Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-11-05
100000 a.s.1.Y.S.y.x.sss:Ss,
5 L00KER-ON in IOWA.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, .y.g.y...y.y.y,,.,

Gilman, Nov. Sit will soon be in
order, in fact is now, 10 renew the dis
cussion on our Iowa plan OF marking
the ticket used in the Australian bal
lot system. Not until it is changed
cain we hope to get the full intended
reform desired, |. e., of placing q ball
lot in the hands of each voter, thru
which by certain marks he can indi-
cate his choice of all of the nominees
i Certain and sure is ii, that the politi-
! cian--the bosses-will keep the circle
at the head of the ticket, this for the
purpose of inducing the ignorant and
don't care" voters to vote the straight
ticket this result the exact opposite of
| the intent of the system.
/ Again, as long as the present system
of allowing the circle on each ticket
lof votes be thrown out for imperfect
and uninteliigble voting IL some one
will collect the figures of the votes
thrown out on Tuesday, Nov. 5th, for
these reasons and present them to the
next legislature, there is great hope the
law will be changed
No better illustration of the fact that
lit is possible for "a candidate to be
elected or another defeated by this I'M
lcertainty that exists in properly mark
! ing Il ticket, has been shown than by
the following copy of u circular scat
tered broad cast in an adjoining coun-
| ty. 1t proves that those engaged in a
contest which, to them, means reform,
may be defeated by the present circle
system of marking ticket. And to
the writer's positive knowledge, at one
election in this referred county. i'll one
| township is votes We're thrown out be-
cause of circle marking and then other
marks which nullified the whole ballot.
And in this county which contains Il
large percentage of American born and
educated voters ii was found necessary
to print and distribute the following
hand bills
Vote for member of board of super
lvisors. Read carefully instructions how
to vote the Australian ballot. Repub-
licans. vote for ! On opening
your Australian ballot when you enter
your booth you can vote against --
, with perfect safety as follows: Put no
mark in the circle at the head of any
ticket Begin at the head of the re-
publican ticket and place your first
cross in the square before the name
of A. B. Cummins for governor In
like manner place n cross in the square
before every other republican candi-
date until you reach the name of -----.
Place no cross in the square before his
name, but pass directly across to the
right where you will find the name OF
---. Place cross in the square be-
fore his name, and then return to the
republican ticket and place cross in
the squares before the names of all
candidates after that of ---. -
must go!"
And that's the only way ticket
should be made. Leave off the circle!
And here's another reform the peo-
pie of Iowa can well advocate, and that
is the town meeting of New England"
Talk is cheap. but sure it is that a
gathering of interested citizens. to dis
cuss question of interest to all, and
the expressed opinion that is brought
out on such occasion, does much to
shape good legislation. Speaking of
this the Hartford Courant says: I'VE
have noticed in certain newspapers the
statement that the town meeting il
played out We beg to differ. Any
body who reads the state news of the
Courant has seen the numerous re-
ports of such meetings held within the
past week and from these there has
come adequate evidence that the town
meetings instead of being played out
is still the opportunity of the citizen
and the school of New England citi-
zenship. One and another matter of
self government has come up and been
discussed as keenly as il 1t was the
presidency of the nation. and every |
man has had his say If he wanted to
talk. This may bore some soulful per-
sons, but 1t is education in government |
and that day will be sorry one for
Connecticut when 1t is true that the
town meeting is played out. Fortu- |
nately it has not yet hove in sight"
The town of GMnnell. for a while.
held on Sunday nights what they called |
a free parliament. but for some reason /
they have been omitted lately. These |
meetings resulted in good, altho being /
held in church on Sunday night, |
seemed to smack of a possible union of (
of church and state, altho the subjects |
under discussion were not always those
of religious nature. And under such
auspices there was lack of freedom in
discussing the question before the |
house, which would not be possible if |
all the churches We're represented and
the meeting was held in 1.-The town
hail. For instance, Grinnell could
have a very interesting meeting in
the new opera house as soon as finished
the subject being. Reform by City
Ordinance"
Even reform by law has got a set
back in Iowa: The decision of Judge
Wheeler at Clarinda, in holding the law
passed by the last general assembly
travelling statesmen from
selling liquor in prohibition counties
unconstitutional because in restraint
OF interstate commerce. will be re-
viewed by the supreme court. This law
designed to prevent the sales of orig
inal packages of liquor in in the sixty
five prohibition counties In the state.
Judge Wheeler's decision again permits
the traffic. The law remains valid so
far as orders to liqour houses within
the state are concerned" This decision
opens wide the traffic in intoxicating
liquors. in original packages, shipped
from points outside of the state. II
the prohibition element will only con-
tinue the work recently carried on at
Grinnell and Hampton against the ex
press companies who deal in broken
packages, some restraint can be had.
Those who are familiar with the bust
$1,000, nparota1 Inv some aynraSS com.