Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-03-02

citizens voting thereon?
Voting yes, one hundred and fifteen
thousand; voting no, forty-two thou
sand.
The amendments were described on
the ballot only by the senate or house
number, without any statement or ex-
planation whatever of their purpose
or effect. Therefore it required a very
considerable degree of education and
study for a voter to express his opin-
ion on all these nine propositions.
The total vote on presidential cleo
tors was two hundred and sixty-nine
thousand, while the vote on these pro-
pOsals varied from one hundred and
sixty thousand to two hundred and
one thousand. The questions were all
voted on and the votes counted, with
out any complaint of extra labor, ex-
pense, OF delay in voting or counting,
and it does not take longer to com
municate with Washington from the
remotest precinct in the United States
than it does with Sacramento from
many of the precincts Of California.
were not possible even in a small coun-
ty hundred years ago have been
made practical and necessary in great
countries now by the public school, the
press, the postal service, telegraph and
railroad, and by the growth of private
corporations.
The vote by ballot has made it as
easy to receive and count the votes OF
" Of
thousand, requiring only proportion
ately more polling places and officers.
In nine presidential elections out OF
ten the result is known all over the
country within forty-eisht hours after
the polls close.
The voters can and do select the
names of their candidates from among
twelve to two hundred names that are
printed on the ballot. Surely they can
mark their vote on the same ballot
for or against proposed laws.
Objection 2. The votes to elect a
law can be bought as easily as the
votes to elect a candidate or a party
ticket.
Answer. This is certainly a mis-
take. a successful candidate very sell
dom receives so many as one-half the
votes cast, while proposed laws are
| nearly always elected or defeated by
large majorities.
AT the 1892 election in California, if
the republicans had bought from one
hundred and thirty TO three hundred
and fifty more votes, Harrison would
have carried the state, so small was
Cleveland's plurality in the total vote
OF two hundred and siXty-nine thou
sand. But to change the result for the
nine questions voted on at the same
election it would have been necessary
| to buy from one thousand up to eighty.
| eight thousand votes.
/ The purchase by the republicans in
! New York, in 1884, of less than one
thousand votes would have elected
! Blaine and defeated Cleveland. The
purchase and transfer from the sue
cessful candidates to the defeated
| ticket of not more than one-tenth of
the votes cast viii always elect the
latter by immense pluralities, amount
ing in many cases to actual majori-
| ties.
The money to buy votes for or
against Il proposed law can never be
! got so easily nor spent so safely as for
n candidate or party ticket.
Very few professional vote-buyers
claim that more than one-tenth of the
voters can be bought, at a total ex-
pense of about ten dollars a vote but
the party that gets all or most of these
always elects its candidate. But the
change of that number on a vote for
and against proposed law would
very seldom change the result. The
Swiss have had only one close vote on
a proposed national law in twenty
three years.
Nearly always we have three or
more men running for every office, so
that a man may be elected by barely
more than one-third of those voting,
but there are only two ways to vote
on a proposed law-for or against
therefore it must always be elected
or defeated by more than one-half the
votes cast.
AT the 1894 election in Oregon for
governor, the republican received for
ty-One thousand votes, populist TWEEN
ty-seven thousand, democrat seven
I teen thousand and the prohibition two
thousand, a total vote of eighty-seven
thousand. If the populsts had bought
ten per cent. of the vote from the re
/ publicans, the populist would have
been elected by plurality of more
than three thousand, and yet have had
eight thousand less than half the votes
cast.
Suppose at the election a proposal
had been submitted to have the state
print and furnish all school books at
cost. Twenty-seven thousand popu-
lists, ten thousand democrats, two
thousand prohibitionists, and at least
fifteen thousand republicans could
have been safely counted on to vote
yes, clear majority Of twenty-one
thousand. The American Book Com