New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-03-14

restriction r s of the elements Of that power
by reducing the number Of the individ-
uals VINO are entitled to exercise it. This
IS also retreat to the abandoned WAYS
OF antiquity. The patrician who could
vote,and the plebeian who could not, re-
appear. The restricted suffrage and the
rotten borroughs of England and of some
of our own states are to be restored. The
citizenship of the Italian republics of the
middle ages is reproduced, such as that
of Florence, which in its palmy state
was composed Of less than four thousand
men.
The result is rule by portion of the
community (and the degree of compari-
son with the many is of no moment in
considering the principle) and this is
obllgarchy, which Aristotle compendi-
ously described as the 'political predom-
nance Of the rich.'' .s, ~ ~.
hold it to be a natural right, under
our system of government, that every
citizen of proper age who can be COM
PEELED to take arms in it's defense, who
is taxable through the action of the leg
islative representatives for all its pur-
poses is entitled to the elective suffrage
This is the very principle upon which
our ancestors justified the rebellion that
made them free. If this is right it can
not of course be justly restricted by any
qualification as a test which will give to
one citizen this right and deny it to an
other. It is this denial in the south,
which constitutes the crowning political
infamy of this age.
craftsmanship deals with facts, and
our present system of franchise is a fact
of the most concrete character, This
franchise is thing of universal and hab-
itual enjoyment. By what process can
it be restricted? Are any of it's possess
ors gong to vote to give it up? All his
tory teaches that such right Of partici-
patton in political power was never
abolished except by bloody political
revolution, ending in change of the sys-
tenn of government.
But suppose it practicable bypeaceful
means. what will be the test of qualit-
cation? Intelligence says some one. But
it is the general diffusion of intelligence
which makes practicable such system
of suffrage as ours, and that general H.
telligence incontestly pervades our peo-
pie. The exceptions to it cannot furnish
the rule. This general intelligence is in
creasing. They who will as electors
govern this country thirty years from
now will. as a whole, be better
qualified for that purpose than the pre-
sent generation.
Let there be an educational test saws
another. To this the foregoing observa-
tions partially apply. But how much
education will you require? By what
civil service commission shall it be test
ed SO that the person may become an elec-
tor by virtue of some certificate that he
may receive from such tribunal2 Abil-
i,y to either read or write the English
language is mere shibboleth. Many
man who can do both is less fitted to
vote than many a man who can do neith-
er These defects are the mere accidents
of our system. The generals of intelli-
gence and education remain in full force
in vastly prepondurating proportion,
and as time goes on these exceptional
and individual DEFICIENCIES will be re.
duceG to their minimum.
There should be property qualitica-
ton some one thinks. This is another
return to ancient sefulchres. How much
property? If of a slight value, the rich
will endow for electrical purposes such
of the poor as may be purchasable and
a most colossal system of corruption will
be the result, producing prolitarat
more dangerous than has ever existed,
because it will be armed with the forces
of intelligence of which I have re-
marked. If of a great value, then it is
Aristotle's oligarchy come again.
I believe in human progress through
the action Of all The people. I freely
acknowledge the existence of discourag-
ing elements, such as disfranchisement
in the South, and an equal disfranchIse-
ment in the great cities of the North, by
which the vote of the elector is peutral-
lied by the repeating the ballot box
stuffing, the false regulations and returns
But these are the temporary accidents
and durable inirmities of most bene-
ficent system. They viii in time be al
so reduced to their minimum.
The trouble with the system ID the
North and especially in the cities, is that
the business men and those of the learn
ed profession, take so little interest in
politics. With power enough to correct
the evils of which the complain, they
keep away from the caucus and the polls
They are the do-nothings who think the
right Of suffrage should be restricted.
Some Of such have prosecuted bribery in
ek \