Evening star., 1901-03-12
Comments on the Proposed Election
Reform Law.
CONNTIfUTIONALIFY Is DISCUSSED
PoIitic al Effect of the Democratic
Move Foreshadowed.
IN CONSISTEN CIES NOTED

ties are now engroSSed in the absorbing
subject of the proposed election law, for
the passage of which Governor Smith has
summoned the legislature in extra session
The legal and political aspects of the situ-
alton are being feverishly discussed, in and
out of print. and the state is stirred as
never before since the days of civil war.
The opponents of the election bill are
in evidence than it's advocates. who ap-
pear to he playing a waiting game, relying
upon party dominance in the legislature to
accomplish their ends.
John V l.. Findlay of Baltimore, in
letter published in the Baltimore News,
appeals to the manhood of the state to
prevent the cOnsummatiOn of what he
terms a crime against free government.
He notes that Maryland has in the past
limited the franchise by imposing restric-
tionS upon Jews. but that these were
moved about 1926 The Catholics had pre-
viously been deprived of the suffrage by
the Puritans and later the war conditions
imposed restrictions upon thousands of the
citizens One party and another were
swept from power because of its advocacy
or practice for partisan advantage of
methods of hampering the free exercise of
the right to vote. Mr.. Finday adds:
Under the old system, when the Jews
and the Catholics, and later on southern
could be no real expression of the popular
will because large portion of the people
only way it could be done-through the bal
lot box. But. by the more refined and sub
tie plan which took it's place. this express
sion of the popular will was simply null-
fed and defeated by the men in charge of
the electoral machinery The law was
used to defeat it's own object. and the kid
was seethed in its mothers milk Now it
is a strange spectacle that we behold
showing that men do not much walk on
plane revolve in circle. when Jews
Catholics and old southern sympathizers
f.ai,-
ing nothing from the past, nothing from
the bitterness of their own experience and
taking no counsel of justice and charity
for their fell0w-men are all alike at the
instance of a discredited demagogue en-
gagged in an effort to repeat the old expert
mcnt of disfranchisement, and. perhaps in
more questionable and disgTaceful form
than has ever yet been attempted. Nothing
can be more certain than that the present
legislature was not elected on any issue
which would justify it in enacting the
legislation now proposed.
Would Not Have Been ApprOyed
Nothing is clearer than that thousands
of men who helped by their votes to elect
the present members of the house and
senate would have voted the other way
had they understood at the time they
voted that they were actually voting to
take from themselves the right to vote
This being so, the proposed legislation is
simply tricky and fraudulent usIrpation
1
had no other badge to indicate the source
no one familiar with the ways of ring
democracy prior to 1873 would be at a loss
10 place his fingers upon the responsible
author l appeal To the manhood of the
state Ii the ballot in the hands of the
ignorant and irresponsible has become a
m mace to the safety and wel-being OF
the commonwealth, what is the. plaiu
Maryland freemen who have some regard
for the rights of their fellow men to pur-
sue! II a large class OF our citizens who
are unfortunate enough to be unable to
read are to be deprived of about the ONLY
possession which they share in common
with their fellow-men and are to be de-
graded by being placed in the same class
as penltentiary convicts. ought they not
at least to be heard before this terrible
sentence is imposed?'
ConstitutionaIity Questioned.
The constitution of the state has been
brought into question in this connection.
The senate legislative committee uphold
ing the right of the legislature to enact the
new election law, declares:
Section 1, article l. of the constitu-
tion declares that all elections shall be
by ballot There is no definition of the
kind, the size, the shape or the char
aCter of the ballot The trainers of
the constitution did not undertake to saw
now the ballot should be prepared, by
whom it should be made up, or in what
manner it should be voted The, simple
requirement that all elections shall be by
ballot left the legislature free and un-
controlled to prescribe every detail, which
in its Judgment, might be wise or desir-
able to the structure and the contents
of the ballot and the mode of voting it
If this were not so the present Australian
ballot low could not be upheld 1t is
purely because the constitution has not
prohibited its adoption that its adoption
was constitutional. If the legislature
was thus deliberately and purposeIy left
free to prescribe what it deemed best as
to the kind of ballot, then it was left
flee to- declare that the ballot should be
printed without emblems or other signs
and In the way il is proposed to print it,
and If as consequence of its being
printed in the way it is supposed to print
II some persons may not vote intelligently
then the fault df fault there isl is with
and in the constitution in this that IL
has left to the legislature without re-
strtction. the power To produce and bring
about that precise result by lawfully
adopting such a ballot. Unless it can be
said the declaration that all elections
shall be by ballot is tantamount to pro-
viding that the legislature has no power
to prescribe the form of the ballot. 1t
cannot be denied that in prescribing the
form it has the right to adopt this form
rCw proposed. Notwithstanding the adop-
tion of it may impede some persons in
voting who anteceding it did vote
The Baltimore News, opposing the pro-
posed law, answers thus on the constitu-
tional point:
ne uilSoununeSS OF This argument is
manifest Nobody has ever pretended that
the legislature had no right to make reg
ulat1ons as to the ballot but it is diff
cult to see how any person in his senses
can sOberly maintain the proposition that
because the legislature may constitutional
ly make one regulation, it follows that il
may constitutionally make any other reg
ulation. very simple case will show this
Suppose the legislature were to enact that
all ballots must be written in the voters
handwriting, In the polling booth, without
assistance and without the aid of any
paper in the voters possession, and that
any ballot containing error in spelling
Snail be invalid; according to the doctrine
of the committee this act would be abso-
lutely within the powers of the legislature,
though ii would have the effect of practi-
caily depriving of the suffrage nine-tenths
of the male citizens of Maryland upon
whom that right is conferred by the legis-
iature. IL VIII be noted that the committee
nowhere quotes that declaration of the
Constitution upon which alone the arglI-
ment against its proposed action is fo,,d-