Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-03-03

for two years, of the town one year
and of the precinct in which he ap-
plies to register thirty days next pre-
ceding, and six months prior to the
election, has paid to the proper officer
all state poll taxes assessed or assessa.
BILE against him for three years next
preceding that in which he applies to
register, and has paid one dollar and
fifty cents in satisfaction of the first
years poll tax assessable against him.
and, unless physically unable to do SO,
(now let the proposed voter note well
the following) shall make application
to the registrar in his own handwrit-
ing, without aid, suggestion or memo
randum in the presence of the regis
trar, stating therein his name, age,
date and place of birth, residence and
occupation at the time, and for the
two years next preceding, and whether
he has previously voted. and if so, the
State, county anc precinct in which
he voted last, and shall answer on oath
any and all questions affecting his
publications, as an elector, submitted
10 HIM by the registrar"
How many of you can do it? How
many are willing to try? Are the
working men Of this city anxious to
quit work and 60 through this ordeal?
Are they ready to be put on the wit
ness stand and have q man possibly
no better qualified than tney them
selves are, to pass on their intelligence
and their educational quallfica-
tions and this too after they have once
stood the test? Are they ready to
waste their time and subject them
! selves to the hazard and stigma of be-
ing 'thrown down" by the very man
in the first ward, who once passed
them, and by man in the second
ward who would simply be revising
the work of previous registrars? If
there are illegal votes ON the list, the
law provides for their removal without
cost or trouble to the other twelve hum
dred registered voters, without their
waste of time or their sufficiency be-
ing imperiled.
Section So. Chapter s, of the Code
tells how they can be gotten rid of.
Why may not those who are after
scalps get them lawfully, and not by a
subterfuge?
This article has grown longer than
we intended, but fearing that our
working men who would be compelled
to quit work and 60 and stand in line
until their time came to be received and
catechised, do not understand the ef-
feet of the new registration, we desire
to tell them that the registrars cannot
register the voters of this city in three
days. To do so they must register over
400 persons per day, a thing impossi-
BILE. After these three days have
elapsed, the person proposing to regis
ter must hunt up the registrar, he must
be subject to that officers convenience,
for the law does not compel the regis
trar to sit but three days. In the
privacy of that officers apartment, tie
voter must then have judgment passed
upon him by this august and all pow
erful parsonage. He must answer all
the many questions the law compels
and as many more as the registrar sees
fit to PROFOUND. 1t is needless to say
this is hardship our voters, who
are already registered, should not be
compelled again to endure, and that
too when the books can be put in the
best shape, simply by being copied,
which can be done in one or two days
by competent clerk, at cost not ex-
ceeding $500. Then let it be remem-
bered that the new registration will
take portion of the day of each of our
twelve hundred men of this city, and
give the registrars ten cents apiece for
everyone whose name is put upon the
books. If done in three days, $1,000
per day each.
The law amply provides for purging
the lists, as will be seen from Chapter
8, Section Sc of the Code Lc.ore cited
and if there are not good m my, ''nig-
gers in the woodpile" this is all that
the people Of this city should submit to.
1t will not down, that this is "po-
litical move", long ago threatened,
now about to be carried out. 1t can
not be successfully denied that the
move if not political, is ill-timed, ex-
pensive, intensly annoying and totally
unnecessary. We do not believe that
it can be successfully gainsaid that
while the ostensible object is to kick
out some negro voters, the real object
is deeper, wider, more far reaching and
drastic, an effort, indeed, as some pu
it, to separate the ''sheep" from the
goats, to purge the lists OF white
men as we'll as black men, who are
in , sense offensive to csrtaiu powers
that be. This bslief is widespread.
Who in authority will rise ND ana
say there is no basis for it? The Law
never contemplated that the entire
voting population should be SUBJ
jecsed to such cost and vexation
on the flimsy plea Of procuring -
clean set of books" We are inform
ed BY . reputable person who mas
made examination of the books that II
new registration is not ordered, she
books will most likely be used just ~
they are, they will not even be order.
cd copied. Does tnis not carry its
own answer
The public knows clean books IL not
the real object sought. and this move
Aa 0n<l l.