Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-04-11
The Franchise Question.

be a fossil from the days of the Fede-
raj party or the Knownothiug party
that lived for q short time during the
middle of the past century. In his
last ;iss ue he gave vent to the follow
ing screed against foreigners:
"Sixty-fve thousand immigrants
arrived in this country during the
month OF March, and the immigra-
tlon business has only begun. In Eve
years all the males of 81 years will
have right to vote, while our high
school graduates of Is years will have
to wait until they are q years.
Which of the two knows more about
the country. its affairs and it's gov
ernment? This five year law should
be changed to twentX-one years, to
make it an equal rights law"
America has been settled and built
up by foreigners. The Pilgrim Faith
ers, whose descendants now put on
airs as If they were specially privi-
legged class of nobility, we're foreign
ers. From that time to this the van
guard of civilization, the men who
have built up prosperous community
In the wilderness, have been mainly
foreigners. What would Minnesota
be today without the foreign element?
The sturdy working people from
Northern Europe, the best element of
every nation there, have come here
and by their persistent labors have
built up one of the best of American
commonwealths. Why should such
people bear the brunt of the battle,
do the main part of the labor, pay the
greater part of the taxes, and then be
regarded as incompetent to have any
hand in the management of public af
fairs until they had spent the greater
part of their active life? Is there any
thing in the fact of being born here
that gives man better brains to
grasp the ideas of government and
better ability to execute them? Are
foreigners supposed to be of q lower
intellectual standard, that q boy of
twenty one, born in this country,
questions than q mature man who has
learned many a lesson in life's school
and studied American institutions for
five years? Why talk about high
school graduates, as if all native born
Americans belonged to that class?
Only a small portion of our youths
get such an education. Many of the
nations of Europe have really better
school facilities than many portions
ofs oar-1country, and the class that
comes from those countries generally
has a very good common school edu-
cation. If such a man does not in
five years learn enough about our in
stitutions to make a good citizen he
will never learn it. 1t must be borne
in mind that though the idea of popu-
lar government has not yet become a
reality in many countries of the old
world it is quite strongly developed
there, and that large part Of the peo-
pie coming here do so because they
know our government is what they
want.
Illiterate people are danger to any
government, no matter whether they
come from another country or grow
up here. For that reason it would be
good thing to shut out illiterate emf
grants, and take away the franchise
from all the illiterates in the coun-
try. But to disfranchise for the
greater part of life the edu-
Gated foreigners who come here and
at the same time give the franchise to
ignorant natives would be the height
of folly. A mans worth as citizen
does not depend upon where he was
b. rn but upon what he is and what he
knows.
Our farmers have two great problems
In their business to produce their
| goods at less cost and the other to find