Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-30
DISCUSSION OF SUFFRAGE QUESTIONS.

Mr.. Washington GLADDEN., in the Century,
puts pertinent inquiry to the people in
the question, "Do you think that you will
convince the average election officer that
it is great crime to cheat in the return
of the votes when he knows that good
share of these votes have been purchased
with money ?" OF course not. What is
the remedy, then, for the atmosphere of
corruption that surrounds so many of our
elections? The philosophic response is
The elevation of the moral sense of the
people concerning the Nervousness and
great danger of such assaults upon the bal
lot-box. 1t is impossible to escape the
conclusion that so long as people in a
government by the people submit year
after year to corrupt invasion of the right
of suffrage and steadily reject the plans
proposed as remedial agents, they are not
awake to the danger that threatens them.
The awakening must come some day, how
ever, and the longer it is put off the more
the body of the patient will be racked by
the administration of drastic remedies
For it is absurd to entertain the thought
for moment that things can go on with
out change, and the Americans birthright
continue to be made an article of corrupt
commerce and nothing come of it. Mr..
GLADDEN. asserts that if no improvement
should take place in the rank and file of
the voters, the Government, in its present
form, would not last long. But we think
it will last very much longer without ma
terial decrease of illiteracy than it will
without radical correction of election
abuses. The bow of promise is seen, how
ever, in the fact that the people are
already seriously discussing the question.
1t is good promise wher score Of pages
in popular magazine, for instance, can be
had for the thoughtful presentation OF the
subject. 1t indicates that there is
healthful demand for that kind of political
literature. We come back, therefore, TO
the statement that the day of public awak-
ening must come, and supplement the fore
cart with this other, that the indications
all point to the early serious arousing of
the body of public opinion. The labors
In the direction of reform of the ballot
were not lost in the last Legislature-they
accomplished at least this much, that the
people of California are very much better
informed than ever before upon the
methods proposed TO correct acknowledged
abuses of the ballot Mr.. GLADDEN. holds
that if we could purge our voting lists of
the ignorant and the vicious we would
have plain sailing. Perhaps, but it would
not eliminate all corruption. There is
unfortunately class neither so ignorant
as to be classed as illiterate nor so vicious
in the eye of the law as to fall under the
ban of exclusion from the ballot-box,
which is as dangerous to the integrity of
the suffrage scheme, as are the illiterates
and the criminal classes. Mr.. GLADDEN.
meets this fact by the proposition to en-
large the proscriptive list. He would de-
prive the citizen of the right of suffrage,
for time at least, who comes under the
censure of the criminal laws for any mis-
demeanor he would establish high edu-
cational standard for the voter-that is,
such one as would be fair test of his
capacity to understand the scheme of free
government he would sift the European
contingent and admit to citizenship those
only who give some evidence of being
fitted for its responsibilities. These sug-
gestions are up for debate, and il is
through discussion that the true way is
opened for securing remedies for the ills
complained of-that avenue is the quick
ened moral sense of the nation, as stated
in the outset. That once manifest, we
have not the slightest fear that there will
be unreasonable delay in applying rene
dies, or that the remedies will not be suf-
ficient for the correction of the evil For
this reason all manner of debate, through
the press, in the pulpit, upon the rostrum
on this subject should be encouraged. 1t is
in the passivity of the people that there is
danger; in their agitation upon any ques-
ton relating to methods of better govern
ment there is always hope.
AN IMPorENT CONCLUSION.