The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1911-12-09
WILSON BALLOT LAW
HURTING THE STATE

A number of Democrats from the Will
son Law counties met in Baltimore on
Monday and decided to request Governor
Grothers to call an extra session On the
Legislature in order to devise some
means for keeping the administration OF
auls ia in their own hands. Al the very
time these Democrats were meeting Mr..
Robert Grain was giving out a ringing
interview, wherein he denounced the Will
son ballot law and urged the Democrats
to work for It's repeal. Mr.. Grain is
Southern Marylander and the largest
landowner in that part of the State,
wherein his family has resided for gen.
creations This law" he says, has
been tried and is rank failure" He
lnen goes on to state its effects in his
own section.
Looking at the effect of this law up
ON Southern Maryland, | am sincerely
convinced that it is causing that section
of the State real injury. Conditions
there are indeed bad, but l have come
to the conclusion that the Wilson law is
making them worse. | know how the
men in favor of the Wilson bill feel and
/ know that every feeling they have is
justified by the facts, and | share their
feelings.
mo matter how strongly you state the
case, you cannot state 1t strongly enough.
/ admit all that, and | speak from eX-
perience and knowledge at first hand.
But the real question is how best to
solve the problem. l do not want to
pose as a moralist, but as a simple,
practical proposition, demonstrated by
kn IF har n
through many years, | will lay down this
moral proposition that no question of
injustice, of right or wrong, can ever
satisfactorily be solved through the me-
,dium of the trick ballet or a crooked
election law. There is a universal de-
mand in favor of an honest ballot, and
any o,her kind of ballot tends to bring
disgrace and disfavor upon any COM
munity and any class of people.
"Peopel are beginning to realize the
great agricultural advantages of South
,ern Maryland-are awakening to the fact
that section of the Stata which has al
most been abandoned for 40 years is one
.of the best agricultural countries in the
world; and the people from the Western
States and other sections of the country
with the object of making their future
homes in the counties of Southern Mary
land. They are seeking to learn the con-
.ditions which surround this countryside
school facilities. churches, roads, char
.acter of the lands, character of the peo-
pie, and last but not least-the kind of
laws upon the statute books regarding
the rights of franchise
SELF GOVERNMENT SACRED.
There is no class of men in the world
who attach greater Importance to the
right oil government, and wlo hold
more sacred the right of franchise, than
the sturdy German or the working
and painstaking foreigner from various
sections of the world. Men from the
Middle West. men from the great North
west, anxious to come to Maryland, in
my Judgment, would greatly fear to live
in community where any party or class
of men, for whatever reason regardless
of how great the necessity, would have
an opportunity to tamper, in any way,
with the right of fran.mse.
The Wilson Ballot ...n - hurting
Southern Maryland. 1t is retarding deve-
uopment. Thousands of the best men in
Baltimore city aud in other sections of
The State and elsewhere believe that
somt great outrage is being perpetrated
thrcugh the medium of the trick ballot.
They Or not know conditions. They do
mot know the wrongs we are trying to
right, but Ahey do know that two wrongs
do not make a right, and when they
think of Southern Maryland they think
'of trickery or fraud or unfair dealings in
our elections. and this sentiment of it
self is surely hurtful to our people.
There is another practical reason
The negro generally may be shiftless and
often worthless and have no regard for
THE accumulation of property-carng
,cnly for today and never thinking of to-
unorfDw-but in Southern Maryland it is
tolily justice to say that, as a class, he
has had respect for the white man, he
has newer sought social equality, he has
lhat Gigh regard for the law, and there
Mas never been any real race feeling or
bitterness between the two races. If,
however, at every recurring election the
negro is to realize that he is to be de-
Irivtd through the medium of a trick
ballot or an unfair election law of the
one .egal right to which he attaches the
gfHatPst Importance, sooner or later