Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-10-24
THE FRANCHISE IN DANGER.


would be injured by them.
THE FRANCHISE IN DANGER.
If Mckinley, through any m!schance,
Is elected President of the United
States, November is the last election
at which the people VIII have chance
to express their untrammeled views.
Steps have already been taken TO rem
der the Australian ballot law inopera-
tive by the managers Of the Republican
Executive Committee. Mark Hanna
and Henry c. Payne, twin oppressors OF
labor, are the foster fathers Of this final
blow at the liberty of the voter. They
have been baffled at every turn by the
consciousness that they cannot learn,
for purpose of blackl!sting, how the
men employed by the lovers OF gold are
to cast their ballots election day. The
nightmare of defeat has turned TO
night kangaroo. What they have
been able d DO they are doing without
a change of Jaw and il has proved emil
nenty satisfactory. Wide open plans
TO keep men at work so that they could
not register have been proved a fall-
ure by the enormous number OF legal
izei voters who have enrolled their
names in Chicago. Some were hired
to stay away, but were too few TO IN
fluence the general result Several
men were discharged for not working
their full day. in the face Of the stat
ute permitting them 10 take two hours
viii pay for that purpose. The legal
Democratic committees will prosecute
these criminals 10 the extent Of the
law. but they will have still harder
work when the final effort to suppress
the free silver vote is made on the day
OF election.
But at best keeping men from the
polls either by bribery or coercion, IS un-
satisfactory. II is too likely 10 be at
tended by the unpleasantness Of public
ity. At best il loses Bryan but single
vote in each instance, when, II the good
old days of handing a ballot to a man
and seeing him put It in the box. were
not outlawed, it could have been made
to count for two by being thrown TO
Mckinley. And that Is why at the con-
ference held at the Republican head
quarters on Monday Hanna and Payne
decided to recommend to the State COM
mitt=e plan, or rather choice OF plans
whereby the voters Of the future should
send in ballots which could be traced.
This was not done until Mr.. Penn NIX
on. o fthe Chicago Inter Ocean, had been
seen in regard TO a recent editorial IN
his goldbug organ. In this Mr.. Penn
Nixon publicly states tlat 1t was pos
sible to ascertain under the present sys-
tenn in Illinois just how every voter
had expressed his political CONVICTIONS
through the m dium Of an Australian
ballot.
A CASE OF BLUFF.
Thinking that NizVn had made val
uable discovery he was asked to impart
his method for use on election day.
After much questioning it developed mat
he had no plan of any kind, that the
Illinois law was too plain to admit OIL
any misinterpretatiOn in this respect
and that the statement had been made
by the Inter Ocean solely for purposes
of intimidation. For this he was com
mended. bu, his failure to give the relief
sought was made the more apparent By
his failure.
So Payne and Hanna put their heads
together. They have had trouble over
the preliminary canvass everywhere be-
cause of the refusal of the silver men
10 indicate their pref renee and to be
baflled at the polls was 100 much. 1T
must not happen again" said Hanna.
And if Mckinley is elected IL never will.
Australian ballot laws differ widely
in the various States but all have the
characteristics of secrecy. The people -.
admire the ballot and /, is inexpedient
AZ the present time or in the near future
TO do away with the law entirely. ms
can only be done after some years. Then
the political parties will have to buy
their own ballots again-a matter that
grieves Hanna now since the poverty
of the Democrats this year might have
kept them from the polls altogether II
they had been forced 10 buy the great
number of large ballots needed in
presidential year. But before the Re-
publ.cans can go back 70 that they
must first emasculate the law. After
many expedents had been suggested II
was decided by Hanna and Payne that
none looked so harmless and was at the
same time too subverslve OF secrecy as
placing numbers on each ballot as il
was handed to the voter to be placed
also opposite his name in the poll book.
Then IL would be possible 70 trace every
vote and prepare a list Of numbers to be
identified at leisure from me poll book
before the ballots were finally sealed in
the box preparatory to transmission 70
headquarters.
A motive to be assigned for making
the changes was also talked over. The
present impossibility of Identification as
affording a loOphole for fraud was seized
as plausible. For the final attack upon
the existence OF the Australian ballot it
seIf the averment Of me enormous ex-
pense it entailed upon The public seemed
to be the most expedient.
VOTERS ARE SAFE.
Following McKinley's election thu
people may expect 10 see arise IN the
lobby of every State legislature about
10 meet. an attack upon the purity OF the
ballot in accordance with The scheme
Hanna and Payne have just elaborated.
There is but one way 10 prevent II.
Dock their claws and draw their testh
in advance. Beat them so badly that
they will not dare show their yallo|
faces in the light Of day. Stamp the
brand of popular dlsapproval and public
detestation upon them forever. Drive
tbem into their holes once for all. II
II is not done now it will be harder 10 do
hereafter.
And above all remember that in spite
OF the Inter Oceans lie this year you
are safe in voting for whom you please.
The gold press is indus riously circu-
lating editorials taken from the Omaha
World-Hersld on dates prior 10 1894, and
asserting that Mr. W. J. Bryan wrote
them. The latest is an editorial pub