The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-09-12
mR. LODGE IS RIGHT.
The National Election Bill Discussed b
Its Author

NIX. LOQGE - RIGHT.
The National Election Bili Discussed by
Its Author
The Republican campaign in Maine
was opened the other day at Por tland.
The chief speech was made by Hon.
Henry Cabot Lodge As he is identi-
fed so prominently with the National
election bill. his remarks related al
most exclusively to that measure,
which has been so abused and misrepre-
scented by the Democrats, who fear that
it will end frauds by which they have
been the sole gamers. The general OBJ
ject of the bill. said Mr.. Lodge, wa, to
protect the purity of the ballot That
that object was an undesirable one no
man of any party would venture to as
sert. 1t had been for. years part and
parcel of the Republican creed that
every citizen of the United States
should be enabled to cast his ballot for
whomsoever he pleased. and 1t had an
nounced its intention to pass the neces-
sary laws when it had the power. 1t now
had this power and had therefore pre-
pared bill, which had gone through
one house of Congress.
While the Democrats did not dare to
say they were for fraud and against the
honest elections which this bill was de-
signed to secure, they had attacked its
provisions and sought to make # odi-
Gus by gross misrepresentation. One
of these was that every poll would have
soldiers stationed at il to overawe the
voters. Mr.. Lodges answer to that was
an arithmetical one. According to high
Democratic authority there are 81, 600
polling places. There are only %, 600
United States soldiers. There would
be therefore but five-sevenths OF q
blue-coat and fve-sevenths of a musket
and bayonet at.each poll How much
terrorizing and overawing could be done
by this vulgar fraction of a soldier the
speaker left it to the Democratic srith-
meticians to cipher out = -
As Mr.. Lodge says, neither he nor
nybody else wants soldiers at the polls,
nor are there any baYonets in the bill.
But there are bayonets behind it, as be-
hind all laws, Federal or State. Gem
eral Jackson let South Carolina see that
there were bayonets behind the tariff
lawwhen that State said it would nullify
it. Federal bayonets were employed
for four years to secure the enforcement
of all the laws of the United States
south of the Ohio and the Potomac
There is force behind every statute, but
it Is not exerted until it is ,disobeyed.
The National election law will not be
an exceptions.
Another Democratic cry is that tits
sectional. That objection should have
been made when the first bill on the
subject was adopted, which applied only
to the city Of New, York. That law
might have been called sectional, but
the pending bill, which covers the whole
country and is to end frauds in North
ern cities as we'll as at the South, is
National measure. The South calls
any thing which may interfere with its
peculiar methods sectional"
Nor does the bill interfere with the
Australia ballot system or any State
law which aims at making elections
more honest As Mr.. Lodge is a strong
friend of the Arr.ralian system and of
its workings in Massachusetts, he would
be the last man to get up law which
clsshed with it
The enemies of the bill charge that 1t
Is designed to give the Republicans
more seats In Congress. Its primary
objec. is to secure honest elections II
the Republicans profit thereby they are
entitled to the gain, which will show
how much they have been cheated in
the past. 1t is no discredit to the Re-
publicans that they are trying to do
right thing because they will incident
ally profit by it, but it is disgrace to
the Democrats that they will not con-
sent to do what is right because they
think it will hurt them politically. |
q All that the bill does is to give pub
licity to every step in the election of
Congressman if the people of the dis
trict ask for it. That publicity touches
no local officers, interferes with no local
systems, calls for no soldiers and no
and involves resort to
'force" no more than any other Fed
eral statute does. All it aims at is the
stopping of fraud wherever it may ex-
list North or South. Its object being so
praiseworthy, and its methods so inof-
fensive, it has been necessary for the
Democrats as the only way to defeat it
to make those false assertions which
Mr.. Lodge has met and disposed of con-
vincingly in his Portland speech.-Chi-
oago Tribune.