial Exhibition in
1876, was of vast and permanent benefit
to the State. Whether the New Orleans
Exposition will be such success, in its
exhibits and attendance, as to justify ad
ditional expenditures on the Kansas de-
partment, is submitted for your consider
alton.
STATE PRINTING.
Our system of State printing has been
found to work we'll. At moderate cost
il gives us very superior class of work.
The Office of the State Printer is in ex-
cellent condition, the present incumbent
having renewed and materially enlarged
and improved it.
SAFEGUARDS FOR THE BALLOT BOX.
The present registry law should be re-
pealed, and an act embodying adequate
provisions 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 dangerous power.
No scrutiny or revision 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-
vided for purging the lists of these names,
or of detecting and Furnishing his NAL
feasance in Office.
A registry law should not apply in
cities of less than five thousand inhabi-
tants. In small communities such laws
are a hindrance, rather than protec-
ton, to legal voting. The personal ac-
workmanship of one voter with all the
others should afford adequate guarantee
against illegal voting. But In larger
centers of population careful registra-
ton of the legal voters, under the pro-
visions of a law carefully framed, is
necessary for the protection of the ballot
box against frauds. Such law, to be
effective should provide for a non-parti-
san 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, another ses-
sion 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
stone on which the whole
fabric of our Government rests is the
ballot box. The Republic cannot long
endure if honest votes are not honestly
counted, or if legal voters are derived of
the right to vote by intimidation or viO-
lence. The developments following re-
cent National elections are startling, and
should admonish all honest American
citizens of the danger that menaces our
form of Government. The returns of
these elections show that, in number
of the States lately in rebellion, one voter
has usurped, by force or fraud, as much
electoral power as is exercised by two
or three voters in the Northern States.
At the Congressional election of 1882,
the average vote polled in the
thirty -seven Congressional Dis
tricts of Georgia, Alabama, South
Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana, was
only 1894, while that polled in the
thirty.eight Congressional Districts of
Iowa, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Maryland
and Minnesota, was 26,748, and for the
seven Congressman representing Kansas
LILO VOtO 0VOA0SCO AVSAOSs Ahno sAAO ga
contrast was not the result
of an unusual interest in the onesection,
and of the apathy of voters in the other,
is shown by the vote cast in the late
election. The five Southern
States named above polled, for President,
o total of only SIS, 812 votes, and elected
Presidential electors and
thirty -seven Congressman, or one Presii
Dental elecror for every 1915 votes
nd one Congressman Tor every 1924
votes. At the same election, the five
Northern States of Iowa, Nebraska,
Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Jer-
sey, polled total of 1,275,S95 votes,
and elected only forty-fve Presidential
Electors and thirty-fve Congressman, or
one Presidential Elector for every 1853
votes, and ono Congressman for every
sc ,453 votes. Our own State. at this election.
polled total of 265, 6S4 votes, electing
nine Presidential electors and seven
Congressman, or one Presidential Elector
for every $3.50 votes, and one Congress-
man for every 1885 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
between the votes of nearly all Southern
and Northern States, showing similar re-
r.,