Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-03

VINO mas done three months time 1Or fraud
ulent transactions in accounts or merchan-
disc. CD Any condemnatiol-even to one
days imprisonment-for theft. swindling.
abuse of confidence, the Justification of food
or medical products or the. use of false
weights or measures. produces the same re-
suit. So also CD any condemnation for
"outrages to public morals" az Any
condemnation for vagabondage or men,
dacity. And 90 by virtue of va
rious scattered enactments, any con-
demnation for usury, destruction or falsit-
cation of documents, the devastation of
forests, the poisoning of animals, the keep
Ing of a gambling house or pawn shop or
frauds against the military CONSUMPTION.
60 There Is also such a thing as temporary
incapacity to vote. second condemna-
ton for public drunkenness carries with It
two years incapacity. COMBINATIONS foc
Outrage QnsulD or violence to deposita-
ries CT authority carry an electoral in
capacity" for five years. A common police
man Is such a depository. SO also with a
condemnation for threats or insults to jury
men or witnesses. Again, the correctional
police have the right to add to their petty
sentences an incapacity to vote for such
and such a given time by virtue of thirty
different articles of the penal code and five
particular acts Of parliament besides. 90
Lastly, offenses against election laws are
1t will be understood, of course. that con-
demnation" means condemnation to imprls-
onment and net to a mere fine. The cleo
toral incapacity results from the impris-
onme=t"
Eligible TO Hold Office.
II Is for this reason that the first thing
ssked of any Frenchman, when his charac
ter or standing is In question, is: Where is
your election card?'-the vised card which
shows his present right to vote. If he has
such a card 1t shows that he has never
strayed too far from that presumed respect
ability which to a workinSman in France is
very much what continuous certificates of
character are to a servant girl.
As to the alien vote, 1.-THE foreigner who
asks for his naturalization must join to his
application the documents which prove that
he is now resident Of France, and has
been SO uninterruptedly for at least ten
years" claw of August ID, 1881
AS to the eligibility of candidates-say for
the chamber of deputies-the candidate must
be French, aged at least twenty-five years,
and must never have held office. judicial,
administrative or military, in a foreign
country. naturalized foreigner, who has
lived in France ten years after his naturali-
cation, Is eligible to election to the chamber
of deputies. Apart from the incapacity of
occupying two offices at the same time, the
following classes of Frenchmen are perpet-
ually incapable of election to the chamber
of deputies: a. Bankrupts-that is to say.
any one who has passed through the 'liQui-
dalton Judiciaire," which practically would
include our device of assignment for the
benefit of creditors. C2.) All the active army
and navy. g. And all citizens who are
either perpetually or have even been at any
time temporarily incapacitated for voting.
There are also relative ineligibilities." For
example, judges, projects of police, school
inspectors archbishopS and bishops, tax
collectors, and many others are ineligible
for election to the chamber of deputies from
the ward or department of their service
during period of six months after the ex-
piration of their term of office or their
resignation.
Here are safeguards surely. When 1t is
added to>this that in France there are no
two great political parties, with their great
machines. and that there Is civil service
system absolutely rigid for the most part,
1t seems to me that France should be
pretty test for mugwump theories.
Makes His own Platform.
What influence has the absence of the
two great parties and the presence of a
three times-super-refined civil service sys-
tom? What influence have they on cleo
tons?
The absence Of the two great parties
makes a chaos wherein every candidate
who cries the loudest or the most persua-
sively, runs a good chance of being sent up
to the chamber. Men have gone up on such
pledges as to work for the abolition of
the senate" or to present bill proclaim
ing amnesty to political and social Of
Tenders" which latter, II 1t means any
thing, would mean a general Jail delivery.
In one word, in the absence of party plat
forms, every candidate makes his own plat
form. The most curious general formulas
are given out Reactonists talk against
the government by atheists; radicals de-
clare themselves to be the only genuine
children of the revolution; and whenever an
appeal is made to workingmen, then 1.-The
dirty bourgeois are sure to come in for a
mass of rhetoric.
In a manufacturing suburb Of Paris a
candidate graVely proposed the extinction
of pauperism by the emascuIation of cap
ital. That's well put!' a voice cried, and
the phrase was put into the pledges Of the
candidate If a candidate stands for min
Ing district he may curry favor with the
workmen by proclalming that his program
Is the state ownership and operating of
all mines. II he stand for vineyard dis
trict he must be against the importation
OF the Spanish and Italian wires. Local i'll
terests are all powerful Elected on one
pledge, the deputy goes up to Paris free to
trade and deal among the half-a-dczen
groups or more, which, shifting, changing,
never stable make up the French political
parties. His first and great preoccupation
is to stay in" to re-elect himself as deputy
forever and forever. Proof of his power to
do this is seen In the elections following on
the scandal of the Panama canal The old
majority-dlscredited and smirched-stayed
for it.
In the refined French civil service one
voting citizen in every ten is a paid gov
ernmerf clerk. The government Is In the
tobaco6 business, and its monopoly permits
no rival. Every tobacco shop in France is
operated by government clerk; every pub
lie water closet of the Paris streets and
parks is tended to by some grim lady who
is In the government employ; every news
paper stand is presided over by some one
appointed by the government. These are
small things, but what is their effect?
The Spells of Office.
A deputy who wants his reelection from
some Paris district finds he must placate
one Of his constituents, who otherwise
would work against him. He can say:
work for me, and will give your wife a
newspaper kiosque." That does not mean
the lady will sell papers from a decorative
little shanty on the Paris streets. She has
the kiosque granted to her, and some poor
woman, some deserving widow of a non
commissioned officer, already on the list
for such a place. is put IN as her over
seer or assistant" The actual occupant
OF the kiosQue, who does the work, must
pay half of her gains each week to the fine
lady
A deputy in France has much more power
and patronage than our own Congressman.
The only two great elections in all France
are for deputies and municipal councillors.