Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-12-01
THE VOTE ON THIS AMENDMENTS

1
THE VOTE ON THIS AMENDMENTS
There are many very interesting
facts to be observed in connection
with the vote on the constitutional
amendments that were submitted to
the people of the state at the last
election.
| II is known in general way that
all of the amendments. except the
Bucklin bill, were approved by very
large majority. and as the precise
vote in any county made very little
difference in the total result. the re-
turns on the amendments were very
slow in getting in and have not yet
been completely tabulated.
One of the most evident facts In
this connection is that the voters OF
the state do not appear to have had
the slightest difficulty in marking
their ballots according to their desires
In FL Paso county for instance, there
were 4,S64 votes for the Rush amend.
ment and two votes against IL. For
the eight hour law there were 4.s6l
| Nottc anu iN' o6oiho' ~ VI NhN
| Bucklin bill there were 213i votes and
6,666 votes against 1t. 1t is evident
from these figures that 1000 more
| votes were case on the Bucklin bill
than upon either of the other propoi-
tions. But there is not the slightest
indication that the voters found any
difficulty in carrying out their inten-
tions and. and the number of spoiled
ballots was not considerably larger
than in ordinary elections
or the "a counties, whose returns
on the Rush amendment are now be
fore us, only two. Douglas and Huer-
fano, voted against It,. while in most
cases the majority in its favor was
very great
Returns are at hand from 28 coun-
ties for the vote on the elght-hour law
and OF them only four counties de-
clared in the negative. the majority in
most cases being much larger for the
eight-hour law than for the Rush bill.
The vote on the Bucklin amend
ment is particularly interesting. We
have received official returns from 30
counties upon this amendment. These
returns do not include Arapahoe, Del
Ia La Plata. Pueblo or Summit coun,
ties, but do include the other large
counties of the state. The total vote
for these 80 counties is 1868 in favor
and 35 500 against. The cities and
the farming regions voted strongly
against the bill, while in the mining
counties the vote was more in its ia
vor. Six counties out of the thirty on
our list voted for the BILL viz: Cleal
Creek, Dolores. Lake, Pitkin. Sar
presumably II the amendment hat
passed. would have exercised theii
light OF local option, and would hav,
exempted land values from local taxa
tion. Whether the single tax theory
could have a fair trial in a minint
county where the amount OF agricul
tural land is very small and where tn,
great bulk of the property Is In build
ings, stocks OF goods and undevelop
ed mines. is question whose discus
sion Is OF some Interest, but of n,
practical value at the present time
The average vote on the bill in tn,
ordinary counties was about In th
proportion of two to one. In Ell Pas,
county 1t was about three to one
Some of the agricultural counties lik
. larimer and Otero gave vote of tel
to one against the proposed law II
Hueffano county the vote was 2l4
against and SO in favor. while Conejo
, did even better with vote of 2.13
against and 62 in favor.
The results show very clearly tha
, there was not any real danger of tn
passing Of this amendment at an
, time although II 1t had not been 10
he very effective work done by Ant
, Bucklin league. the result woul
4 doubtless have been very much closel
= and II the people had been indifferen
. or had not been aroused to an undei
. standing of the bill, it might hav
r slipped through.
q The very general opinion Is that tn
I people of the state ought not to b
n called upon to discuss so many in
4 portant constitutional amendments q
v one time The action of the voters |
I this particular event appears to hav
r been wise one. but this is not sufi
e cient evidence that the amendment
received sufficient consideration. TIL
y action OF the Republican state CONVEX
ton In expressing a positive opinio
upon most Of the amendments wa
doubtless responsible in a large mea
ure for their Endorsement by the PEE
pie. If there had been only one {
iwo presented for consideration. ii
voters would not have been Statistic
with this, and would have gained
more exact knowledge OF their pro,
visions and OF the arguments for al
against them.-Colorado Springs G
zette.