The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-24

ficient qualification for the voter of to-
day The amendment goes even further
and accords the right to vote to all those
both colored and foreign white, who have
the American political heredity alone.
that is, those who In themselves had or
whose ancestors had the voting privilege
in anv State of the Union prior to 1867.
So that in the last analysis the exception
Is NOT ON racial grounds. On the other
hand the Legislature has frankly recog-
nized the fact that in the intense compc-
tition of modern life, a struggle which
every invention, every discovery, makes
more severe a man who cannot read is
every year at a greater and greater dis
advantage: and so in very kindness to
our children and grandchildren it stimu-
lates their efforts to learn to read and
write by limiting the above privilege
strictly to those who register before
1908. 1t thereby also avoids the danger
to a popular government of permanently
establishing an hereditary privilege i'm the
Constitution.
There is another danger which threat
ems the very life Of popular government,
the danger of bribery. 1t was hoped
that the establishment of the Australian
ballot would practically abolish bribery
at elections But great as are the un-
doubted advantages of the Australian
system in preventing fraud and intimi-
dation, in the direction of preventing
bribery, the effect has been disappoint-
ing. There are too many honest men
who will stay bought" Something
more is needed. While it is easy to be
too sanguine in the matter of constitu-
tional safeguards, it would Seem as
though the provision in relation to the
poll tax in section 4 was Il very long
step in the right direction. Under for
mer systems the poll tax could be paid
at the eleventh hour; there was thus a
great temptation to political parties to
pay at least this tax for the voter even
if offering him no further bride. On the
other hand, if the venal voter paid il
himself, it was done during the final
excitement of the election, at q time
when all the candidates were in the
field, when all the corruption funds had
been collected, and when the Immediate
prospect of selling his vote at profit
was plainly before him. Under the sys-
TEN proposed by the amendment all
this is changed. According to it every
voter must pay cash poll tax of one
dollar before the first of March, or lose
his vote at the following election in
November He must pay this tax at a
time when there is no immediate pros
pett of getting it back; he must pay it
long before the first candidate is nomi-
mated or the first corruption fund col
iected. He has a legal right to pay
or not as he chooses. The voter who
may be tempted to ''sell his birthright
for a mess of pottage," viii, nine times
out of ten, look upon a dollar in his own
pocket in March as worth more than
two possible dollars he may get for his
vote eight months later in November
and will voluntarily give up his ballot
and keep his dollar, leaving the field
to the honest man who votes according
to his own convictions. This poll tax
provision will also make the work of
colonizing voters extremely difficult,
since they must be registered eight
months before election day, and during
all that time the lists are open to in
spection and challenge.
The construction of constitutional
amendment is perhaps the most COM
pick and difficult task body Of men
can undertake. Despite the seeming
simplicity Of the final result, the ntri-
cacy of the relations considered affect
ing as they do every species Of citizen
in every variety of situation, makes the
task well-nigh appalling. For this rea-
son, the more deeply and carefully we
come to study the proposed amend
ment, the greater becomes our respect
and admiration for the present LegiSla-
ture of North Carolina and its great
work. In it they have held the ship or
state ON the course Of a true Demoe
racy; avoiding on the one hand the dam
ger OF being submerged in the Charyb-
dis of an unlimited and Immature cleo
toratc. while on the other hand they
have avoided the many headed Scylla
Of corrupt oligarchy snatching by
bribery the voters from their posts.
JOHN A. ROEBLING.
THE writer Of the above is Northern
citizen who has made his home in
AsheYille. Editor