New-York tribune., 1905-06-10
THE ISSUE IN MARYLAND.

The Hon. Charles j. Bonaparte in an address
before the Maryland Republican State Commit
tee on Wednesday put effectively and happhy
the issue which is to be presented to the voters
of Maryland in the approaching campaign. AS
is well known a constitutional amendment rad
ically restricting the right of suffrage ana re-
vising the States election laws was forced
through the last legislature and is to go TO the
voters this fall for approval. Maryland mas at
present a system Of manhood suffrage. Ihe
amendment submitted by the legislature con-
templates suffrage based in part on inherited
privilege and in part on educational qualifica-
tons. 1t contains a grandfather clause, "
which valves all tests for voters who can show
descent from ancestors qualified to vote In
Maryland prior to 1868. Voters unable to prove
such descent must submit to certain literacy and
general intelligence tests; but these tests are
purposely left indefinite, so that the partisan
election boards which are to apply them can
use a virtually unlimited and arbitrary discre-
ton in making up the polling lists.
This bald surrender to un-American and un-
democratic theories has been defended as an
attempt to elevate and purify the suffrage. But
Mr. Bonaparte in his address unmasks the hy-
pocrisy and charlatanry of this plea. In his
opinion, the proposed amendment is inconsist-
ent with American ideals, and in practice will
prove utterly subversive of good government
He said on Wednesday:
The Republican party has ever held with Vol
taire that "a good citizen needs ne grand
fathers; like Abraham Lincoln, has always be-
nor oligarchies. nor privileged classes. Like
Theodore Roosevelt, 1t demands "a square deaI'
at the polls for every man, whatever his ances-
try. If citizen be shown by experience unit
to vote wisely and righteously, let him be denied
the suffrage because of this individual unftness,
not because Of his race or tongue or birthplace,
3fo41
that. And in testing this fitness let there be one
rule for him and for his neighbor, not a yard
stick for man and an inch measure Tor the
next.
This argument puts the case in q nutshell.
The Maryland amendment attempts to create
political castles. 1t is aimed not alone at the
negro, who can claim no privilege under ii, but
at thousands of worthy citizens of foreign birth
or foreign descent 1t segregates these with
the negro and stamps them as an inferior order
of citizenship 1t reyiveS the narrow and odiOuS
prejudices of -Nothingism, and seeks to
deny thai equality of political status which is
essential in any truly democratic society.
Moreover, in applying its educational tests the
amendment invites discrimination and fraud.
1t lays down no fixed or invariable rule Of dis
qualification, like absolute ability to read and
write but leaves partisan board to determine
whether or not an applicant for registration
can read or expound q section OF the State con-
stitution "understandingly." Such provision
will put thousands of citizens at the mercy of
the political organization which controls the
election machinery; and its first result will be to
restore to power the ring bosses whose grip on
the State was broken By the honest elections
law of 1896 Mr.. Bonaparte is right in saying
that the Republican, In or out OF Maryland, who
does not oppose the Poe amendment with all
the energy that is in him sis Republican
at ALL