Smyrna times., 1900-12-12

THERE has been a great deal said
about bribery in Delaware the past
several years, much of it by men who
have been guilty of it all their political
lives. They had nothing to say so
long as all the chatting went to the
other fellow. Over on the Eastern
Shore, where a nomination is equiva-
lent to an election, they know what
bribery is-one man trying to down
another in the same party to secure
the Office. The following from the pen
of George w. Hadaway, of the Esston
Ledger, ought to serve as an eye open
er to those who know of bribery only |
as it is practiced in Delaware:
1--WE read and hear much these days |
about bribery at elections and the for
midable proportions that evil has as /
sumed in Maryland.
1t is true that the evil of vOte-selling |
and vote-buying has become curse of
such magnitude that, if we are to re-
tain even a semblance of popular gov
ernment in these political contests, it
must soon be eradicated from our body
polite root and branch. We think we
can discuss this subject intelligently as
1t concerns us here at home on the
Eastern Shore. No Congressional
convention on the Eastern shore will
now even consider the nomination of
candidate who cannot contribute GER
tain number of thousands of dollars to
the campaign fund. This is true, on
smaller scale, of the nominations in
the counties. The nominations are all
agreed upon aud the offices are all par
celled out even before the conventions
meet. This Office is given to this man
because he can contribute so much to
the campaign fund. That Office is
given to that man because he can stand
such and such a campaign assessment.
There is no longer any use for a young
man, no matter how brilliant his at
tainments, to seek preferment unless
he has something tangible in the shape
of hard cash to back his ambitions.
This condition of affairs is but the nat
ural outgrowth of vote selling, and
this method of distributing party pat
ronage and nominating tickets has be-
come a necessity. The party must
have large campaign fund, and prac-
tically the only source from which to
derive it is the candidates and other
aspirants for Office.
Public moral sentiment must be so
aroused that it will rise in its might
and with one blow completely destroy
this Augean stable of political corrup-
ton, we are told. We fear that if we
were to await for an aroused public
moral sentiment to do this we must
wait long, long time. Public moral
sentiment exists in all parties but on
election day it is metamorphosed into
partisanship. We will suppose, as an
illustration, that in the coming cam
paign in Talbot county the campaign
managers should declare under oath
that they would not spend dollar in
the purchase of votes, and suppose fur.
ther the leaders of the other party
laughed at this idea and proclaimed
boldly that they intended to buy every
voter who offered himself for sale al
long as their money held out. Would
the high moral sentiment of the latter
party 90 over to the former party anC
ala in the anti-bribery campaign? 1
would not.
The present law in this State agains
this form of political corruption is
dead letter issue inasmuch as it make
both the vote-buyer and vote.selle
criminally guilty The law should b
changed so as to make the seller onl
the criminal. The candidate who cor
tributes money for the purchase G
votes and the campaign managers VIII
direct the spending Of this money ar
not the ones responsible for the COZ
rupt conditions that exist. These me
would like to see an end of vote-bu
ing at the earliest possible momen
but just SO long as cattle in the shaI
of human beings put themselves up O
the auction block on election day, ju
so long will polite al parties, as a ma
ter of self protection, be compelled
buy them of so much per head.
Therefore we say make the vote sc
]. Ter only the criminal. This done, Il
leaders of the two parties could ent,