The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-07

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!, 13--The insurance Of property againI
loss or injury by fire or by any risk Of In
land transportation.
1.-THE transaction If a banking bus
meas.
1b-The construction and maintenance q
a railway and OF a telegraph line In COZ
nectiOn Herewith.
1.-THE construction and maintenance G
any other species Of Of roads, and OF bridge
in connection herewith.
1.-THE construction and maintenance q
a bridge.
1s-The construction and maintenance o
a telegraph line.
19-The establishment and maintenanc
of "A stage line.
2O-The establishment and maintenance
of a ferry.
2l-The building and navigation Of steam
boats. and carriage Of persons and propert,
thereon.
22-The supply of water to the public.
23-The manufacture and supply of gas
Or the supply of light or heat to the publ,
by other means.
24-The transaction OF n manufaotur.
ing, mining, mechanical or chemical bust,
ness.
25-The transaction of a printing or pub
fishing business.
B-The establishment and maintenance
of a hotel.
27-The erection of buildings and accu-
mutation and loan of funds for the purchase
Of real property.
2s-The Improvement of the breed of do
mestic animals by importation. sale or
otherwise, or
29-The construction of canals and reser-
voirs for conveying and storing water and
the boring of artesian wells.
Repatriation.
The constitution gives the legislature
power to enact suitable registration laws.
The schedule annexed to the constitution
provides for continuing in force all laws of
the territory not Inconsistent with the con
stitution, or the constitution and laws of
the United States. BY this the registration
law enacted by the last territorial legisls-
ture becomes a part Of our state statutes.
While the legislature ought to throw around
the ballot every safeguard against fraud
and repeating, and a proper registration
law is conducive to this end, the present
system o~vershoots the mark and operates to
disfranchise many good citizens Of this
state whose votes are entitled to be cast
and counted. In my opinion no reg
istration should be required as a
remote and sparsly settled communi-
ties. The facilities for transportation are
inadequate in such sections of the country,
and those afforded are expensive and often
beyond the means of the voters. Noun
tain ranges are sometimes required to
be crossed and the distance required to be
travelled has been show to be. in some in
stances. as much as a hundred miles, and
u~nfrequently from twelve to twenty
miles. The result of this is that the ranch
man, the stock-herder and the prospector,
who form Il large per cent of our popula-
ton. and who are generally i~mpecunious
and unable to pear the burden of such an
and 1nsg nf fIma QQ the nspaanf ava-
tenn necessarily entails, are compelled to
at home M are thereby disfran-
chised on election day. To obyiate this
wrong lone to the citizen, / recommend
that the present registration law be SO
amended that registration shall not be re-
CURED except in incorporated cities and
having a given population. It is in
the latter places. the centers of population,
where lawbreakers and malefactors congre-
gate that repeating and fraud are practiced,
and not in remote precincts where every
man knows his neighbor and a stranger is
at once observed. 1 believe that il is an
and unnecessary burden on the citi-
zen to require him to register every time
there is q general election. Having once
registered that ought to be sufficient for at
least six years.
Provision should be made whereby the
who has once registered and re-
moved will not lose the right Of suffrage,
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and probably would be declared void upon
a proceeding involving its consideration in
the courts. First, because it undertakes to
.disfranchise a large number of voters
through no fault Of their own. to-wit:
Those who are i'll and unable to attend be-
to attend upon election day. Second, be-
cause 1t makes an unjust and unlawful dis
between the rights of native born
and naturalized citizens and electors, to-
wit: 1t requires a naturalized voter to pro-
his certificate of naturalization or
show by evidence other than his own oath
such certificate was issued, while it
a native born citizen to prove his
as a voter by his own oath. Third,
it destroys the right Of suffrage of those
whose qualifications as respects
residence would mature between the 18th
day of October and election day. The reg
istration board having adjourned OF Oct.
the constitution authorizes the legisla-
to enact Registration and sue other
avs as may be necessary to secure the
purity of elections and guard against abuses
of the elective franchise but this does not
authorize by direction or by indirection the
disfranchisement, without his own fault or
any elector under the constitu-
tion.
Section 2, article 10, of the constitution,
makes the term of residence apply to a time
preceding the election so
in order to give the citizen the right of
guaranteed by the constitution he
be permitted to register on the day
preceding the election. These questions
were considered at length in the case of the
Attorney General vs. the City of Detroit,
and decided by the supreme court of Michi-
on Dec. %, 1889, and reported in vol.
II, No. Ii, of the Albany Law Jour al, from
l make the following extract:
Why should a person claiming to be an
elector by naturalization be debarred, if he
has lost his certificate, from establishing
such fact by his own oath? A person NAV
swear hat he is native born, and he il not
also to prove this fact by some
one else. before he can be registered; but if
wishes to show that he is an elector by
naturalization, he is p esumed to be unable
himself to tell the truth under oath, and
must be c~orroborated by some one else.
The easiest way for a person of this class
to cast a fraudulent vote, would
be to swear that he was born in the
United States, and in such a case a p~erjurer
is put to less trouble to get on the registry
list than an honest man who desires to show
he has been naturalIZed. but who, IN
has lost the record evidence of
such naturalization. This distinction be-
tween native bonn and naturalized electors
Is an unfair one and, as above shown, en-
tlrely unnecessary in order to prevent
fraud. It's tendency will be to disfranchise
men and to induce dishonest men to
themselves. Section IL, in refer
ence to removals from one precinct to
another and the necessary steps to become
IN such cases, seems to me most