The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-12-06
THE STAY-AT-HOME VOTER.


Since the late Congressional election
great deal has been said and written
about the use of money in elections and
the crime of the man who sells his vote
and the crime of the man who buys it
No phase of the evolution of American
politics deserves to be more ruthlessly
exposed than this, and if any laws are
needed in addition to those we now
have, to correct the evil, they should be
promptly passed and ,relentlessly en-
forced. The degradation of vote sell
ing and vote buying is a more far
reaching evil than is generally suppos-
ed, because it creates two classes of
men who come to regard the highest
privilege of citizenship as the subject of
barter-the one class willing to forego
his manhood for the temporary advan-
tage which few dollars may give him,
the other class eager to purchase office
and its emoluments and opportunities,
which, upon his merits as a man, he
could never hope to occupy. When
Ferdinand Lopez, in his efforts to in
duce his father-in-law to defray his eX-
penses in an election contest, reminded
Mr.. Wharton that it was a great honor
to sit in Parliament, that clear sighted
old lawyer replied That depends on
how you get it, and how you use it,
very much also on whether you are fit
for it. The inference in unmistakable,
that the man who is careless of the
means of getting it will be pretty sure
to misuse it, and that in either case he
is wholly unfit for it; and the incident
quoted from one of the best of Anthony
Trollope's novels may be read into cur
rent Maryland political history with
profit. AS for Ferdinand Lopez,
whether in fiction or in real life, he is
beyond redemption. Ostracism abso-
lutte and unchangeable-is the only re-
lief from man of his ilk.
But the sellers and vote buyers are
not the only offenders against the State
in the matters of elections. The man
who stays at home on election day is
guilty of moral crime which may be
quite as disastrous and quite as lasting
in its effect as the more disgusting of
Tense of vote selling and vote buying.
1t is begging the question to say that
there is nothing to choose between par
ties and men. At all times the funda-
mental issues are in evidence, and if at
a given time there is manifested an in
tenticn on the part of the politicians to
take advantage of peculiar circum-
stances to accomplish their ends, that
is the time of all others for the quiet
citizen to exert his influence and use
the power of the ballot to preserve a
deciet order of things
1t is pitiful to hear a man of sub
stance, whose walk in life is upright,
who has, and in the main deserves, the
respect of his neighbor, say he has not
the time to vote. In saying so he puts
upon his vote precisely the same value
the vote seller places upon his; and
while the seller may be, and is, more
degraded creature, the responsibility OF
the other is greater because his genera
character gives him an influence which
the vote seller cannot exhibit. Indiffer.
ence to the welfare of the community
disregard of the obligations of citizen
ship, are not the characteristics Of {
neighborly man-to say nothing of {
public spirited man. In fact, in
difference to these privileges anC
duties of citizenship is, in a republic
at least, one of the worst and most in
sidious forms of political corruption
In all ages it has furnished the oppor
tunities which the grafters are perpet
ually seeking, and with a strange fatal
ity, with each triumph of the grafters
the ranks of the Indifferent increas
until conditions becomes intolerable
and general upsetting occurs.
1t is probably safe to assert, that i
the men who are inclined to neglect tn
ballot could be brought to the polls, tn
corrupt element would vanish. How
this blessed revolution is to be brough
about is a question of quite as muc
interest and quite as much practice
Importance as that of the elimination o
the corruption fund. The question
so largely moral one, that it is doubt
full if a compulsory ballot law woul
have an immediate effect. The slowe
processes of education in civic dut
must at least go hand in hand with an
effort to correct by law any evil whic
: all recognize and deplore.
, In the meantime the small number c
really intelligent and patriotic men VIII
take an active interest in politics ca
= do much to cure so deplorable- cond
ton. Platform platitudes are largel
S discounted, but real principles attraC
e the better elements of the communit,
n and if the party nominees measure u
to "a, reasonable standard of capacit
d and character, long step will be take
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