Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1900-08-02
GOVERNOR BLACKS ATTITUDE.


1t was. therefore, noteworthy that
last week former Lieutenant Governor
Chauncey F. Black, one of the most
respected and distinguished members
of the Democratic party in this state,
came out boldly in favor of the holding
of a convention to revise the constitu-
tion in order to reform the voting sys-
tenn of the commonwealth.
In a carefully prepared statement for
publication he gave the objections to
following the antiquated method OF
leaving this problem of ballot reform
to be solved by the state legislature un-
der the existing constitution. He re-
ferred to the fact that John Wana-
maker, in at least two of his public
speeches. advocated this convention
idea as the only plan by which ballot
reform could be obtained, and he re-
ferred at some length to the failures
of the past, declaring that the ballot
law now in force in this state is
fraud, and then recounted the abuses
that have grown up under the present
system.
Governor Black then pointed to dec
larations from John Wanamaker In
November. 1S99 and again in March,
1900. on the subject of ballot reform
and quoted him as having said on the
last occasion mentioned:
81, therefore, address myself to the
people of Pennsylvania to all qualified
electors without distinction of party,
whose lives, liberties and property lie
today at the mercy of irresponsible po-
litical machines and their powerful
secret and corrupt allies, and ask them
to unite in the nomination and election
of candidates for the legislature
pledged to vote for fair, non-partisan
act calling a constitutional convention
for immediate ballot reform, the sub
stance and essential provisions of
which shall be embodied in the funda-
mental law beyond the reach of corpor-
ate or machine power"
QUOTES COLONEL QUAY.
Continuing. Governor Black said:
And now comes Mr.. Quay, the ac-
cepted chief of the regular Republican
party, not only with clndid admission
of the scandalous state of affairs and
the universal demand for a change but
with a carefully devised and specific
program fer a constitutional conven-
ton as the only means of certain and
immediate relief. He declares that the
legislature, under the present consti-
tuition, has no power to pass personal
registration law for the cities or to pro-
vide secret ballot, while any voter
may take another into the booth to at
test his ticket; that the pending
amendments sae not madatory; that
even it, after a long and expensive
process, they are adopted and incorpor-
ated in the constitution. they do not, OF
themselves, effect a reform, but leave
the whole matter dependent upon the
will of future legislatures which, as all
our experience shows, are little likely
to abate abuses that inure to the profit
of powerful corporate or private inter-
ests.
Thus we have the intellectual and
responsible chiefs of the two divisions
of the Republican party" remarked
Governor Black, after quoting Col.
Quay at length, ''in unison upon this
most important Of all public questions
in our state Mr.. Quay, after due con-
sideration, magnanimously and une-
quivocally accepts Mr.. Wanamaker s
proposition for an immediate ana Taul-
cal reform by the only means available.
He not only accepts it, but he pledges
himself and, as far as he can, his party
to a fair. non-partisan constitutional
convention bill like that of 1872. Here
we have the perfect model, the
Buckalew bill, under which as
sembled convention embody-
ing the very highest wisdom and
purest public morality of the common
wealth, and in which not a partisan
word was uttered from beginning to
end.
At a meeting of the executive COM
mlttee of the Democratic Society of
Pennsylvania, held at Harrisburg last
week, resolutions were unanimously
adopted indorsing the proposition for
the holding of non-partison conven-
ton.