Arizona republican., 1910-02-08
PHoENIx, ARIZONA. FEB. s, 1910
On the Question of Being Able" to
 Read


 publican leaders of the United State senate propose in the statehood legis lation to knock out" the act of th 18th legislature which purports to es tablish an educational qualification fo voters in this territory.
 The act in question was one of tn, most notoriously partisan of all tn, narrow and bitterly partisan legisla ton which distinguished the demo cratic majority in the late legislature
 The legislature of 1909 assembled amid democratic gloom. The terri tory had gone republican. A republi. can delegate to congress had beer elected by a great majority ma jority of the county supervisors elect ed, and at least half the county off, cers. were republicans. The republi- can organization had paid no atten- ton to the legislative campaign, how ever. and the election resulted in a two-thirds majority for the democrats in each house. Nevertheless. change of less than 300 votes would have re- turned legislature republican in both branches. When the legislature met two months after the general election the democratic politicians were still wild with wrath. The people of the territory had dared to vote the repub- lican ticket. A steering committee of democratic politicians was formed statesmen out of a job. It was their function to boss the legislature, and in the vernacular of the plains they did if to a -you-well" As the rural members of the legislature ar rived in Phoenix, preparatory to en- tering upon their business of making laws. they were told that a new deal was on. The grand old democratic party was going to play some politics not? Sure. Very well, it had been decided that the party interests re- quired that everything of importance be done by caucus. So. one by one. the members found themselves pledged to abide by the action of the caucus The caucus was formed. and it took it's orders from the steering commit tee. There were many rows behind closed doors, but the party whip was applied effectively to all insurgents, and the partisan program went through.
 The educational bill' was one of the queer birds that were matched from the famous setting of eggs which the steering committee handed to the caucus.
 The bill was designed to disfranchise Arizona citizens of Mexican descent who were in the habit of voting the republican ticket It was calculated by the politicians of the steering com mittee that the law would enable them to regain control of the terri tory. At least they thought, it would assure the election of democrats to the United States senate, because of the advantage it would give them in certain counties-and it is the counties legislature. decide elections to the United States senate It was figured hat ha .f lat the republican county of Apache and the republican county of Pima would be taken into the democratic camp, for in each of these counties there are hundreds of Mexican voters who uni formly-vote the republican ticket. And the Mexican voters in all the other counties being disfranchised as well, the counties of Yavapai. Maricopa. Pi- nal. Cochise and Santa Cruz, it was anticipated. would be more easily cap tured by the democrats. All but one of them had gone republican at the | November election. Among the various qualifications | which an elector must have under this | law. it is provided that the intending i voter must be a man Who. not being prevented by phy- | sical disability from so doing. is able | to read the constitution of the United | States in the English language in such | manner as to show he is neither l prompted nor reciting from memory.'
 This legislation was twice vetoed | by Governor Kibbey. The bill was passed over the first veto by the nec- essary two-thirds majority but cleri- cal errors invalidated the work. and the bill was reintroduced. again pass ed again vetoed. and again passed over the veto. and now stands as the law of the territory.
 The veto messages went into the defects of the measure at length. and no matter how much one may in the abstract approve the principle of an qualification for voters. he