Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1902-07-26


Proctor Il GAMBLE. 22,OOO 10000
After President Mark of the Board OF
Education had told the Civil Service
Commission the other day that neither
he nor any other member Of the board
desired to see the civil service con.
signed to perdition, but. on the con.
trary. approved Of the merit system In
general. and had no quarrel with the
commission over the proposed grada.
ton and classification Of engineers In
schools. the resolution providing for
such graduation was adopted by the
commission.
No matter what President Mark may
say or take back. It il the Eagles he.
lief that the civil service system will
arrive ut Its final destination anyway.
The Legislative Voters League sees
an obstacle to It's efforts to reform the
General Assembly In the minority rep.
resentation law. President George T..
Cole says that no long as that law re.
mains In force bad men can get elected
to the lower house Of the Legislature.
and he says an effort will he made next
winter to have It repealed.
This statute provides that each Sena.
tOrial district shall have both Republic.
can and Democratic representation or
an independent In the place Of one Of
the partisans In the popular branch Of
the law.making body. A few independ.
ents have held seats In every Assembly
since this law was enacted, but only In
the event Of bitter fractional strife do
the voters Of either Of the two old par.
ties full to support the regular nomi.
"ee'' ...A.l~
Each district IN entitled to three rep.
resentatives. In the Republican dis.
tricts that party dominates two and the
Democrats one candidate, and vice
versa. Each voter has the privilege Of
voting for three candidates. or Of Civ.
Ing three votes to one candidate. Those
Of the dominant party may divide their
three votes between the two candi.
dates. while members Of the minority
party, as a rule, plump" their three
votes for their one candidate.
This Pumping" 1t il said by OIL.
Gals Of the leagues. makes II difficult
to elect an independent where one In
most needed. The charge Ii made that
the leaders Of the old parties, where
their nominees are attacked by indie.
pendent candidates, form combinations
30 to split the vote as to prevent de.
feat.
The claim Of the League people II
that repeal OF the minority representa-
ton law would do away with the
pumping" business. Their PROPOSE.
ton II for revision Of the law to pre-.
vent any candidate receiving plump
ed" vote. The voter would still have
the privilege OF casting three legisla.
tive votes. but he would have to divide
them among three candidates, practi'
cally multiplying the purpose of the act.
Mr.. Cole believes that a law Of this
kind would 60 further than almost any.
thing else toward stopping the nom.
nations Of Objectionable candidates.
He will use his best endeavOrs to &C.
cure it's enactment, but 1t must he done
through an amendment to the cOnstitu-
ton, and that requires time. But II
the League has any influence ut Spring.
field a resolution embOdying the con-
templated amendment will be intro
duced in the next session.
~6
or course, we will always have pro-
posed reforms, and busy refOrmers like
our friend Mr. Cole. Like the poor, they
will always be with us. But even II
we should happen to lose some or all OF
them some time or other, the Eagle be,
lieves that this old commonwealth
would manage to stagger along with,
out them. And IL Mr.. Cole should fall
to change the old way OF doing things
In Illinois In his effort to reform the
earth, we do not believe that things
would 20 to the "demnitiOn bOw.wOws''
mt that.
Congressman James NJ. Griggs, OF
Georgia, chairman of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee,
who Is In New York to meet other mem
bers Of his committee, says the issucs
of the next campaign. from a Demo
cratic standpoint. would be the tariff
the trusts, the Philippines and ship
subsidy.