The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-11-23
THE INcoNsIDERATE VOTE.

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Two wa-ks ago The CHEF stated
edilollaliy that the returns from the
election Of November 5 indicated a.
tnat time that eight of the Nineteen
proposed amendments to the Lousi-
ana cogstitution had been sadopte1
and eleven rejected, though COM
plete returns may snow that the re-
cord stands nine rejected and ten ap-
proved The complete returns nave
since been received ana con. piled,
and the outcome as to the amend
inents is even worse than our more
unfayorable estimate, ten of the
measures having been rejected by
the popular vote and only nine re-
ceiving the stamp of approval through
the same medium.
The Official figures, which are
given elsewhere in todays Chief,
show that the majorities against the
rejected amendments ranged from
z38 votes III the case of No. to
42,093 in the case of No. /. Amend
ment No. Z was a proposition to ex-
ampt from taxation for a period OF
ten years completed new canals for
irrigation, navigation and power pur-
poses upon which not less than So
100000 should have been expended,
and No. / was the main tax PROPOSE
ton for remodeling the states sys-
TEN Of assessment and taxation and
, segregating the sources Of state and
local revenues.
That the defeat Of the ten reject
ed amendments was largely due to
what may be fifty called 'the in
conslderate VOTE" can be reasonably
assumed from a brief examination of
the returns. It will be seen, for in
stance, that 1885 ballots were
marked against No. 8, the amend
ment under which the present made
luate tax Of one-fifth of a mill is to
be raised to one mill in order that
the meagre pensions Of INDECENT ex-
Confederate soldiers may be in
creased. There are probably not a
single thousand Louisiana citizens
much less nearly $4,000 of them
who would openly oppose this amend
ment or admit having purposely
voted against it, and it is doubtless
true that nearly all Of these adverse
ballots were cast by ainconsiderate
voters who mechanically stamped
the negative spaces opposite the nine
teen amendments rathers than at
tempt to discriminate between. them.
Adding to these thousands Of COM
paratiyely innocent inconsiderate Yo=
ters-if We may SO term Ihem-the
ten or a dozen thousands more who
didn't give a snap of their fingers
abaut any of the amendments and
made no effort to understand them,
but Fsted either for or against in
obedience to the dictation of parish,
ward and precinct bosses, and it will
be apparent that THE inconsiderate
vote" Of tbs state defeated nearly
il not quite all the zen proposed con
5titutiopal amendments that failed
of adoption at the recent ELECTION;
The total vote cast for presidential |
electors on the 9th instant was ~
315. The aggregate vote for and |
against the main tax amendment
Was only 58,74e; hence 20,569 citi-
zens vile participated IN the cleo
ton evidently d4a not vote on the
constitutional amend ments.
The Chief is not at all sore over
the baattter and is not criticising
the Louis ana electorate in any spirit |
u pique or ilE-Wia. we are merely
calling attention to the facts pf the
case, WHICH justify the conclusion |
that it is q haisakkst policy to sub
nit a large number III iaApertaRt con-
5titutional amendments to the yofs
efs at any one election, inashnuch
as tbs measures are subjected to
the danger Of psifRs defeated ire
spective Of their merits pg Al tncon-
siderate minority OF the electorate:
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