The age-herald., 1898-03-27

of society Frequent and short terms of
 the court will clear up the dockets, emp
 ty the jails and save much cost to llti-
 gants and to the state. The laws delay
 mentioned by Shakespeare as one of
 the annoyances which made Hamlet con-
 template suicide, and its delay and heavy
 bills of cost as shown in the case of the
 chancery prisoner enabled Dickens to
 ridicule the separate chancery system out
 of existence thirty years ago, in Great
 Britain, where it originated.
 "When a grand jury fails to find bills
 in very important criminal cases the
 judge should have power to order the
 solicitor to proceed by information. This
 would tend to suppress the horrible crime
 flynching."
 The poll tax which goes to aid in the maintenance of the public schools is not under the present constitution more than 50 per cent of 1t collected. No man who is subject to it and refuses to pay 1t should be allowed to vote at any election.
 The most dangerous element to the sta bilty and beneficience of republican gov- erngnent is a too extended suffrage. To vote is not natural right. The voter should be a safe custodian Of governing; power. There should be @ reasonable re-. striction upon suffrage applicable alike to all. There cannot be any discrimination on account of color, but the illite1Ite, densely ignorant and depraVed should De eliminated. It would be highly benencla1 to the negro, as well as to the white man. .
 There should also be cOnSt1tutlondl inhibition against the improper use of money in elections. Many worthy men are now debarred from holding office because unable to bear the drains of a candidacy. It is more corrupting than the improper use of liquor, which is wisely pron1pited t elections. '.. =, .3'1. ! : When ballot box stufiing first began to he practiced by the democrats approved it as a necessity. But it has survived Us usefulness. It is horrible example or .dis- honesty to set before the young men. or. the state. It saps the foundation, and we owe it to ourselves and to poSter1ty, as well as to morality and religion, to exter-, pate every kind of dishonesty from our elections. The way to do 1t effectuaiy IS to remove the cause. That Is the -oniy certain, and safe cure for any evil. stat utes wild do no good. Nothing short ot a constitutional convention can accomplish the desired result. Democrats. popuilsts and republicans should unite in favor or tt The corporations and railroad people need not fear it. Their importance to the state. as great developers of its latent resources, diseminators of learning and civilazation, IS too we'll understood for them to sufter un- inst discrimination at the hands Of such a conventon am believer in the capacity of the people. UT people here in Alabama are for self government The voters would elect delegates of ability and character without regard to former political assecia- tions, but selected from those only wno favor the proposed convention, and Who would come together in patriotic spirit determined to do all they could for the betterment of the condition of the people and make a constitution which would he dound to the glory of the state and which would not require emendation, within the next half century, and which no one, not even those who unwisely opposed it, would ever egret.