Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-05
BOOK NOTICE.


ILLUsTRATIoNs--BY ABBOT KINNEY, LOS
ANGELES, 1901
Abbot Kinney, of Sierra Madre. has
published a brochure of thirty-one oc-
tavo pages, making plea for the Aus
tralian ballot system. Condensed, its
aim is to show that the politics of the
country is in a terrible state; this is
instanced by the tariff system under
which the rich grow richer and the poor
poorer. The bosses do it all. To do
this the ballot must be made absolutely
secret. The bosses must be put down,
and to do this primaries and caucuses
must go. The Australian system, Mr..
Kinney looks upon as a powerful panacea
capable ofcuring all these terrible abuses.
The pamphlet goes on to give
detailed description of the system with
an illustration of booth. Quotations
follow from writer's in England and
other places lauding the system. Then
follows the Massachusetts law framed on
the Australian system. One of its pro-
visions is that any number of voters
assembled in any way may nominate
candidates for election to any office, and
lhuSt ~ VII lIlc btChctS W Dc uStu
at the election. A South Australian law
is also given.
The trouble with all this will appear
with practical people to be how to be-
lieve that any mere mechanical con-
trivance is going to make people honest.
Few men believe in the panacea the
ory in medicine. Unless heavypunish-
ment and a system of great watchfulness
to discover and punish fraud is part of
the law, no system will avail much. If
pious man like R. B. Hayes will accept
the presidency when he knows the seat
was gotten by fraud, and if another
pious man, B. Harrison, grandson of his
grandfather, will fill the office when he
knows it was bought for him almost as
shamelessly as the Roman empire was
knocked down to the highest bidder by
the Pretorian guards, how are you 60
ing to purify the ballot-box by a
simple device of voting booths?
Again, if any little caucus of
ten men can name whole
list, national, State, county and
municipal officers, and get their
candidates on the general ticket, where
is the paper to come from to print the
whole list?
by a.. means give the country the
Australian system, or any system that
will do anything towards the protection
OF the voters rights and that will help
to brace the weak knees of a manhood
that two-dollar bill can corrupt; but
do not dream of political millennium
while mean scoundrels will sell their
birthright for 81, nor while exalted
rascals will mouth hypocrisy, yet sub
scribe their money to corrupt elections.
Most practical men, really intent on
a pure ballot and real reform. are
strongly of the opinion that If the
mean rascal who sells his man
hood and the exalted scoundrel
who buys votes, or gives money to cor
rupt elections, were disfranchised for
ever, and that if precincts were made
very small and the system of repIesen-
such things were made to embrace all
the voters, some results might be
reached. In other words, if the people
generally took an interest in politics,
then the bosses could not control pri-
maries and caucuses. There is some
excuse for boss, and little even for
the necessitous rascal who sells his vote
to fill his empty stomach. But who can
respect the idle drone in the political
hive who lets politics go by default, and
allows the exalted scoundrel who buys,
and the ragged rascal who sells votes to
carry elections as they please?
The cornerstone of American institu
tions is manhood suffrage. There is
enough true manhood in Americans to
maintain these institutions in their in
tegrity if it is all made active, with or
without Australian or other systems,
securing the right to vote. While this
manhood remains for the most part
supine and is indifferent in politics, let
no sane man expect to reach the political
heaven by way of any mere formula as
to how he should cast his vote. The
salvation of the republic does not de-
pend on voting booth, but on Ameri-
can freemen voting as free men whether
in a booth or out of one avails little.