Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-02
DISCOURSES ON
USE OF BALLOT
ROBERT J. BURDETTE GIVES
PRE-ELECTI0N SERMON
VOTING SHOULD BE AS SACRED
AS is PRAYER
Says Presidential Candidate Is lnVa-
rabIy Honest, but Others Should
Be Serutinized Carefully Be-
fore Being Supported

Rev. Robert J. Burdette preached a
prediction sermon yesterday at Tenn
pie Baptist church on the topic, "God
Speed the Right" taking for his text
IL Samuel X, 12: BE of good courage,
and let us play the man for our peo-
pie, and for the cities of our God. and
the Lord do that which seemeth good
to him." He said in part:
"There are men who will go into
the booth Tuesday and come out in
half a minute. They find the party
name. and stamp the circle like a man
driving a nail. These men, who vote
straight, believe in their party. And
if they are praying men, as every man
should be in an election booth, they
vote as they pray, for praying con-
viction and faith in ones party is no
more a party monopoly than are good
men. These men fight with the colors
whether their banner be the elephant,
donkey, water wagon, hand and ham,
mer, red flag or Independence league.
Their fidelity deserves honor; their in
telligence may be questioned.
"Shan't we take the prescription the
party doctors prescribe? If you wish;
but you must insist that the ingredi-
ents be printed plainly on eevry label
every one of them, under the pure
medicine law. The doctors may be
quacks Or. they may be good doc
tors gone to seed. They may have de-
generated. The head of the ticket is
usually a good man. He has to be
in order to stand any show of election.
We never had a bad president. We
have had some weak ones, but never
a dishonest one.
''No president comes out of office
having grown rich in the White House.
Senators and congressman and legisla-
tors are able to save large fortunes
out of salaries under $1,000 year, by
having their wives keep but one serv-
ant. No president ever did that. Wall
street has never elected president.
1t would not dare to put up candi-
date against the poorest man in Ameri-
ca. Many a man has bought his way
into congress. No man ever paid his
way into the White House.
"But after you leave the head of
the ticket put every candidate under
the microscope. Put him into the cru
chile Test him with the strongest
acids and see how he comes out. Look
at his neck for the collar marks. as
did the free wolf who dined with the
watchdog. You may be only wild
wolf. but no man leads you around
with a string. Make the candidate
take off his very high collar, that you
may look for the callosities of the
leather one. Observe closely, and you
may see the end of dog chain hang
ing down below the long tails of his
statesmanlike Prince Albert coat.
Scratch him. Even if you elected him,
the dog catcher might get away with
him some day.
Look Into Nominees
"Then, farther down the line, you
may find a man who lied to you two
or three or four or five times after
YOU voted for him the other time.
He's worse than a thief because he
is apt to combine the two. The doc
tors say, oh he is the regular nomi-
nee. We indorse him" Yes, 1 know.
But once upon a time my convention
nominated a man who never got near
enough the office to smell what it tasted
like. For his own party, outside the
convention, got after him with pock-
cts full of harsh, rough ballots and
stoned him off the street with a man
whom the convention turned down.
Then again my convention elected a
man over two good men, and the people
hissed the Endorsed man out of Of
flee and spat upon the Endorsement
''When you go into the booth, carry
with you a microscope and a copy of
''Who Isn't in Politics." Look at the
to call pair of patent double mill
lion magnifyin' gas microscopes of
hextra power Go into the booth with
God, as though you were approaching
his altar with a holy oblation. Re-
member what the ballot cost you.
Think what it means to you. 1t is your
credential of freerom. 1t is a right
that came to you through centuries of
sacrifice; through flames of martyrdom,
dungeons of torture, blood-soaked bat
tie fields Every ballot is crimson with
the blood of the brave, the true, the
honest, the loyal.
"The soldier who in the midst OF
battle spikes his own guns is no more
coward and traitor than the voter
who deliberately and knowingly votes
for bad, unprincipled, purchasable can
didates. And the man who stays at
home on election day because 1t is toe
much trouble to go and vote, or who
goes shooting or fishing that day be-
cause he thinks it isn't worth while to
give up his pleasure for his vote, should
be disfranchised forever. He is not
worthy of the high privilege which he
despises, and he should be barred from
the polling booths where loyal men de-
eide the destinies of their country"
PROHIBITIONISTS TO