The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1900-03-28

many DIS poss .Dle TO TOrIt1U IHelf
honor and the obligations they
have assur led, and vote for the
men on their ticket. These men
must be destitute of all honor and
fair dealing themselves to try and
induce honest and misguided men
to thus violate their honor and the
pledges they have voluntarily
made.
The very foundation and corner
stone of all free, Independent and
successful republics are based on
the honor, honesty and intelligence
OF the great mass of voters. With
out these requisites it wonld be
impossible for free and indepen-
dent governments to exist. Under
a Democratic administration and
/ by Democratic convention, the
negro has been disfranchized and
no longer has it in his power to
corrupt, by his want of honor, hon
esty and integrity, the politics of
this state, but to the white men,
the doors has been left wide open,
because the convention had conf
dence in their honor, honesty and
integrity. Is it possible that, such
being the case, that they are white
men so lost to honor and fair deal
ing as to violate the obligation
they assumed in voting at Pre-
liminary Election, and then refuse
to vote for the men chosen by the
majority of their fellOw-vOters, /
for one cannot believe that there
is one, if there be such they have
proved themselves no better than
the negroes who have been dis
franchised. There is another rea-
son why they should one and all
strickly adhere to all the Obliga-
tons they have assumed. This is
the first time in the history of the
Democratic party in this state,
that the voters have been permit
ted to choose their own candidates
for officers, formerly it was done
by conventions and mass meetings
generally under the control Of pO-
litical tricksters and boosters, and
the great mass Of voters had little
to say as to who should be chosen.
Under that system, bribery and
corruption were freely resOrted to,
and the man who had the biggest
purse, was the one that usually
got the nomination. To remedy
this, the safest plan was to put
the nominations in the hands Of
the voters. Knowing that 1t would
be much more difficult to buy up
and corrupt the great mass of
voters, than it would be to buy up
enough delegates to convention
to enable them to control it and
dictate the nominations. 1t is the
common talk among Nne people,
that quite large sum Of money
was used by many candidates for
the purpose Of influencing or bride
ing the voters in their own interest
in our last primary. If this be
true then provision should be made
by law to stop it. In many Of the
states, provisions have been made
to stop it, by limiting the amount,
that any candidate could spend in
an election requiring them to keep
an account of ali their expenses
subject to inspection, and if it was
found that they had expended
more than the amount allowed,
they would forfeit the Office to
which they had been elected. Such
a law is badly needed in this state.
Preliminary elections should also
be put under the same law and
regulations as the State elections.
call the attention Of our candi-
dates for the Senate and Legisla-
ture to both Of these provisions
and urge them to use their influ-
ence in behalf of both these laws.
Respectfully,
Il. 7. KING.