The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-01-22

he may or may not have in the mat.
ter, the governor has offered sug.
gestion that merits Thoughtful consid-
GRAFTON. While the proposal is not al
all novel or new in politics. 1t has sell
dom been urged for legislative con
sideration. l
Theoretically, the right to vote is
sufficien to insure complete partici-
patton in elections by all eligibles.
In practice, it is not. In the past men
have considered the right worth fight
ing for. Just now, the women OF
most Of the great nations are demand
ing suffrage for themselves and their
leaders, in London and Paris at least,
are lodging in and out of prison al
most daily in their effort to arouse
popular interest in the cause. How
ever, there is nothing like possession
to disabuse one Of the imagined adj
vantages of possession. We want
wealth-until we get it. Then we
want more wealth. The baby cries
for a rattle or something else that its
mother does not wish it to have, and
when its demands are finally met, it
throws the object on the floor and
cries for something else. Not very
long ago our forefathers were sacri-
ficing their lives in an endeavor to
establish a popular form Of govern
ment for this country-government
wherein the people, instead of for
eign potentate, should be the rulers.
We have had such a government lit
tie more than century and quar-
ter, but already we are showing signs
OF indifference. The thing that was
worth fighting for 1876 or more years
ago is not even worth utilizing to-
day!
But, hold! We are not attempting
to indict a nation or the whole peo-
pie OF a nation. Far from it! We are
dealing merely with some of the &C.
centricities of human nature. 1t
would be folly to assert that the vast
majority Of men are not interested in
elections or that they are wilfully
derelict in the discharge of their du-
ties as good citizens. There are,
however, a great many men-far too
are Indifferent in this
matter. Perhaps such men are gem
orally indifferent-slothfu They
vote when it is convenient for them to
do so and when they do not forget to
register.
The man who is too lazy to vote
ought to be denied the privilege of
voting. If one failure, without good,
excuse, is not enough to disfranchise
him, two failures should be. The
man who can vote and does not
should be made just as ineligible as
the man who has lost his right of
suffrage through penal servitude.
The fact that he was being punished
might not be apparent to the indif-
lerent citizen at the time that he was |
lirst denied the voting privilege, but |
sooner or later there would come a |
line when he would be vitality inter-
ested in some question before the
people or in the success Of some can
lidate and then there would come |
lone to him most effectively the
'ealization that he had paid roundly
or his previous failure to perform
the highest duty Of citizenship" The
lonest man who stays at home on
lection day Is, in the long run, pro-
luctive of as much damage to the
community as the corrupt man who
otes half dozen times in every cleo
ion. And the former has not the
orrupt mans advantage of having a
ause to further. BY all means let us
isfranchise non-voters everywhere.
Exchange. i