The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-03-19

Carolina ask Tor, namely, GoOu COVER J.
mcnt, 4 precedent of such magnitude
is sufficient. warrant fer Il genera.
all the States of :hc Union, and nj
once.
3. The treatment and management ol
the suffrage should be left To the indi-
ydual States, and NOT 10 Congress. M
less than seventeen States Of which n
large majority are Northern. have
qualified suffrage; and away back be-
fore the United States Constitution was
amended to admit Acknowledgement and
universal suffrage, nearly all of tncm
had. 1t required Il two-thirdS vote OF
all the States in the Union To ratify
this unwise amendment, and To accom-
pliSh this many of them had TO be dra
gooned into line under compulsion,
There is no doubt ,har. whatever may
nave been detained or written regard
ing the extension Of The suffrage ia
Indians and women, tltl~ is now Il
strong undercurrent of sentiment in the
restrictive direction, whereby it is hoped
to minimize political SKIS. and distrih-
ute the earth's bounty more evenly
among men. In England illiterate vot-
crs were dlsfranchised some years since
by act of Parliament.
4. An elimination of the ignorant vote
is necessary to good government; under
which all party lines can ~ restored,
and the economic and political issues
be met as they arise. upon ones own
convictions and predictions, without
one being everlastingly handicapped by
the bette noir which has afflicted us for
a full generation. Tnenceforward intelli-
gent and responsible voters may be
either Democratic or Republican, and
keep respectable. There are lots of old
time Wings in the State who have had
to vote with their natural opponents on
tariff, tax and currency and other divid-
ing issues. ever since the ballot was
given to the redundant negroes, who
will now hurrah for their escape from
political thraldom for the first time since
the Civil War.
But beyond all these considerations
there is an utimatum of momentous con
sequence which does not seem to have
been touched Yet, the ponderating
problem of the day is to adapt oar
rapidly increasing population to on;
p01tlcai SYSTEM, ana WITH IL the OUTS
ton of limited suffrage blends most in
timateIy. Logically. where there is Il
diminished constituency, as there must
he where a percentage Of voters is
disqualified, there must lac also pro
portionate reduction Of representation
in legislative councils, and if any State
elect to abridge the elective franchise
by specified conditions. it becomes the
duty Of Congress TO reduce in ike pro
portion the number of representatives
from that State. so tilat. with restrict
ed suffrage. the registration list becomes
the basis of representation, instead OF
the present gross number of population
And this is healthy and requisite. fol
not many decades hence the population
of the United States will be doubled
1t might be possible then TALL things are
possible, for the country to harbor twicG
fifteen millions of votes. but it would
have a hard time and in such event The
present halls of Congress could not ac-
commodate twice the foU hundred legis
lators which they do now o. tho pres.
ent basis of Representations :nd II,
people would hardly consent To pay THEN
expenses if they did. Why not, hen
let all the States agree to undertake. 4
horizontal reduction Of the voting con
tingent all along the line and adopt 4
uniform plan Of qualified suffrage, with
poll tax appendix as wall:
CHARLES fiAfLOCk