Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1906-01-25
THE RIGHT TO VOTE.


question is not only growing more prom
inent in the affairs of the several states
of the United states; but it is becoming
a threatening one in the empires and
kingdoms of Continental Europe. In the
United states the question, as now
presented, is one of how and to
what extent can suffrage be limited or
restricted under our republican form Of
government. In Europe the question is,
to what extent shall its exercise be ex-
tended, or shall it be made universal.
Here the classes are seeking to deprive
the masses of the right to vote, while
in Europe the masses are revolving
against class and autocratic rule and
demanding that the voice of the peo-
PIE shall be heard through universal
suffrage.
In Virginia the classes have invaded
the rights of the masses and by usurpa
ton, through constitutional enactment,
deprived one half the white men and
all the negroes of the exercise of suf-
frage
One day last week Hon. ]. Powell
Royal and Hon. R. Walter Dickinson,
members, respectively, of the House of
Delegates and State Senate, intro
duced simultaneously joint resolutions
looking to the repeal of the poll tax
qualification for voting. This step was
taken by them because of their person
al objection to the poll tax prerequisite,
and because they know Virginia Re-
publicans are almost solidly for it's re-
peal.
The introduction of these joint resolu-
lions again makes the suffrage the
most conspicuous issue in Virginia, and
also introduces the question of whether
suffrage is right that belongs to Amer
lean citizens or is merely privilege to
be granted by one citizen to another
citizen. In the Saturday Evening
Post of December Both, 1905, under
the head of 'Where shall we draw the
Lines?" there was brief editorial on
the suffrage question. 1t was short
but strong argument against the outra-
geous and foolish efforts to limit the ex-
ercise of the right of suffrage in this
country.
The editorial is as follows:
Almost everybody thinks that the suf-
frage ought to be limited. But the ar
gument ends the instant it is asked;
Who shall be excluded? And there is no
hope of getting together. Why? Be
cause the real truth is that the right to
vote is much like the right to live
There are many people who, in the
opinion of some or everybody, are not
fit to live; but who is going to take it
upon himself to deny them the right to
live, since they are here on earth and as
much part of it as anybody else? Who
is able to decide whether a man is using
his life properly or not? Who is able to
say that a man is not using his life
properly?
Most people think the Ignorant
ought to be excluded from the suffrage.
But Ignorant, like educated" is
one of those large, vague words that
have to be explained before they near
anything. The average human ANNA
is pretty shrewd, shrewder than his
a neighbors think, if less shrewd than he
himself thinks. We greatly overesti
mate the ignorance of the ignorant-anC
a also the education of the educated"
The question of who has the right tt
vote and if any person has that right
and the nature Of such right has beer
SO frequently and freely discussed BY
lawyers, statesmen, lawmakers ant
Awriters that it is hardly possible for any
ION to present any new ideas or ar
guments for a more satisfactory eluci
dation and settlement of the vexed in
quiry. Numbers of very intelligent mel
claim and have claimed that suffrage il
an inherent right, belonging to all free
men who are citizens of countr.
with constitutional form of govern
ment. Many others, with equal intelli
gence, contend that suffrage is rnerel.
aprivilege granted to those who exer
else it by constitutional or statutor.
enactment.
Suffrage is not an Inherent right; bu
there are natural rights, such as are lai'
down in the first section of the cele
brated Virginia Bill Of Rights, declares
by the fathers on May 18th, l77e
namely, the enjoyment of life and lib