Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-01-25

what he is doing on election day. He
goes to the polls and votes for some
twenty-three candidates, all Of whom
he knows about
Political Organization: A name
given to a series Of ceremonies where
in the politician, before election, sets
the table for the electorate by select
ing twenty-three candidates and ty-
ing them us neatly, like asparagus, In
punches called tickets"
Electorate: A mob Of citizens that
goes to the polls before the ball game
on election day and, picking out one
of the ready-made punches, casts It
into the ballot box. Each citizen thus
votes for three men whom he knows
about and twenty others he never
heard Of Apply 1t to yourself. Name,
please, the county clerk, the state
treasurer, the coroner and the alder
man you voted for last time; and
why you preferred each.
Misrepresentative Government: A
condition wherein official No. IL,
elected as above, is more gratefully
obedient to the politician, who gra-
ciously tied him up into the victorious
bunch, than to the electorate, which
went Off to the ball game without no
ticing the eighteenth name on the
ticket at all.
Direct Primaries: An arrangement
that permits the electorate to be pres
ent at the bunch-making. An incom-
plete success for the same reason
that the election is an incomplete sue
cess, namely, that the electorate never
has in mind as many as twenty-three
men that 1t wants.
The class in political science is now
dismissed. The class in United States
history will assemble.
The Asparagus Voting System.
In the first decades Of the Repub-
lie there were very few elective Of
fees. Candidates came to the front
by various methods and campaigned
for the votes, and in due time Mr..
Citizen went to the polls and wrote
down on blank paper, from memory,
the two or three names Of his selec-
tion.. Ballot devices varied, but the
voting was uniformly from memory.
Each voter made up his own list in
his head as a result Of his private
opinions. And that is real democ-
racy.
"Jacksonian democracy" with the
best of intentions, changed all this
sixty years ago. Every state felt that
wave Of opinion, and only the Fed
eral constitution. sheltered by difficulty
of amendment, escaped change. Had
it been more easily altered we would
doubtless today be electing not mere
ly president and vice president, but
also the cabinet officers, the judges
and clerks of the supreme court and
the circuit court, the Federal district
attorneys, marshals and postmasters.
In states and cities just such things
did happen, and the old free voting,
based on individual opinion, almost
completely vanished, surviving now
only In small town elections, where
everybody knows everybody else.
1t was an easy mistake to make.
Granted that the people could, with
out dangerous confusion, take care Of
two or three elections in one day,
why not increase the number to ten
or twenty or thirty, making coroners
and judges and county clerks and city
auditors elective and directly re-
sponsible to the people?" 1t was
hard to foresee-and millions do not
see yet-that increasing the number
of simultaneous elections was suffi-
cient to effect a change Of principle.
The old electorate chose men 1t knew,
either personally or by adequate hear
say-the new electorate chose men 1t
did not know even by name. The
change was vast and fundamental 1t
established a new and difficult condi-
ton in which democracy could not
operate. 1t was like lengthening a
sword till it became too cumbersome
for the soldier to WELD thus .practi-
cally disarming him. And from that
day this nation has actually not had
a Democratic form Of government,
but an unavoidable, impractical imita-
ton that can only be operated by pro-
fessionals.
Faced with the problem of electing
more men than he could develop
opinions about, the average voter
shortened his task to more reasonable
limits by allowing those other voters
who were sufficiently interested, to tie
up the candidates for him like stalks
of asparagus in the handy little
punches so that he could vote for a
whole bunch at once Unable to ex-
anime and select the various stalks In
the bunch, the voter judged by the
looks of the most prominent stalk and
by the character of tine men who rec
commended one bunch as compared with
that Of the men who recommended
other punches. After time these
punches, or tickets, habitually wore
the names of national parties, al
though obviously there could not,
properly, be a Republican way or
Prohibition way of running the Of
flee Of state auditor or clerk OF the
court. AS the voter was no longer
voting for individual men, but only
for punches, a man who desired to
run for public office could hardly hope
for success save by applying privately
to the men who tied up the most pop
ular bunch. This saved the candidate
any embarrassment that he might
have suffered If compelled to stand
out in conspicuous solitude before the
searching scrutiny Of the public. In
fact, all the small stalks In the
punches could keep still or go to Eu-
rope during the campaign or freely
admit a record black az Ink, and yet
be triumphantly elected. 1t Is even
a matter of court record in one great
American city chat empty names, the
figment of a boss imagination, were
elected to minor offices.
E,rtharrnore minor candidates