Morning journal and courier., 1886-01-20
A HILL TO RE DRAWN
For the Adoption by the State of a |
 Patent Ballot Box to Prevent Fraud and ErrOr-An Exhibition of the Box

ed for use at the State elections, and which
 created & decided sensation in that State
 when first used, was exhibited in the office
 of Hon. Lynde Harrison, chairman of the
 Republican State Central committee, yester-
 day afternoon, in the presence of number
 of newspaper representatives of this city.
 The general manager of the company, MI. w.
 T. Butler, was present and exhibited and
 explained the operation and working of the
 invention. Mir. Harrison explained as fol
 lows: s'My attention having been called to
 this very clever and successful invention, the
 New Standard Cancelling Ballot Box,' by
 gentlemen interested in an honest ballot, and
 having conferred with representative gentle
 men of both the great political parties and
 with several members of the legislature, ana
 having been appraised and awar.' o1 the nien
 estimation in which it is held iii A tassacnu- setts as a means of preventing ffauo>' aho
 errors in elections, I have concluded to h.Ne
 a bill drawn providing for the use of such
 ballot boxes at the general elections in this
 State After the bill has been referred to
 the proper committee notice will be given to
 gentlemen of both political parties request
 PANoCAAC Do-N~
 time and place to be specified when they
 can see the operation of the boxes and
 pass their opinion upon their merits.
 For the purpose of explaining the
 box before the bill is introduced, the
 manager of the company was requested to
 come to this city this afternoon to show me the box and its workings, and l invited rep resentatives of each of the city papers to be
 III. urr, N. D. Sperry were also invited, but have not as yet come in. The box was then shown and explained. It is an oblong red box about large enough to contain two of Web ster's dictionaries '(of course the boxes can be made of any size) There is at one side crank which is turned when ballot is in serted and it cancels the ballot as it passes through by inprinting upon it lettering in lines the ballots whole length, and as soon as the ballot has pessed through the machine it drops into | receptacle below and bell inside strikes one. The bell stroke announces that the ballot is in safe keeping, and simultaneously figure is discloaed in full view under the mouth of the machine recording it numerically. The machine can and this registering property cat be easily extended. The voter drops the ballot into the opening or mouth, and as the crank is turned it slides down an inclined plane and around the printing roller which stamps or cancels the ballot It prevents hallot box stufing, as only one ballot can be cancelled at time. Should two be slid in it at once, still only one will show the can cellation marks. This machine is an improvement on the one which was first adopted in Massachusetts, as this one will not register unless ballot has been deposited. The old one would register every time the crank was turned, whether ballot was in or not. In this one the number of cancelled ballots must always correspond with the number registered. This is the only patent ballot box that has ever been tested by actual use at the polls It was first adopted by the city of Boston and it's success in that city secured it's adoption throughout the State and by Bangor, Me.
 In response to an inquiry from MT. liar rison, MT. Butler said the boxes were very durable, would last fifty or hundred years, and were so simple in construction and op- eration that they would be very unlikely to get out of order. The agent said the only one that ever did get out of order was dam aged by being dropped on the floor The fall split the woodwork.
 MT. Butler showed how ward politician in Boston thought he could beat the machine. It was by plastering ballot with mucilage, and the idea was that it would stick to the rollers and prevent cancellation. But the plan did not work. The rollers revo1ved, as usual, and wires which stick out in every direction at the elnptying point cast out the mucilaginous ballot tri- and as if disgusted with it and the man who thought the machine and the public could be swindled by it.
 MT. Butler showed formidable array of certificates of approval of the machine from eminent public men in Massachusetts and vouchers from them as to it's efficacy and reliability He said the cost of each machine was $50 and that Massachusetts paid about $36, ,000 to provide every voting precinct in the old Bay State, 662 in all, with one each of these boxes.
 MT. Harrison said that the machine would be a great time saver also on election days as it would count the votes reliably and and save recounting.
 The Currency Reform League.
 At the currency league meeting on Mon day evening the president opened the discus sion of the evening by asking, how many men have been idle in New Haven to-day? How many in Connecticut? In the whole This has been loss outright of millions of dollars in the aggre- gate to day; but the money loss is not the most; the loss of pluck and manhood has been by far more serious. It has had a ten dency to engender the very spirit of pauper- ism, of crime, of demoralized manhood wo- manhood and childhood. It has been step toward such barbarism makes the world less pleasant place for even the wealthiest last ten years, been compelled to surrender the earnings of lifetime because they were unable to turn their days work into the money to pay the interest on their mort gages? It is because these questions are fila ments of deepest interest in a strange net work into every family of this land, it is because the interests of all the people, rich and poor, learned and unlearned alike, are involved, that these discussions have been the winter.
 We are told that we must stop the coinage of silver. Whys We are told because it will drive the gold out of the country. There is little danger of that. But if there were, what then? The debt was paid off at rate far more easily, far more rapidly when we had no gold in circulation than we have ever been able to do since.
 But stop this silver nuisance. Why?
 Two men make answer.
 One says we want to make such panic in England; we want to pinch the business men and wage earners of England so infer nally that the losses which their destruction will bring upon the creditor classes there will make them willing to join in an international treaty to coin both metals freely and at a fixed ratio of 151s to 1. 'I would" said an advocate of this view, 'tnot only stop the coinage, but I would gather up every ounce of silver in the country, and I would dump it on the London market and crush business in London at a stroke" ''Very fne'' said I, Git is conservative plan as it would be to undertake to properly regulate a thrashing machine going at full speed by throwing an anvil into it,
 The other man says we want to go to the gold standard and have cheap pr ees and get none of this beastly silver. But what will all this cost the laboring and business men of this country? It was then explained at consider able length.
 Dr. Phillips then renewed what his hearers said was very simple, clear and comprehen- sive statement of the fundamental principles involved. He carried the audience along with him, in his deliberate and convincing way, from beginning to end. It was said to be 8 memorable elucidation of the difficulties of the controversy, making it plain and simple that all were able to clearly compre-