The record-union., 1892-10-21
BALLOT PROTECTION.
President Harrison's Position Stated
Clearly.
His Attitude on the Subject of Free
and Honest Elections is Wise
and Patriotic.
TOnnaha Bee.1

lOnand bee.
The effort of the Democratic party to
make a National issue of the so-called
force bilr' has failed. 1t had practically
failed before the President referred to the
subject in his letter of acceptance, and
that reference spiked this Democratic
gun completely. The obvious reasons
for its failure as an issue are that it ap-
pealed wholly to sectional feeling and it
was put forward with the design of di-
verting popular attention from the living
and commanding issues regarding which
certain Democrats saw that their party is
in the wrong positions. Charles A. Dana
IS responsible for having injected the
force bilP' into the campaign, and he
did so because he needed some justiica-
ton for supporting the Democratic party
at this time, which he could not find in
its attitude or its platform utterances
upon leading public question.
Mr.. Dana could not support the free
trade proposition of the Democracy. He
believes that the American system Of pro-
lection is constitutional and it has been
and Will continue to be good policy for
this country. He also believes that the
principle OF reciprocity is wise, whereas
the Democratic party has denounced it as
sham and humbug. Mr.. Dana does
not believe in the course that has been
pursued by the Democratic party regard
ing the currency nor in the party's dec
laralon in favor of restoring the State
bank ISSUES. Being unable to support the
Democracy on any of these questions he
cast about for an issue that would enable
him to make at least a perfunctOry fight
Tor the party's success, and hit upon the
Iii
as battle cries. They were certain to
make an appeal to the South that would
be likely to hold that section solid for the
Democracy and there was a possibility
that they would divert attention to some
extent in the \ North from the false posi-
ton OF the Democracy in other questions.
1t is far from absolutely certain that the
Southern States will give their full cleo
toral votes 10 the Democratic candidates,
and in the North the 'force-b bilI'' bugaboo
is as dead an issue as it well could be.
W hat little life it may have had before the
President mado public his letter OF ac-
ceptance has departed from it. and no ef-
fort to resuscitate it will now avail. The
position of President Harrison on the
subject of free and honest elections is
eminently conservative, wise and patri-
otic.
kansas City Journal
The Washington Post is not Republi-
can paper, nor has it been as an inde-
pendent journal, very partial to President
Harrison. One thing, it opposed the
Lodge bilP'-the force bill Of the Demo-
crats-with power and persistency that
did much toward its defeat. In fact, it
was more influential in defeating it than
any other journal of the country, being
at the Capital and in touch with the men
in Congress on all sides of the question.
For this reason we quote what it says in
regard to the letter OF acceptance on this
subject and the Presidents attitude on
that issue:
But while the country, without regard
to party preferences, will unite in an in
tellectual approval of the Presidents lit
eTary style, thoughtful men of all classes
and conditions will find in his treatment
OF the question of elections an encour-
agemenJ and delight far deeper than
could be conveyed by any mere grace Of
rhetoric or melody OF speech. In aban-
doning his original attitude, as it was
formulated two or three years ago in the
Lodge-D Davenport force bill, he has given
us fresh proof of the sincerity and breadth
of his patriotism. He recognizes the pop
ular aversion to that method of approach
ing a reform which all good citizens adj
nit to be desirable, and he now proposes
a substitute to which no honest citizen
can object"
That states the fact just as it is-no hon
est man can object. The Post goes on to
express just what every honest citizen
feels and that must be if human freedom
is to be preserved in this country and
among men. We quote it again in refer
ence to this most important of all subjects
affecting the American people to-day.
Speaking of the President, it says:
He distinctly repudiates the idea of
partisan legislation by the act of explic-
lily invoking the mediation of a nom
partisan tribunal to be constituted by the
Supreme Court. Nobody can object to
that. Nobody believes that our election
laws, excepting those cases in which the
States have adopted the Australian sys-
tenn, pure and simple, are what they
should be. Every patriotic American
citizen who loves his country and prays
for the perpetuity of its glorious institu-
tions wants to see the ballot box sur
rounded by every safeguard, and the ex-
ercise of the suffrage invested with the
solemnity and the significance OF a sacra-
ment."
Messrs. Vest and Stone, Cleveland and
all the rest, may as well change their
tune-the force bill issue is as dead as
human slavery, and they must either ioin
i'll the policy of President Harrison or
retire from political life. The frauds of
the ballot have become the disgrace and
the peril of our institutions, and it has
only been from disinclination to use
force in the premises thai has given it
immunity so far. But when it is pro-
posed to destroy the crime by method
that includes law without party advan-
tage no man can afford to oppose its re-
moval. Never in the history of party
contests has a so-called issue been so
thoroughly eliminated or campaign cry
so completely squelched as has been done
by President Harrison with this force
bill' howl with which the canvass
opened. Instead of its being the one
vulnerable point in the Republican line
OF argument as was supposed, it at once
becomes one of the strongest planks in
in its platform and one OF the most pop
ular ideas in its policy.