New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-03-20
SOTTUERN ELECTION REFORM

The Tribune is heartily In sympathy with the
general object Of the Southern Ballot Rights
League. That organization has entered upon a
campaign against election trckery and fraud
in the Southern States, and is operating on non
partisan lines. It's membership being recruited
from all parties A movement Of this kind
commands the respect Of good citizens North
as well as South There is now before the coun-
try no issue of greater importance than that
of honest elections The moral revolt In the
Southern States against election practices
which are tainted with fraud is one Of the
most hopeful signs Of the times The Tribune
has been cndcayorng through sympathetic com
ments and impartial and not uniricndly staff
correspondence from the South To encourage
and develop that conscience movement. ana 10
open the way for the reorganization Of the Re
publican party in that part Of the country, not
on race lines, bur on comprehensive National
policies Consequently any criticism OF the
methods Of the League which Is offered on this
page must be regarded the utterance of a
candid friend
The president Of the League, the Hon. J. G.
Manning, has come North, with Congressman
Howard Of Alabama, TO organize mass meetings
in favor Of honest elections in the South. These
leaders are already making arrangements for
holding the first Of these meetings in Cooper
Union. Now unless they are planning the en-
largement of their organization from a South
crn into National League their new departure
seems to us n mistake. If they are counting
upon increasing the usefulness Of their Ballot
Rights League in the South by appealing 10
Northern audiences TO denounce election frauds
in Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana and
adjacent States they are making Il serious mis-
calculation. Such meetings can readily be ar
ranged, and the Indignation of Northern audi
ences over systematic election trickery in the
cotton States may be loudly and vehemently
expressed but we do not believe that the moral
effect OF these rcmonstrances would be salutary
in the States where active reform work is to be
carried on Indeed, we do not hesitate to say
that more harm than good would be done by
such protests.
This Ballot Rights League was organized rs
Southern movement. Its field Of operations
is in the Southern States. Mass meetings in
favor of honest elections ought to he called in
Richmond. Norfolk, Columbia. Charleston, SD
vannah, Atlanta, Nashville, Chattanooga, Mem
phis. Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery, Little
Rock. Galveston and San Antonio; and the
speakers so far as possible should be Southern
men OF all parties. The Southern people know
the truth about their own election methods
Among themselves they do not attempt to con
ceal the rascality which has been practiscd, but
merely justify it as OF the necessary condi-
tons OF the everlasting "ngger question" They
recognize the moral obligation of cleaning house
and of setting their election laws in order; but
we apprehend that if lectures are read to them
in a high key from Cooper Union and other
assembyrooms in the North their hearts will
be hardened and their reformatory impulses