The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-21
A CONDITION AND THE REMEDY

The Hartford Courant ts also worried over the indifference shown by good citizens on the question of suffrage. and among other things says:
 Unhappily 1t is not in the South alone | that men nowadays wear the obligations of citizenship very lightly and careless ly, Only here and there and at long in- tervals are of year" election returns pleasant reading for those who comprc- bend the nature of popular institutions and the condition sine qua non of their salutaFy working and stability. For some reason--and wed better be trying to find out what it is-the privilege of voting is less prized than 1t used to be- the voice of public duty speaks to duller ears.
 And as one evidence or example of this indifference The Courant refers to the fact that in the election recently held in Connecticut on the question of holding q Constitutional Convention less than half the qualified voters went to the polls. This was an important election and one in which all the people were vitaIiy in- terested, and in which all of them should have participated.
 The cause for this indifference, in our opinion, is not difficult to find. It is be- cause the people have lost confidence in the fairness and honesty of elections. The older ones among us we'll remember the time when elections were fairly con- ducted, and when any reputable citizen would have been as likely to steal a horse as to falsify election returns. That unfair and sometimes disreputable methods were resorted to to influence voters is true enough. There may have been, and probably was, bribery and cor ruption used to induce voters to vote for certain candidates but all unfair practices stopped at the polls. When the votes were deposited in the ballot box they were sacred from all tampering or change and when the voting was done the votes were counted as cast. the returns honest. ly made up and delivered intact to the proper official. When the voter handed his ballot to an election manager he knew as we'll as a human being can know anything in the future, that his vote would be counted for the candidate of his choice.
 Will The Courant undertake to main- tain that these conditions now. exist in | any portion of the Union, East or West
 North or South? There may be commu-
 mites in rural districts where honest 1 elections are yet held. but they are not
 confined to any section of the Union. The
 deplorabie feature of this condition of
 affairs is that the people have lost con-
 ddence in the honesty of elections. While
 the actual facts may not be as bad as
 many believe, the opinion has taken fast
 hold of the minds of the people and cam l not be dislodged. There has been so | much actual corruption at the polls, and so many charges of corruption that the people of the country have reached the point of believing that no election is honestly managed. That widespread be- lief, whether well grounded or not, is as effectual as If every charge was true. Such condition of affairs or the belief 1 in such condition, can have but one result. Good and law-abiding citizens will not trouble to go to the polls if they
 believe or suspect that their votes will not be counted as cast. That they have | ground for such belief is plain to all who read the newspapers. Hardly an elec-
 ton Is held in any portion of the United
 States, whether it be for constable or
 President, that the papers do not teem
 with charges and counter charges of
 swindling at the polls, or of tampering
 with the returns. Contested elections
 are the order of the day and at the hear | ing of these contests such evidences of
 rascality, true or untrue. are brought out
 as are sufficient to sicken and disguest any man who has at heart the welfare | of the country or the permanency of ! free government, No good man likes to ! put himself to the trouble of voting if
 he even suspects that his vote will not
 be counted as cast. nor can any honest
 citizen view with complacency such a
 condition of our elective system.
 There is but one remedy and that Is to make swlndling at elections as unpopu- , lar and as dangerous as swindling in any other case Is. Let the man who steals ballots fare like the man who steals property does, and let the man who em- bezzles ballots fare just as does the man l who embezzles money. In Alabama, by the adoption of the new Constitution we have made an earnest. and we hope, an e~ective beginning. by removing what | h4s been for yea~s looked on 2s . valid 1 excuse for any kind of sieCtlon methods.