The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-10

The principle upon which the bill rests is,
that every person or tribunal, even includ
ing the federal courts, who, in any manner
participates il any act that tends to quality
the elecuor or to preserve the purity of Che
ballot, is corrupt and untrustworthy, and
that the only safety to the country is to have
their acts supervised by aclass Of men who
are willing, for the compensation OF 50
day, to act the detective and forward party
ends.
No name can be put on or dropped from
the registration list except in the presence
OF these federal agents; the records OF
courts must be open to their criticism; the
demeanor and conduct OF both federal and
state judges must be observed by them per
sonally, and to their critical ear and legal
knowledge must be submitted the evidence
upon which courts shall admit aliens to
naturalization
Paternalism and Capitalization find their
broadcast Illustration in the policy sought to
be fastened upon the republic by the enact
ment into law of this bill.
The details OF the scheme inaugurated
By 1t are cuInbrous, filed with TECHNICAL
ties, oyerfowing with the ideas Of imprac-
tical doctrinarianism. The act is so framed
that in the counting and the certification of
election results, under it multituGinous
errors must necessarily occur, upon which
a willing and subservient canvaSsing board
could easily find the foundation upon which
to rest decision throwing out sufficient
precincts to return the representative of
the party in power.
In many of its provisions the bill
changes, alters or repeats the wisest pro-
visions found in the laws of the states reg
ulating and controlling elections, and 1t
claims supremacy. and requires the officers
of the state to conform to its provisions,
although it is a well known fact that in the
elections held in almost every state, the
members of Congress voted for are upon
the same ballot which contains the names
of all other state and county officers. In
this respect it does not, in its practical
operation, stop at the control of the cleo
ton for members of Congress, but its influ-
ence will be felt and its control will be su-
preme in any conflict between the two
classes of officers, or the state and federal
law of elections, in the vote that may be
deposited for purely state and county OIL
GERS from governor down to magistrates.
If at an election under the laws of the
state, a special box for the ballots of each
officer voted for is required, under the pro
visions of this bill, all ballots found for
Representatives, in Congress in any of the
boxes may be considered in the count made
by the canvassing board. This would en-
able a multiplication to the extent of the
number of boxes, by any voter, and yet we
pose of securing the purity of the elective
franchise. and of seeing that every man
who casts his ballot shall have the same
counted, not once, as was the oldfashioned
way, butas often as he desires to put 1t in.
The marvellous progress and uneXampled
development of the south in all its great in
dustrial and material interests, through the
efforts of her loyal sons and the confidence
inspired by the holders of capital in the
ability of her people to work out saIisfac-
torily the great problem which surrounds
them, is not to be permanently checked by
the efforts of few politicians to throw heI
social organization into confusion and
chaos.
Temporarily, it may be possible for that
conception of craftsmanship which is pur-
poSely limited to the horizon of partisan
advantage to work not a little injury to hel
people and to those who have invested theil
capital in our great Industries, but an en-
lightened public sentiment will soon be
aroused in the north and west by the en-
forcement of this Ubiquitous law at theil
doors which can hardly fail to react upor
its originators.
The public mind is already awakening t.
the dangers which threaten our Institu
tions, and an attempt now to stifie the voic
of the American free man by centraliZins
; all the powers for the exercise of the cleo
tive franchise into the hands of any singh
party (the wires to control the result il
every parish to be pulled from the centra
power at Washington will if nothing else
convince the American people that a wronI
sentiment is predominant; that MANY o
! the leaders of the party that once claime
to be the representative OF freedom and tn
champion of the true principles of popula
government can no longer be blindly trustee
to guide the interests and control the DIES
TIMES of this great and expanding empire
| CHARLES J. FAULKNER