Birmingham age-herald., 1894-11-27
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE,

OR THE SYSTEM OF VIVA VOCE'' VOTING.
 THE ONLY REMEDY TO PREVENT FRAUD
 AND SECURE FAIR COUNT AND AN HON.
 EST VOTE.
 To tn Age-Herald:
 This postulate propose to prove by the
 facts that have ever attended the ballot or
 secret system of voting. The ballot is
 system of secret voting, and has been em-
 ployed in political, legislative and judicial
 assemblies from the days of the zenith of
 Greecs and Rome to the present under every
 device that human ingen uity could invent.
 At Athens it was the fdicasts' in giving
 their verdicts, generally by being balls of
 stone or metal, now known as dice, to be
 cast.
 At Rome, 139 B. C., the ballot was h.
 troduced as relating to the election of mag
 istrates. Later ou il was adopted in the
 case of elections, in which cases the word
 .tpuncta'' was made opposite the names or initials of the candidates. In Great Britain the ballot system was first used in was afterwards used by the Scots paria- ment in 1862 as @ measure proposed by Middleton to secure the ostracism of Lau. derdale and other political opponents, who were by secret vote declared incapable of public office. In 1872 MT. Foster's act in- troduced the ballot in all parliamentary and municipal elections In England, which act has obtained ever since, with some ex. captions.
 The ballot being thus-ssun fait accom- pli''-in Great Britain, 1t is scarcely neces- sary to state the arguments by which it was supported and opposed. "lt would be foolish to expect that secret voting should be perfect security for independent vot- ing.' And this admission alone surren- ders the argument against it. It is true that bribery, treating and intimidation continue to be practiced, but with perhaps diminished effect. But it is not less true that the franchise is a public trust, to the exercise of which public responsi- bility should attach which the secret bal l lot cannot remove. The ballot is used in all Of the British colonies, and among these f that of South Australia has been the most | highly extolled, and has been adopted un- | der modified form in the various states of 1 the union. Besides the various systems of | ballot all kinds of boxes have been invented, | but none that l have ever heard of that | could prevent cheating if the minds of the I men in charge were Inclinedto do so, for .tOch, mankind are unco weak,
 And rarely 10 be trusted.
 If self the wavering balance shake Iris rarely right adjusted.o
 In all of the states of the union the ballot system is adopted as the means Of voting I that is, the franchise, the exercise of which | is or should be the exponent of man hood | is niveisally made fraudulent, secret, | covert, cowardly and emasculatory of every virile type of man ill order to secure and | entail a system by which cheating and un- fair dealing may be kept up, and ring leaders and machine politicians kept in office. The sense of "toucb,' next lo that of "sight,'' is perhaps one of the most delicate of the seDses, but since the days that Esau was cheated by Jacob by the touch of his father's hand (Isaac) this has bee d sproven. And Che felt him and said that the voice is Jacobs voIcs, but the nands are the hands of Esau.' And so it is, and has ever been, and always will Ds with the ballot or secret system of voting. The word suffrage, from the Latin 'sufirag gium,'' means literally a voice, ard that given in deciding a controverted question or the choice of man for an office or trust, etc. Iu what particular is there any exercise Of the voice in going into a closet or a cuddy and making cross mark opposite the name Of the men you vote for, and then folding the paper in some particular manner and having it placed in a slot of a double back action box, the mechanism of which IS often doubtless an unknown quanlty-of vUtss? It has never proved to be satisfactory. The wholo thing appears to be retrograde de- me,bo ods that are unmanly, covert and un- worthy of men who are of Anglo-Saxon cavalier or Puritan blood. In the words of | that noble old Roman, Allen G. Thurman, HThis thing won't do.' If we wish to pr, serve the constitution and the iDstitu tions under it as our fathers gave them to us, in simple, strict and pure construction, we must ''retrace our steps and regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and saiety,' by resuming "manbood suf- frage' by the exercise Of the living voice in the face of the whole world.
 JNo. K. PAGE, M. D.