Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-25
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
honest, unbiased and unbought opinion
is what we want.


| used at primaries. If the convention
places bad or incompetent men in NOM
lnatlon, OF what avil is the secret bal.
lot? So long as political parties con-
| tinue to exist they must hold their
primaries and conventions. We have
| found the secret ballot to be municipaJ
safeguard, therefore let us extend it to
the primary and convention, and let all
the expenses OF both be paid out of the
pubic treasury. In addition to that.
let us provide literally for independent
nomlnatlons-as check upon the polit-
lcal parties, and as a safety valve for all
those who wish to express their opin-
ions outside of party lines. In this way
1t seems TO me we shall be able TO get
an honest expression of public opinion.
Some will object to this on the ground
OF cost. People who make this ohiec-
ton never stop to consider the fearful
cost of past elections. Do you not know
that every dollar used TO bribe a voter.
every dollar expended to carryn primary
or convention, every dollar paid in polit-
ical assessments, every dollar expended
IN foolish parades and torchlight pro-
cessious. uniforms and campaign fun
cries has to be finally paid back out of
the products of your toll with compound
interest and penalties?
The cost OF the alabaster box of pre-
clous ointment was not too great consid-
ering the dignity of the person upon
whom it was poured. SThe cost of an
honest election is small price to pay
Tor an honest government.
AS a people we have much cause for
coDgratulation over the recent election,
Ihere was more appeal to reason than
to passion. There was less idiotic clat-
ter OF parades and torchlights, and more
serious efforts to change the opinion of
men py appeals to right reason. We
nave witnessed reform and a revolt
within the party. Men who succeeded
oy corrupt use OF the primaries and
convention in foistlDg themselves upon
an unwilling party found themselves
deserted and overwhelmed with defeat
at the polls. New York, Connecticut
and Indiana have been eliminated as
pivotal states. As goes New York so
goes the union no more. Her domina.
tion is at an end, and western men will
henceforth rule in the councils of this
nation. In this breaking up of old party
traditions, and in this promise of new
men and new issues, let the people re-
Joice. The national battlefield has been
shifted from the cutters OF New York to
the broad plains of the nation.
But we have cause still to deplore the
ever increasing use of money in our
elections. An able writer (Prof.
McCook) in recent article shows that
in the state of Connecticut, for instance,
one out OF every six voters is on the list
OF politicians as purchasable. Ii that
proportion holds good throughout the
union, we have in oil 100000 venal
voters. In all our great cities the courts
continue to grind out new voters from
the crudest foreign material. Through
this drain-ditch therei is constantly pour
ing into our national life the diseased
blood OF rotting European civilization.
Probably the majority of these do not
know the difference between ballot
and a beer label, and have no use for it
beyond lis value in the political mar
ket. Can we have an honest election go
long as such men are permitted to vote?
1t education and obedience to law
have tendency to make men honest.
and as we cannot have honest elections
without honest voters--ignorance and
crime should be disfranchised. So long
as there is class of voters who can be
bought, they will be bought. But how
long can this process continue without
the possibility of q revolution that may
upset all political calculations and bring
as to the rule of the bayonet and Cat.
ling gun?
In the south the suffrage is even more
debased. An illiterate negro suffrage
has been the whitening curse of the
south since the war. The sudden en-
franchisement OF a million ignorant
slaves forced the poverty stricken south
to 60 into politics instead of business.
There they are now fighting for home
and lie. Business languishes, and be-
meath the ehadow OF a possible negro
domination the industrial interests of
the south still languish.
Before his death, Prof. Austin Phelps
OF Massachusetts uttered these words:
II have never believed in negro suf-
frage. Senator Sumner never com.
mitted graver blunder than in driving
the act which legalized it through con-
gress. 1t was not an act of senatOrship.
1t was @ fling of desperation. Itstruck
nature blow in the face, and for that
she always gives return blow in grand
rage" The time has come for serious
re-study of thewhole suffrage problem.
suffrage with any other basis than in
telligence must always be venal and
uncertain quantity. In proportion to
its ignorance it is constant threat
against the life of the nation.
Let me conclude this hastily prepared
and very imperfect paper by quoting
from the recent words of wise and
patriotic Republican: "The enormous
vote cast for the Popuiist candidates at
the recent election brings us face to face
with new issues of tremendous import
auce. The traditional lines of political
battle are broken forever. Within the
next decade must be met at the polls
questions that hold the gathered wrath
of centuries Of class hatred and fancied
or real wrongs. How can euch questions
be rightly and peaceably settled with
millions of debased voters enthroned
with sovereign power?"
The money question is the question of
the future in America. The mass of our
common people are honest. They are
rising in resistless storm, moved by an
impulse of blind wrath against the
money power. Samson may destroy
himself when he pulls down the col
umns of the temple of liberty, but a
multitude will perish with him. My
own conviction is that the best munici
pal safeguard is the eecret ballot; and
to this would add the wisest precau-
tions against bribery. 1 would require
a strict account from candidates and
campaign committees as to the nature
opA orao1nf cf thasr ax,,o~,o, + ,-,o,,lI