Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-04-15
VIEWS OF SUFFRAGE.

some Strong Opinions on Both Sides Of
the Question.
To the Editor OF The Evening Star:
There seems to be great misconception
in the minds Of a great many persons con-
corning the real strength and significance
Of the present agitation for suffrage among
the citizens Of the District of Columbia.
These people say that the discomfort with
our present (so-called) system of govern
ment is confined to few misguided or mis-
taken persons, and that the majority Of
our citizens are SO enraptured with the
three-headed monarchy by which we are
ruled that We desire no other. Just try us,
gentlemen. who think SO. Put the matter
to the arbitrament of vote and the result
will soon show for itself. The fact of the
natter really Is that the entire laboring
class of our people are profoundly dis
gusted and dissatisfied with our present
form of government, for the simple reason
mat they have no share whatever in 4.
Ihey might as well be inhabitants of
kamschatka as the District of Columbia,
and have just about as much influence with
our Commissioners as the Kamschatkans
have. Why should the Commissioners care
nat we want? They are not amenable to Is
In any way, and SO long as they can please
the members of the legislative and execu-
tive departments Of the government, can
afely bid us defiance.
The Federation Of Labor and Knights OF
Labor, with their allied organizations
claim to represent about twenty thousand
male adults residing in the District of CO.
lumbia, being about equivalent to one hun
dred thousand of the general population.
Ihis Is certainly very respectable proper
ton Of the residents of the District, and
their views, therefore, on this and all other
subjects ought to be given careful and
weighty consideration.
The members Of these laboring organiza-
items, and in fact, all the working people
OF the District, are practically unanimous
in their desire for change from the pres
ent to representative form of government.
1t may be an interesting item of news to
many persons to know that the labor or
CARNATIONS of the District are in constant
correspondence with the members of the
new Congress which will meet here next
December. and already forty-nine of these
members have signif1ed their intention to
advocate the restoration of suffrage and
popular government to the citizens of the
District OF Columbia In fact, as the oppo-
nents Of suffrage well know. when the
question is fairly and squarely brought be-
fore them. the members of the House Of
Representatives will be very 10th to be put
on record as being opposed to the restora-
trict.
How glaringly inconsistent will be the Do
stion of every member of the House who
refuses to give to us the right of suffrage
that he himself has always exercised, and
by virtue of which same right his fellow
citizens have sent him to Congress. Any
member of Congress who does this will
thereby commit political suicide But the
advocates of suffrage in this District are
having their cause advocated in a way
more forcibe than any arguments they can
advance, and this is being done by the stu
pendous folly of the District Commission
ers The Commissioners are not contented
with having estranged from them the
greater proportion Of our citizens by their
alternately weak and arbitrary rule but
Of cur District. This they have done BY re-
fusing to give through them to the people
the news concerning the public business Of
the District that the citizens have a right
to know. Making war upon newspapers is
not an original idea Of yours, Mr. Commits
sioners! Other men have tried 1t before
you, and have come to grief in so doing.
You had better profit by their example.
ROBERT REYBURN.
Suffrage VS.. Prosperity.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:
I would like. for the edification of those
Washington property holders who have
placed themselves on record as in favor OF
the restoration Of the elective franchise to
present two practical queries as fairly
calculating the whole matter.
First: If, when you started out in BUSH
ness for yourself, the pater-familias had
offered that for every dollar you made
and put into your business he would add
another. even though 1t should run up into
the millions, you would have been in a
hurry to cast the old man off for the mere
privilege of expressing your opinion about
something. which expression would not
have been worth cent to you, only the
satisfaction of having expressed it? Would
you have done it?
Second: How would you like to go into q
syndicate whose investments should reach
transactions should be controlled by the
voice Of those who didn't own a cent of
stock In the concern? Say, how would you
like it?
T onca Iivad IN a voun1 u,ee.arn ,ity 80
5000 inhabitants whose propertyless
population was instigated by a few inter-
ested bosses to fasten upon 1t by popular
vote a railroad subscription Of $1,000, Oo0,
upon the promise that the scheme would
give all Of them work at big wages And
but for the peculiar geographical location
OF that town and the breaking out of the
war every owner of property would have
been literally ruined: and that city does
not own dollar of that stock today.
have lived in county, not 100 miles from
Washington, in which the taxpayers have
had no more say in the raising of her reve-
nues and the disbursement of the same
than as If they lived in the moon. They
We're utterly powerless to protect them.
selves against the bosses, white and black,
who manipulated the non property holding
vote In the interest of themselves and
their henchmen. And the result has been
mat every man who has been able to dis
pose OF his property and get ous of that
county has done SO, and all the remainder
are trying to follow suit.
mentally able to put two and two together
and state the result who does not know
that there is properly no politics In the
management of the affairs of city. It
is business. all business, pure and simple.
The only politics that can be injected into
1t is that of plumber, and nothing else.
And where the carrion Is there the buz.
yards will be to fight for it. and such ale
ways get it: From all of which every true
friend of Washington will pray-"Good
Lord, deliver U.s." There is not an incor-
porated town in the United States that
has not fallen into the hands Of political
spoismen and financial plunderers through
the fundamentally of unintelligent nom
property holding and purchasable votes.
and always held by them until the exas-
perated public has been forced by
outraged sense of public decency to rise
in their might and cast them out. Yet not
a decade would elapse until, through that
same instrumentality of the popular vote,
the rascally element would be again doing
business at the old stand"
We have now been for nearly twenty
years honestly, efficiently and economi-
cally governed-by business men on busi-
ness principles, men whose morality, in
tegrity and capacity have never been ques-