The record-union., 1898-01-27

| AANNhSC ~ NC d 1OOl. w lldl liSHl iicid
you to assume that representations
coming from California are to be taken
| for granted any more than those emi-
mating from any other source? Did
you ever hear of salted gold mines by
Colorado men being foisted upon suck
ers? We have.
After all our methods of elections and
the conduct of our electors may be su-
perior to those of New York There
they have the blanket ballot and the
ballot booth. But they have not as yet
the official stamp. The elector uses
a pen or pencil. That results in some
evils, as was foreseen would be the
case here. The New York Legislature
is now in session, and a proposition is
before it to provide a rubber stamp for
the polling booths, and to require it to
| be used as is done in California. The
Albany Journal very sedate paper,
thereupon comments in these words.
which to Californians are amusing:
The proposed amendment to the bal
| lot law providing for the use of rub
Der stamp for marking the cross in the
ballots may be a good thing, if a suffi-
cient supply of stamps is provided in
such polling places There is little doubt
| that the cross can be marked in such d
peculiar manner that the ballot itself
can be identified. The rubber stamp
then would make the mark uniform.
But suppose the stamp is stolen? What
| is to be done then? Apparently a large
supply of stamps would have to be
provided, and some one employed to
watch them, too.
! Passing the severe reflection upon the
honesty of New York voters, it does
not seem to have occurred to the Jour
nal" that stamps can be chained to the
booth desk, as well as can pencils; that
to keep supply of the stamps on
hand is not a matter of difficulty or
noteworthy expense. California electors
use the rubber stamps. and no one
Nothing would be gained thereby. We
do not have to make them fast to the
voting desk, either. Now and then,
but very rarely an elector unthinking-
ly pockets one of the stamps, but the
next conner is made aware of the fact
and calls for another, and the supply is
at hand At first these stamps con-
sisted of bits Of rubber inserted in the
end of a pencil-hke stick, but these be-
came detached too easily, and now We
have the stamps all rubber, handle
and die and there is no more difficulty
Nor have we found it necessary to es-
tablish guards to watch against the
stealing of the stamps, not that we are
more honest than New Workers. III
our friends in New York will try the
stamp plan, they will not return TO the
pencil or the pen, nor will they fino
the rubber stamps and the box-pad Of
stamping ink so expensive as to con-
stitute any objection to the device.
Fear is expressed by Spanish journals
that the presence of the United States
battleship Maine in the harbor of Ha-
vana will cause trouble, and it can be
accounted for on no other ground than
belief that the United States is friendly
to the cause of the insurgents. It is
only by this reasoning that we can ac-
commodate the long delay OF the Gov
| ernment in placing ship in the har-
Dor, with its right to send its warships
into the port of any friendly Power. So
far as the mass Of the people Of the
United States are concerned, the sus-
picion Of Spain is well founded They
are decidedly in sympathy with the n-
surgents of Cuba. But the Govern
ment Of the United States has not in
any way whatever manifested any feel
ing in the issue between Spain and her
revolted colony that should be taken as
Justification for the practical insult
Spain offers America, by intimating
that Of all nations Of earth the United
States alone is unwelcome in Spanish
waters The exceeding sensitiveness
of Spanish officials and the Spanish
press concerning the location OF the
ships Of the American navy amouots to
nothing less than an insult to the Amer
lean people. Germany, England and
| France are permitted to float their
cruisers and gunboats in Havana mar
Dor without a murmur, but the United
States of America, forsooth. must not
enter the charmed waters for fear Spain
may be displeased.
!