The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-16
NOT AN IMPROVEMENT.

The New York Evening Post OBJ
serves that this election has been fol-
lowed, as most others in recent times
have, by a revival of the proposition
to elect president and vice president
by popular vote, instead Of by the
electoral vote. This is demand which
comes mostly from the unthinking. In
fact, it is not once in a century that
the result would be different under one
system from that under the other. The
objections, however, to voting directly
for president and vice president are
SO patent and so unansweraole that
we are surprised that they should be
ignored by any one. The Post rr.nts
out two of them which are full Of
force. One which it regards as conclu-
sive is found in the necessity of know
ing the result of a national election
without delay. 1t would be scarcely
possible to prolong the uncertainty
of a close contest through days or
weeks without a turmoil that would
probably end in public uproar and GER
tainly strain the reliance of the peo-
pie upon popular institutions 1t is not
an uncommon thing for the result of
the popular vote to remain in doubt for
a month after election time. The Re-
publican plurality in 1880, as the Post
says, was 9,464. The Democratic plu-
rality in 1884 was 23,O05, and in 1888
was 1884. Not only did it require
weeks to canvass the votes in all the
states that led to these totals, but,
If title to the presidency had hung
upon them, there would have been
charges Of fraud and probably at
tempts at fraud, from which we would
have been fortunate to escape with
out revolution. 1t would be an intoI-
cradle state of affairs if the passion
engendered by a national contest were
fed with such infiammable material
and stirred to such disastrous POSSIBLE
tiles
Another objection lies In the Unequal
lty of popular suffrage in different Sec
ton Of the country. IN the North, as
the Post points out, manhood suffrage
Is universal. Three states of the
South have SO changed their constitu-
tions that the negroes are practically
disfranchised. Other states are NOV
ing in the same direction, and it is
hardly doubtful that, sooner or later
all of the communities from North
Carolina to Texas will virtually ex-
ciude the negro from the ballot, under
cover of an educational qualification
for suffrage. In three of the mountain
states women have the right to vote.
and it is proposed to confer it in
several of the others These are all
matters of state regulation, but they
make the ballot of a voter in one state
unequal to that of the voter In an
other, and entirely destroy the claim
OF abstract justice on the side of the
supporters of election by popular vote
One Of the most serious arguments
OF ALL as 1T seems to US, should be
added in the Indictment offered to
fraud under the new system. AS mat
ters stand now, there is no inducement
to corrupt the ballot or to falsify re-
turns by INSCRIPTIONS men who might
have charge of the machinery in any
state further than to carry that state
itself. For their purpose, 500 major
1ty is just as good as ten times that
much. 1t would be an intolerable thing
IL false registration, repeating at the
polls. stuffing the boxes, or a dishonest
count in any one state were to affect
and possibly determine the result in
the nation. This would be the case
II the election Were determined by a.
majority Of the entire popular vote.
Further, fraudulent vote in one state
would cancel an honest vote in an
ather, and we believe that the enor-