The Labor enquirer., 1886-02-13
Absurdity Of the Attempts Of
the Law aid Order
League. !"
The BALLOT Purifiers Fail to Get
to the Bottom of the Rotten
Cesspool.
A Denver Cemrade Who Tells Of the
Corruption in Our Present System
Of Elections. III.

and Order League" had disbanded. as its
members had grown hopeless of ever
attaining the object which called it into
existence, viz: the publication of the
ballot. Those people who are always
extoling the powers and beauties of our
ballot system as at present administered
might ponder with profit over this bit Of
news This law and order league of the
Quaker city was no doubt composed Of
men whose intentions were of the best,
but they undertook task The magni-
tude of which was only aqualed by their
utter ignorance of the true mode to ac-
complish it. The mode and way in
which the average law and order Lacquer
seeks to cure the disease of inpuritY of
the ballot is about as sensible. consistent
and effective as was the mode of treat
ment of the M. D. who applied porus
plasters to the man who was afflicted
with boils. #.. --f-t
That American politics is sinking
cesspool is admitted by slmost everyone
but those whose personal interest it is to
have private sewer connected with the
cesspool The ballot purifiers do not go to
the source of the sewers that empty into
the pestilential political pool. At the
late election in this CITY we had law
and order league too and as a reaction
from the bid>and sale and $2a head of
the previous election, they, the "Com-
nittee of 100," did good service in pre-
venting the fraudulent use of the ballot.
This committee of l0O, as they were
called, will try watching the polls again
no doubt, but with all respect and honor
to their honesty of purpose, they will
not succeed in curing the blood, poison
ing that aff1icts the body polite.
They will not uncover and trace up
the private sewers thst lead to the
house of political prostitution. No.. they
will not. They dare not. They know
should they do this they would find at
the head and source of those sewers an
Hon.t?) Joe Chaffee, Teller, Hill an
HOMO Bill Hamill, Bowen, ct sl-all
Doodle" kings who play the game of
politics just the same as the ''bunko"
king PLAYS his game-for revenue only.
That those political vultures are here
is as natural as ls the pfesence of the
buzzard where it can find its favorite
carrion. And there is great similarity
between the buzBsrd who lives off the
COW carrion and the political buzzard
who gorges himself on the body of a.
dead public virtue
The former is bold, voracious, defiant,
coarse and vulgar and the lattGr has all
those qualities and more too; ghe cow
carrion bird will get enough in day at
least but the political carrion-devourers
of the Chaffee kind will gorge them
selves till years pass into decades and
decades into generations but the insati-
ate appetite cannot be satisfied. Those
poor misguided ballot tin kers who think
that the remedy lies in standing at the
polls, and, to use an innlegant but ex
pressive expression. hitting each poor
tramp or rough" or nloneyless man who
seeks to vote illegally, on the head with
the stuffed club of the law, fail to COM
prehend that to successfully prostitute
the ballot there must be- two persons,
one of which is poor, degraded hope
less, ambitionless and careless of his
own or his nelghbor's welfsre-in fact a
yentable tramp. The other must be
rich-that's all-and that is about the
only qualification that the average Chat,
fee-Tabor political buzzatd has. The
ballot thinkers would, if they could study
the economic tendencies without
prejudice, see that the tendency of our
times is to increase the number of poor,
hopeless, ambition1ess wage slaves to
whom the question "is life worth liv-
ing?" can be,answered but in the mega
tive.
Thus why expect purity in the ballot
when it is IN the hands OF slaves? Men
who can have no interest in the country
since it gives them nothing but starVa'
ton. The elective franchise, the great
American prerogative, is snd can be null,
lifted and rendered useless and abortiye
by men who have become possessed OF
large amounts of wealth.
The use of the ballot, by men who are
left undisturbed by any pernlcious out
side influence, is the proper way to fos-
ter and perpetuate good peoples gov
eminent; but when the worst elements
in our society are able to step in and
control and stifle the voice of the peo
pie, then there is indeed, as the Rev
Lyman Abbott says, danger ahead.
Election day should be moral. 8
sober day; day when patriotism OF
high order should display itself; day
when the high morality of nation o
people should be displayed and each
man and t0onldn vie one with the Other
in spirit Of generous, patriotic rivalry
as to who would do the most efficient
service In perpetuating that only safe.