Rocky Ford enterprise., 1894-05-17
b, an examination Of tn. record. Of .ush


It may be'said that ''this shows adeplorable
enough state of xnairs, but where lies the
rcmedyf" Briefly the remedy lies In this:
sIngle-membered dlstricts, and the election Of
all representative bodies upon . general
ticket, representatives TO bo allotted to tho
various parties or political groups in proper
This one simple change In our method Of Sc
lectlng members of legislative bodies, .
change which is strictly In accord with pollt-
ical Justice, will do more than any other yet
proposed TO relieve our politics OF "corrup-
tion" and to obtain for our public service the
best brains and integrity. 1t will vastly i'm
prove our laws through its tendency TO elm
inate special and class Legislation, and to give
the opinions Of all parties au equable hearing,
and It will emancipate the Legislator from tho
control Of the "boes." and thus make possible
true civil service. These are strong claims to
make In favor of 20 simple a change, but
believe they can be fully substantiated.
For from what cause docs the great curse
of the s'political boss'' arlsei Evidently,
from the great power which few voters have
of affecting the result by their votes. The
most In evidence In our cities where the cor
rupt and purchasablo vote most abounds.
New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia
are his strongholds, and 1t 10 In those ctties
things are at present, the "boss' needs only
To be able to divert small number of votes
to one side or the other and he is master OF
the day. Knowing this, the party machine"
bear the fact 10 mind In making nominations,
and the practical outcome Is that the "boss"
not only says in many cases which party
shall win, but also who the candidates shnll
be. Thus the "machine" soon falls Into his
hands, and his power is thereby made moro
secure. The worst element In the electorate
10 by our system made the most powerful.
As the case stands now, few hundred
men in each Of many districts have It within
their power to say who shall and who shall
not be elected. So far rs results are con-
cerned, the rest of the voters might as we'll
be at the bottom Of the sea- In Iowa, In
1892, had the Democrats been able to change
the vote Of 3l5 10 the first district, 81 In the
third, 798 In the fourth, $50 in the fifth, 5SS
in the sixth. 8,O41 In the seventh, 9, 1866 In the
eighth, l,240 in the ninth, 2, 4SS In tho tenth,
and $50 In the eleve enth, they would have cap
tured the entire delegation from Iowa, their
candidate having been elected In the second
district A change OF IL, ,554 votes In total
Of AL ,266, less than per cent. of the total,
would have changed the representation from
heIng 10 Republicans and Democrat to bo
per cent. in the vote would have saused a
change of more than 90 per cent. in the rep
resentation. This comes pretty close to con.
tradicting the dictum OF the scientists: mo
strong faith In the virtue Of politicians to
feel absolutely sure that such conditions do
not tend strongly toward fraud. Even II one
could be entirely sure that no fraud would be
attempted, he must have strange ideas OF
political justice TO justify any such state Of
affairs. Under the present system, the whole
thing is at best too much like throw Of tho
dice box.
So much power being placed In the hands
the '.bors," any citizen with more than few
shreds Of honor and independence simply will
not enter politics and subject himself to the
dictates Of euch characters; 1t thus requires,
= ~I..tIz
get the 'boss'' turned down and his creatures
ousted. In the country districts, affairs are
not, Of course, In such q bad way as this, but
anyone who has attentively watched the
course Of affairs in city politics knows only
D stem are not at all overdrawn.
We're the district lines abolished, the voter
would have much larger area from which
this, the honest politician (thank Heaven,
tho breed is not yet entirely extinct, although
wo have been trying hard enough during tho
last thirty years to kill 1t ofi) could afford 10
Attend n dozen rogues at home II by 80 doing
he met the approval OF . dozen honest people
awsy from home. He would offer himself as
. candidate and be elected upon his merits
and not upon the strength Of the number OF
appointment he could secure for the hench-
men of his "boss." A civil service conducted
for the public good would then no longer bo a
mere matter Of faith, the substance of things
hoped for.
Were representation apportioned among
the various parties In proportion to their num-
bers of adherents, We should no longer have
our laws enacted by the representatives of q
small minority of the people. Our legislature
would no longer be purely partisan in charac-
ter, our legislative bodies would become In
truth what they now too frequently are in
assemblies. They would
be true representative bodies rejecting in
the tr makeup the opinions and divisions Of
the constituency; aud their members being
relieved of the necessity for log-rolling would
then have some time 70 devote 10 the consid-
erati on Of the real needs Of the people.
Desiring to Afford q practical illustration Of
the working Of the proposed system, have
drawn up an illustrative ticket, which Ii ap-
pended below. 1t represents that portion Of
the general ticket which would be devoted to
the candidates for state-senatorship, and
bears full illustrations concerning the mode
of voting; eighteen members are to be select
ed frora among the thirty candidates. As
the vr.lue Of this test will be greatly en-
hanced II q large number participate, ask
each p erson reading this article TO do mo the
favor to vote upon tho ticket and mail 1t to
me before May 20th. Tho results Of the bal
lot wiz be carefully tabulated and published
about June 1st. WV. j. MEYERS
Fort Collins, Colo.
snefAl Assemblies. Mark in
fU~k~ e.