The herald., 1894-04-01
GOOD ELECTION Laws.


Hawes used to arise in our state senate
and, laying his bony finger alongside bis
skinny nose, say. 81 have no higher aim
nor do ask any higher place in the his
tory OF my country than to be known as
the purifier of our election system, y
there have been men of all ages. nstivi-
ties and previous conditions seeking to
purge the ballot. Yet the law enacted
by the San Mateo philosopher was found
to be practically q dead letter in the
presidential election OF 1875 in San Fran
cisco, where Jack Mannix and Owen
Brady took notorious Tar Flat hoodlums
to the polls early in the morning and
voted them in the names of respectable
merchants living in the southern por-
tions OF the city. And when those mer-
chants came, later in the day, to exsr-
else freeman's privilege, they were
warned away from the polls and threat
ened with prosecution for attempted il
legal voting.
So the work ofreforming the ballot and
purging the polls goes on from year to
year, first in one state and then in an
other. Suggestions OF federal election
law to read alike and operate alike in
all the states, have been made by politi-
cal writer's, but never received with any
great favor. These matters have always
been left to the states themselves until
Oliver P. Morton and Ben Wade, who
believed the states had no rights that
congress was bound to respect, began
to tinker with these matters. Oregon,
admitted in 1858, fixed June as the date
OF holding her election in order to give
her congressman six months to get
across the plains to Washington il he
so desired; and even now that the state
has four systems of railroads to Caliior.
MAS two, no attempt has been made to
change the date. The states always
have made their own election laws and
always should. Laws that would be
perfectly fair and equitable in Oalifor-
mia, where the colored vote is less than
three per cent of the entire population,
would be wholly inapplicsbls in South
Carolina or Georgia, where the white
vote is less than three-eighths.
Just now Massachusetts has been re-
vising her election laws, evidently to
some purpose. The lower house OF her
Legislature has passed a bill entitled
IAN act to limit the sessions of regis
trars of voters" by the terms of which all
registration within the state shall cease
on the twentieth day prior to the hold
ing of state or city elections, thus allow
ing three weeks for the challenging sn1
revision of any improne--~r Hauuulehe
raOistratiea. 8 accomplicss in fraudulent
registration are made liable to penalties
as we'll as their principal, and hence it
will be seen that there is a good deal OF
force in that portion of the law which
provides that any man whose name is
not assessed for q poll tax on the Let
day OF May must appear before the as
sesaor, accompanied by two registered
voters OF the ward or town, who shall
testify ae to his residence on the Let day
of May and vouch for his right to be
registered as a voter.
John W. Gof of New York city, in
addressing the Good Government club
of that city, several weeks ago, made a
suggestion concerning registration of
voters that is not without force as sp-
piled to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
He laid bare the frauds that were pos
sible in our larger cities under the lodg-
ing house system, and stated that, in
his belief, the only remedy was not
only to have all voters registered, but
also to compel the keepers of lodging
houses to file under oath, for purposes
of publication, full and complete lists of
their dodgers for the three months i'm
mediately preceding the election. This
can only be taken as an excellent sug-
gestion, ss oar city is a network of
lodging houses, as is also the city of San
Francisco. A lodging house clause in
our election law would do no harm and
might accomplish an excellent purpose
in purifying the ballot.
Every large city throughout the
length and breadth of the land is gradu-
ally awakening to the absolute need OF
more stringent laws to guard the sanc'
tity of the ballot box from the predatory
inelrsions OF the professional ward
striker and his employer, the political
boss. 1t is necessary for the honor and
safety of each and every community, as
we'll as for the common welfare of all
our people and the preservation of re-
publican institutions. Let not California
be behind in this matter of purging the
ballot of its many impurities, and rele'
eating the political boss and ward
striker to wel-merited obscurity.