New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1892-01-13
BALLOT RESTRICTION.
United States Senator Davis Gives his
Views on this most Interesting Subject.
It would mean, he says, Retreat to the
Abandoned Ways of Antiquity.
Intelligence and educational qualifications
he styles as mere Shibboleths.

pnOnSO OIL CaStllle, VINO Salu, aILeT isl
ening to some unsatisfactory explana-
ton of the solar system, that ''if the
Almighty had consulted him before
He created the world some absurdities
would have been prevented In the
course of time the true theory OF the un-
iyerse, which had been anticipated by
more than one Greek and Arabian phil
osopher, was demonstrated by the obser-
vations and scientific process of TYcho,
Galileo and Newton, and human thought
passed on to dogmatize and dispute ov-
er new problems.
At the present time Alphonsos abound.
They have solutions for every problem
and durable for every evil that body,
soul, the state, finance or society is heir
to. Precisely in proportion to the in
solubility of the question or the entrica-
cy of it's elements or the complexity of
it's consequences is this dogmatism
most self-sufficient and operative. It
has substitute for the jury system; a
faith cure for medicine and surgery
even; it produces money out of nothing
in finance; it reverts, by the ope1 alton
of the single tax, all landed property in
the state to which it originally belonged
thus destroying the castle of the home,
annihilatlng the security of the family,
and extinguishing that sentiment of
patriotism which is the life of nations
and which is rooted in individual own
ership of the soil. Parties spring up on
these theories and solid, solvent, intel
ligent men strike at their own political
and material interests with the fanatical
faith of zealots who have been known
to set fire to their own houses and barns
in anticipation of the immediate COM
ing of the general resurrection. l do
not deny that an intense longing for a
better state of things ofteninspires these
attempts to revolutionize the process OF
the ages. In such cases [ respect the
pure intent and lofty purpose. But
the tendencies and facts that l have
stated nevertheless remain and persist.
1t is to be remarked that these agita-
tions attempt to bring human affairs
back to what they were hundreds, per-
haps thousands of years ago, and to re.
vive conditions from which humanity
has emerged by long and often bloody
process. The state is to own the land,
but few think of the feudalism which
did follow and always will follow such
process so long as fraud exists to still
burden with force. The state is to emit
money by,fat, but who stops to think
that when this was done, in other times,
either by absolute process or by debase-
ment of the currency whatever it was,
the money was put into the hands of
power to debase values, to make wages
fruitless and, by process more subtle
than slow disease and more resistless
than war to reduce the people to an in.
dustrial slavery? Some one wants the
state to own and operate all the rail
roads. The state ownership of high
ways was once an Institutional feature
of government and its evil effect upon
social and industrial conditions is one
of the most emphatic warnings that his
tory has given to us. It bears with it one
consequence to our times which could
not nave happened in any former age.
This consequence would by the employ
ment the government of at least five
hundred thousand railroad operatives
of all ranks. These are necessarily
trained and picked men. Physically
the operatives must necessarily be as
perfect as soldiers. A superior ment-
al capacity is required in all degrees Of
The service, and in the superior grades
that service employs the'best executive
and administrative capacity now exist
-!ng. Let me ask how long our present
system of government would endure
with any political party in control OF
Iii the land transportation facilities of
she country as one unit of power, ,oper-
ated by such an army9
The advocates of restriction of the
!uffrage are Of kin to the reactionists to
whom / have alluded They witness
he incidental and occasionalimperfec-
ions of.a most efficient agent Of human
f-Shts and equality, a power that, under
5Sence3of Goo, has made this
~ ion to be of.sovereignties the might
i, among the mighty and they adyo-
cate restriction Of the elements OF
thai power BY reducing the number OF
the diyiduals who are entitled to sex-
3iof ii. This is also 8 retreat TO the
!. doned ways Of antiquity The pa