Weekly journal-miner., 1910-02-16
Pertinent Question.

Pertinent Question.
 Does the act contain sufficient merit to withstand fair and just criticism aside from its partisan character7 Ii provides in effect as one of the qual. ifcatiOns of an elector that he shall be able to read orally from the Con. stitutiOn of the United States in Eng fish so as to satisfy an election board that in thus reading he is neither prompted nor reciting from memory, and that he shall be able to write his name. It is thus not so much an ed ueational as a racial qualification, for no one will seriously contend that the ability to read orally from the Con stitution in English is any just edu- I cation test, any more than the ability to read orally French or Ger man is any such test. The ability to read and write is generally accept ed as test of intelligence, but the ability to read or write in any par tieular language is not. I doubt if any advocate of this law would be so disingenuous, not to say dishonest, as to claim that the law is either .n- tended or does in effect disfranchise any considerable number of voters other than those who speak Ihe Span ish language and whom we ordinarily call Mexieans. This being so, I con tend that the act is uniustly des- eriminatory. racial in its application, and as such to be condemned. Many good people may be misled as 70 the act and entertain a mistaken belef based upon insufficient information or prejudice that the demands of good citizenship require the elimina- tiOn of the Mexican vote. Granted that we would be better off if the venal, ignorant and purehaseable DOT tion of that vote, as of our entire electorate, could be eliminated. nev- ertheless, I hold it to be unjust and undemOcratic to include in this dis elimination a large number of intelli- gent, respectable, law-abiding and pa triotic men, whose ancestors lived here long before any American ever wis ited the territory, or dreamed that it should become at any time one of the United States, who knows no other home or country, who have prop erty and pay taxes, who are rearing families here, and who, by every con- sideratiOn, are entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship. l know many such men in Apache. Navajo and Pima counties as well as in other communities in the territory. Having been reared in Spanish speak ing households and in Spanish speak ing communities and having gone to schools where Spanish alone was taught, their knowledge of English is about such as Americans acquire of Spanish under like circumstances. These men would not attempt to qual- ify as voters by reading orally in the presence of a critical, and pos sibly. hostile, audience, from the Con stitution of the United States. The result is the almost complete dis franchisement of this class of Mex jeans. There is in every community and among every race an element un- fitted intellectually and morally to exercise the franchise. The effort to restrict this franchise if made should be directed toward the elimination of this element alone. That this is a matter of great difficulty every one who has given thought to the matter must admit.
 Doubtful Proposition.
 It is, however. extremely doubtful if the quality of the Mexican vote will be improved by the enforcement