The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-22
LApERs AND PAUPARs voIE.

Among the defects of the new organic
law of Hawaii is the want of a Prov
sion denying the right of suffrage to the
defective, dependent and delinquent
classes or such subdivisions of them as
II is the custom in the United States
70 exclude from the voting privilege.
We see nothing in the law as it stands
which eliminates paupers. idiots. con-
yicts, lepers and the like; and -ndee ic
is conceded, now the point has been
raised that lepers. in confinement on
Molokai, have as much right To vote
at Hawaiian elections as Prince David
or Governor Dole or any other free citi-
zen.
Concessions like these should never
have been made. They are opposed To
the American method and are vitally
wrong in themselves. On page III o.
the World Almanac for 1899 may be
found a table of qualifications for vot-
ing In all the States and Territories.
Not one State or Territory has so wide
open a law as our own. To begin al
phabetically we find that Alabama ex-
cludes persons convicted of treason or
other felonies, idiots or insane; Arizona
excludes Indians (the native owners of
the SOLD and Cinnamon; Arkansas. In
dams, insane, convicted of felony, uu-il
pardoned, failure to pay poll tax; Calf
ornia, Chinese, idiots, insane, embez-
zlers of public moneys. convicted of an
Infamous crime; Delaware, insane per-
sons or paupers or people convicted of
felony. The other examples are of the
same general kind though Missouri spe-
officially adds persons in poorhouses;
Nevada, "unpardoned convicts;" Moth
and South Dakota, people lnder
guardianship" Wyoming, people un-
able to read the State Constitution. :"
Here in Hawaii the only persons ex-
cluded are aliens, male citizens who
have lived here less than one year CIR
being native to the soil have not reach
ed their majority, citizens who have
not registered or who cannot speak.
read or write the English or Hawaiian
language.
| Probably in practice. idiots, insane
persons and convicts will get no chance
! to cast ballots at Hawaiian elections.
They are supposed to be kept under
lock and key. But lepers, who are per-
sons under confinement, dependent
wards of the Territory. have free
swing. So, apparently, have men who
were convicted of crimes or misdemean-
ors and who served full time for their
offences.
| The theory upon which the exclusion
| of the dependent classes from the bal
lot box is carried out is that such per-
sons, being under control of somebody
else cannot be trusted to exercise their
: free choice at the polls. That is the
reason why, in many parts of the
Union, paupers are not permitted to
vote. For precisely that cause lepers
should have been excluded.
Look at the case judicially. Pity for
the unfortunate victims of the scaly
plague cannot enter into a discussion
of this sort. 1t has no place. The point
is can fair elections be assured when
there is a large body of dependent vot-
ers in a corral where they can be CO.
creed by whatever party or whatever
faction may control the Board OF
Health? Let us conceive a Territorial
government without scruple and we
have the means by which it might, per-
haps, steal a Legislature. The un-
scrupulous boss who, having the pow
er, would threaten to cut down the
isupplies of the leper colony unless its
voters went solidly for the ticket, could
poll the whole outfit. Such an oppor-
tunity should not be given to any one
Next December Congress will again
convene and then, we presume, ehere
will be chance to secure the amend
ment of the Territorial Act in any par.
ticular where it is shown to be weak
THAT should be the opportunity and
La,
into line with American practice.