New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-03-14
ON BALLOT RESTRICTION
A Valuable Contribution to an Interesting
Subject.

~ s . . -s[
striction and property qualifications has
been discussed in this city during the
week, the Review deems 1t Of interest to
publish an article on the question by
United States Senator G. K. Davis, writ
ten for this paper.
It was, I think, Alphonso of Castillo,
who said, after listening to some unsat-
isfactory explanation of the solar system
that if the Almighty had consulted him
before he created the world some absur-
dlties would have been prevented. In
the course Of time the true history of the
universe, which had been anticipated bv
more than one Greek AID Arabian philo-
sopher, was demonstrated by the obser-
vations and scientific processes of Tycho,
Galileo and Newton, and human thought
passed on to dogmatize and dispute over
new problems.
At the present time, ,Alphonsos abound.
They have solutions for every problem
and curable for every evil that body,soul
the state, finance or society is here to.
Precisely in proportion to tie insolubility
of tide question or The intricacy of it's
elements or the complexity of it's conse-
quences is this dogmatism most self-suf-
fcient and operative. It has a substi-
tute for the jury system; faith cure for
medicine and even surgery; it produces
money out of nothing in finance; it re-
verts by the operation of the single tax
all landed property 20 the State to which
it originally belonged, thus destroying
the castle of the home, annihilating the
security of the family and extinguishing
that sentiment of patriotism which is the
life OF nations and which is rooted in in
individual ownership of the soil. Parties
spring up on these theories and solid,
solvent, intelligent men strike at their
own and material interests with the fan
at;cal faith of x alo.s who have been
known to set fire to their own houses
and barns in anticipation of the immed-
late coming Of the general resurrection.
l do not deny that an intense longing
for better state of things often inspires
these attempts to revolutionize the pro-
cesses of the ages. In such cases I re-
spect the pure intent and lofty purpose.
But the tendencies and facts that I have
stated nevertheless remain and presist
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
processes. The state is to own the land
but few stop to think of the feudalism
which did follow and always will follow
such a process as long as fraud exists to
strike hands with force. The state is to
emit money by fiat, but who stops to
think that when this was done, in other
times, either by absolute process or by
debasemcnt of currency whatever 1t was,
the means was put into the hands of pow
er to debase values,to make wages fruit
less and by a process more subtle than
show disease and more resistless than
war, to reduce the people to an industri-
al slavery?
Some one wants the state to own and
operate all the railroads. The state
ownership of highways was once an io-
stitutional feature Of government and it's
evil effect upon social and industrial con-
dltions is one of the most emphatic warn
ings that history has given us. 1t bears
with it one consequence to our time,
which could not have happened in any
former age. This consequence would be
the employment by the government of
at least eight hundred thousand railroad
operatives of all ranks. These are nee
essarily trained and picked men. Physic-
ally, the operatives must necessarily be
as perfect as soldiers. A superior men
tai capacity is required in all degrees Of
the service and in the superior grades
that service employs the best executive
and administrative capacity now existing.
Let me ask how long our present system
Of government would endure with any
political party in control of all the land
transportation facilities ofthe country as
one unit Of power, operated by such an
army2
The advocates of restriction of the
suffrage are of kin to the reactionists to
whom ! have alluded, They witness the
incidental and occasional imperfections
of a most efficient agent Of human rights