The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-03

still another of yellow skin and kinky halr grafted on one family tree.
 Ballot and misrepresentation.
 TO ask this population to vote on so important question as choosing dele gates to frame a constitution would be like committing the decision on question Of paramount importance to a body of inn oeciles The males in this aggregation voted during the Colombian regime but elections then were held with the polls manned by armed soldiers. the only duty or the voter being to take a ballot from soldier and deposit 1t in d box That method Is to be abolished under the re- public; hence 1t is impossible to intrust a vital issue to an uneducated. untrained and inexperienced rabble.
 Another reason for this decision is that the population is almost entirely con- centrated in the cities and towns. Thus in the Province of Panama Panama is the chief city and embraces the great majority of the people in the province. In the Province of Colon. Colon occupies the same relation. In Bocas del Toro it Is the City of Bocas del Toro; in Chiriuui the cities of Chiriqui and David; in Los Santos. the City of Los Santos etc It follows. therefore. that if the municipal councils of these several cities were prop erly chosen in the firet instance-and they were chosen according to the Colombian rule of selection in elections-that they are practically representative bodies. lney stand for the people of these cities, and consequently for the people in the provinces in which they are located But even more potential than these con ditions in determining the controlling fac tors to have delegates chosen by the mu- nicipal councils is the fact that the more intelligent men of each city sit in these councils; that these men are heartily in accord with the objects of the revolution of November 3. and that they can be re- | lied upon to send as delegates to the constitutional convention men who can be relied upon not to obstruct the wishes ! and ideas of those who brought the re- public into existence.
 Conditions Require Safeguards. kEvery condition on the isthmus war rapts those in control in taking these steps. There is as yet no open divisions of sentiment but the pretty union effect ed by the Liberals and Conservatives. | when everybody joined hands for a free | Panama will not last forever. Jealousies have already cropped out; those consid- | erations of the relationship of church and state upon which have previously com | mented. and the ineVitability of politi- | cal division which shall cast the people | into two parties. will sooner or later come to play their part Tn the analTS or the re- public. It would be disastrous to the cause of the republic if this split should occur before the government shall have been actually established upon stable
 foundations; and it is largely to guard | against such a contingency that the domi-
 nant factors, moving under the spur ap-
 piled by Dr. Amador. are now rushing headlong toward a constitutional conven-
 ton. whereas 10 days ago the thoughts
 of such a convention had hardly occurred | to them.
 What the delegates, to be chosen in the
 manner above described, will do when
 they meet is most indeterminate. That an organic law Is to be framed they know;
 but how to go about the task and the form to be given to that law are things
 that as yet remain in the dark One thing is clear. and that is that the work
 of the constitutional convention will have
 been almost entirely done before 1t meets.
 the stronger minds among the isthmians having already taken measures to have