Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-20
Issued by the State Democratic
Society of Pennsylvania,
Strongly Urging
THE NEED OF REFORM IN POLITICS.
A Glowing EulOgy on the Past Record Of
the Party in the Affairs Of
the Nation.
MAKI WRONGS OF THE wORKINGMEN,
Which Hon. Chauncey +. Black Thinks the Secret
Ballot Would Remedy.
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO rHr DrsrAroH,

ESPECIAL TELEGRA1 10 THE O1SPATCHl
PHILADELPHIA, August3a-Thef follow
fngcircular has just been issued by President
Chauncey F. Black, of the Democratic
Society of Pennsylvania:
DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
PHILADELPHIA, August Is. 1880. )
To the Democratic Societies:
At the meeting of the Executive Committee
Of the Democratic Society of Pennsylvania,
August IL, the next annual general assembly of
the Democratic societies was called to meet on
Wednesday, September l6, at the city of Read.
fng, the place having been determined by the
last general assembly.
The annual general assembly of the Demo-
cratic societies at Philadelphia, in October Of
last year. was one Of the most imposing repre-
sentative meetings ever held in the State. 1t
was composed OF nearly 1000 duly selected
deputies of the primary societies-the flower of
the earnest and aggressive Democracy of Penn
sylvania- The proceedings Of that great body
and their influence upon Democratic sentiment
and organization need not be recited. 1t was
day to be long remembered in the political
HISTORY of our State. The first representative
assemblage of popular Democratic societies,
instituted under due authority of the regular
organization of the party. and brought together
but a year previous under the constitution
dOOptCu db 1dlLAcbuAes II CAuADAtcur AZ Luc
most striking manner, the devotion of our
people. not only TO the political principles but
10 the political methods OF the Democratic
party.
THE PARTY'S PAST RECORD.
The Democratic Society is but the open par
lament of the democratic people in their
several neighborhoods When the federalism
of the last century. seeking centralized cor
rupt. extravagant, and splendid government,
at the expense of the masses of the people,
threatened subversion, more or less complete,
of the Constitution, then but recently estab-
hshed, the democratic societies sprang up In
every part of the Union and by concerted
voice and effort saved American institutions
for that time. They elected Mr.. Jefferson;
they saw BIN seated. in spite of q corrupt and
lawless plot to count him out, and the popular
triumph of that day was followed by half
century of constitutional government peace
and prosperity, under Jetfersonian policies ad-
ministered by Jeffersonian statesmen. such
societies are the natural resort of freemen
whose liberties are endangered. They are
open to all who accept the immortal principles
enunciated by Mr.. Jefferson and illustrated by
his administration. They would preserve the
rights of the many, not the privileges of the
few. In them the people meet uncorrupted
by money, unawed by bosses, to defend their
own rights and to protect their own interests
The political situation in Pennsylvania to-
it does not require the voluntary organization
of the people for self-defense in the form
which descends TO us from our forefathers
along with the principles of free government
which they employed it to protect If ever
there was time when every good citizen owed
it to himself, his State, his country, and his
posterity, to repair to the Democratic societies
and to enroll himself among The organized de-
tenders of popular liberty, that time is now
upon u.s.
wAGE-EARNERS' ALLEGED WRONGS
Systems of taxation, State and Federal,
grossly unequal in their operation, almost
avowedly designed to pillage the many and to
enrich the few, to grasp the hard earnings of
the scattered and unorganized masses and turn
them over to the incorporated, otherwise
closely associated, classes. are not only boldly
maintained by the party in power, but we are
threatened with specific aggravations Of them.
At Harrisburg, as at Washington, the rights
and the needs of the great multitude of wage
earners and land-tillers are disregarded. The
same political rings, which have pushed aside
our State Constitution, denied every petition of
land or labor, strangled every measure of re-
form, promoted every scheme Of oppression
and corruption, and inflicted upon this
Commonwealth every wrong and shame
it has endured for-more than quarter of a
century. is again seeking. under circumstances
Ufspeeiaf and wanton insult a further lease of
power. 1t is expected and believed that the
great concourse of independent citizens and
their deputies at Reading on September l6 and
~. will present the unmistak2ble answer of the
body of the people to this remarkable assump-
tion on the part of the common enemy.
While elections are free, the people retain
the power of defense and redress in their own
hands. But are they free here? Is he free
man who approaches the polls in fear of apoth.
er at The supreme moment in the year when his
will is to be made potential by his vote? Is he
freeman, who, when he comes to deposit his
ballot, must pause TO consider whether or not
an honest vote will cost him bread and home,
and, casting his family into the road, make
him, instead of a respectable laborer, wan
derer in search of work?
A SECRET BALLOT FAVORED,
Many thousands of Pennsylvania electors
vote under this dreadful apprehension at every
recurring election, and it is upon this power
that monopoly and bossism principally rely in
their struggles to maintain themselves, with
their special privileges, against the true inter.
ests of the people. Shall this continueP From
every quarter of the State we hear the stern
demand of labor organized and unorganized-
the multitudinous victims of this shameful
coerciOn-Ihat it shall not continue. They ask |
to be enfranchised, that the right to free vote
shall be restored, with ample safeguards SO |
that every man in Pennsylvania shall be as in |
dependent as every other in the exercise of the |
sacred right OF suffrage. To be free. the ballot
must be secret. and TO that end the odious
marked ballot provision of our existing Consti- |
tuition must be removed. While it remains |
while we have permanently incorporated in our
system of voting plan expressly designed for |
the Identification Of ballots-the very principle |
OF exposure as against the principle Of secrecy |
there can be no such thing as elections pure |
or free, in the State of Pennsylvania
This is necessarily the great issue of the day. |
The bosses. realizing its tremendous force and |
the irresistible appeal which it makes to the /
better instincts of our race, confess the abso-
Lutte necessity of the remedy, and, in the same |
breath, ask us to forego it and to submit |
meekly to the wrong for further period of at |
least i've years. when they vagely engage that |
the Republican machine and the Legislature |
may possibly grant some relief.
A CALL FOR REFORM.
But the wrong being acknowledged the rem. |
edy obvious, the cause nothing less than the |
restoration of the whole people to their right |
of self-governmeni. with free choice of public |
servants, shall we abide the grace of the boss |
and the pleasure of monopoly, OF will we take |
and enjoy our rights at oncef The road is open /
and straight. No can mistake it and no |
one does mistake it. The election of the re- |
form candidates for State offices and of a ma
1ority of the reform candidates for the Legsla-
ture will produce a call for an immediate con- |
stitutional convention to eliminate the marked /
ballot provision from our Constitution and TO /
establish the Australian system OF secret yot-
ing making every man hls own master at the |
polls.
With this free and secret ballot we need have \
no fear Of the future. Whether Pennsylyania /
thereafter shall be Democratic or Republican,
or neither. it viii, at least be free State and
the Democratic societies, inspired by the faith /
OF their forefathers, may look forward with /
confidence to the completion of their self-im-
posed mission, when there shall be no lonrer
either political or an industrial slave within |
the broad limits OF our Commonwealth.
CHAUNCEY r. BLACK, President
JoMN D. WoRMAN, Secretary,
l416 South Penn Square, Philadelphia.