The Indianapolis journal., 1902-10-29
INDIFFERENT VOTERS.

For lone of them id literary fellers,"
to use an expression originated by Senator
Zach Chandler, Mr. Booth Harrington has
chosen a very practical text for his heart
to-heart talks at Republican meetings
There is no better text to enforce than
Get out the vote" Mr.. Harrington seems
to be doing something on that line himself
for in his speech Monday night he
said: 81 met a railroad official to-day and
asked him if he was going to vote. He said
he didn't know when the election was to be
held" Perhaps he only reads the railroad
news in the Journal and skips politics. Mr..
Harrington remarked that good business
men who haven't time to find out when the
election is will have more time the next
time if they don't vote this time" great
many of them had time enough to read
politics in 1885, and they remembered
when election day came so well that they
ordered a change in the national admins
tration that has been followed by the most
remarkable era Of prosperity the country
has ever known. They are very busy now.
but If enough Of them forget when election
day comes to permit a reversal Of the ver-
dict of 1896 and the Inauguration of policies
that paralyzed business they will have
plenty of time to read politics. The rail-
road official who didn't know when the
election was to be held probably knows
that the last year has been one of the
best in the history of railroading and that
at present there are not cars enough to do
the business of the country. 1t was not so
during the few years preceding the election
of William Mckinley. and If few hundred
thousand Republicans had forgotten to vote
then or in 1900 it would not be so now.
Mr.. Harrington said: "The Indifferent
voter is worthless sort of cuss." This
| CANT but IT was expressive. 1t would be
out of place in a funeral grafton or In an
address to a graduating class on the duties
/ of citizenship, but in a heart-to-heart talk
with voters a week before election it fitted.
If Mr. Harrington had said, ''The citizen
of republic who either possesses no con-
victions regarding public affairs which he
desires to put in practical operation or who
| is too languid in his convictions to exercise
| the right of suffrage when opportunity
| offers is far from being model citizen, ''
some might not have caught his meaning:
but when he said. "The Indifferent voter is
a worthless sort of cuss." all knew what he
meant. "Cuss' is either popular form OF
| curse or it is. according to the dictionary
"a general form of contempt or reproach. =
| Now. no one can deny that the Indifferent
voter is. to certain extent. a curse to a
republic. IL all voters were of that class
there would be no republic and no use OF
holding elections. In the other sense no one
can deny that as general form of con.
tempt or reproach the word ''cuss'' fits a
person who thinks much more OF his
private affairs or his personal ease than he
does OF the common veal that he declines te
vote. The Constitution and laws OF the
country place so high value on the -igh
10 vote that they confer II only upon mes
of the full age Of twenty-one years. and
one OF the penalties Of crime is deprivation
of it. Surely It is not putting it too strongly
to say that man who. possessirg the righ