The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-09

this system the first necessity was a
degree of intelligence on the part Of
the voter. The law provides for as
sistance to illiterate voters; but it is
this confession of ignorance that hurts
the man who has to makei it. He may
not be ashamed to be ignorant, but he
is ashamed to have it known. That
he cannot read or write NAV not seri-
ously affect his own opinion of himself,
SO long as the knowledge of it is con-
fined to his own family; but when he
must confess it before an election board
composed of his neighbors, the re-
proach becomes a sting. In the same
manner the voter next in grade above
the Miterate, the man who can barely
read and write, does not like to runthe
risk of losing his vote, and with it the
power to help himself Or his friends,
because he does not know how to pre-
pare his ballot. AS a result of this
feeling, a direct consequence of the en-
actment of these laws, schools have
been established in almost every com
munity in those States which have
adopted the new system. In these
schools or classes voters Of the lower
degrees of intelligence have assembled
themselves, anxious to learn something
of the new system. Even political
clubs and organizations under the sway
of the most insOlent bosses have been
led by the instinct of self preservation
to adopt the same policy. Thus, as
the first result of this agitation, the
spectacle has been witnessed by some
real attention to the prime requisites
in a voter. Instead of blind acquies-
cence in the dictates of managers, or
the action Of nominating conventions,
the voter shows his interest in what
concerns him and the public most
directly in the matter of voting, as well
as the one important consideration
his fitness for casing this vote with
intelligence and reason. In some of
the States of the South negroes of ma
ture years, whom the public schools
u OCCh COlC W 1OdCl13 hC1NC UCNOOCN
themselves with energy to the task of
learning to read and write. In the
North it has not, as a rule, been neces-
sary to carry on the work in such an
elementary way. But thousands of
| electors have found it desirable to get
instruction in voting. This has not
been limited to partisan tickets Or to
candidates, thascomprehendedt those
things hitherto~n neglected, the essentials
of intelligent voting. That this instruc-
ton has been given by political organ
izations under the rule of bosses does
not argue that these voters, when once
instructed, will continue to vote just as
such organizations or managers may
direct. AS in the matter of bribery,
there is no assurance that when a pupil
has once learned this lesson he will not
also have learned another-that his
vote is his own; that, being left alone
in the voting booth with God and his
lead-pencil, " he can fearlessly vote his
own sentiments. Complaint has long
been made that while education is so
universal and so costly, it has not borne
fruit in politics. More and more the
influence of the public school has
waned, and that of vote manipulators
waxed strong. Under the new impulse
created by necessity, the ballot bids
fair to become an efficient ally of the
public school. With a secret ballot
some may be disfranchised Temporal
lily; in the end it's results are sure to
be helpful to better politics, as well as
to general intelligence and to personal
independence. This phase of the agi-
tation should not be overlooked, and
the friends of the reform may well put
this forward as an additional argu-
ment in those States where the secret
ballot has not yet been adopted
From Topics Of the TIme," IN The
Century Magazine for January.