New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-11
A BAD REMEDY.

The preservation OF the purity Of the ballot
should always be care Of lawmakers. The &C
tivity and ingenuity of Tammany repeaters and
cOlonlzers In this city are such that new safe
guards are from time TO time required. In GER
tain districts last autumn the Democrats Sc
cured many votes by moving men from pre-
cincts where they were not needed and having
them acquire a residence where their aid on
Election Day could be of service Morally. of
course, these men were not identified with their
new homes, and everybody knew that they
settled there with no intention of remaining
after election, but they seemed to have acquired
perfect technical right to vote They moved
into the district soon enough to register under
the law, and that was all anybody had any right
to ask.
bill has been drafted by Assemblyman Fal-
lows intended to stop this legally intrenched
colonization. 1t proposes to require a residence
or four months in an Assembly district and
thirty days in an election district prior to vot-
Ing, instead of thirty days in both, as the rule
now is. 1t is said that the present law calls for
four months residence in a county and that as
in many of the counties of the State Assembly
district and county lines are coterminous no
hardship would be done by compelling voters in
all Assembly districts to acquire residence
four months before election. This argument
York City which would make any such rule the
virtual Acknowledgement of great numbers of
honest and valuable citizens each year Even
the best Of NETWORKS population Is largely
nomadic. The home owners are few in compari-
son to the rent payers. Years ago when leases
expired with lay l and the great body of re-
spectacle people moved then If at all, four
months rule might not have been particularly
oppressive. But now almost all leases expire
with October 1, and the unavoidable shifts of
great masses of sober and worthy citizens occur
a little over a month before election If four
| months residence were required Of them thou
sands would lose their votes by moving across
the street or into the next block as the needs of
growing family or the rising or falling scale of
| incomes might dictate. These people ought not
| to be deprived of their votes They are not
bummers or repeaters. They are lawyers doc
tors merchants, men OF character who live here
| under the conditions forced by congestion and
prohibitive real estate prices. They are as per-
| manent in their residence as people of moderate
means who have to live and work here can be-
! DISTINGUISHING them would be another step
toward breaking down what little public spirit
| exists among respectable New Workers and give
| the city over more than ever to the professional
ward politicians.
| The Assembly district lines in the city are
purely arbitrary. They mark no distinctive To-
calities and interests. Therefore the fact that
! man happened to move across one of them at
! the usual moving time should not deprive him
of his vote in Presidential election Yet this
bill in its efforts TO stop little sharp practice
in the election OF an Assemblyman would leave
| every citizen who leased house in a new As
/ sembly district next October with no voice in
| choosing a President For every morally i'm
proper vote for Assembly 1t kept out of the bal
| lot box 1t would keep out ten proper votes for
National and State officers. Certainly some bet
ter method can be found to stop the repeating
evil. This one is like taking triphammer to
| break an egg.