Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1912-10-10
THURSDAY. OCTOBER 10. 1912.
THE PURITY OF ELECTIONS.

Vocate of pure ballot and pure cleo
tIons. He seems to have deluded him
elf into the false belief that pure bal
lot and honest elections can be secured
by simply disseminating the use of
money, except far legitimate campaign
purposes. He fails to recognize. or re-
fuses to acknowledge the fsct. that the
purity of elections is more dependent
on honest election laws than on honest
dollars. He does not appear to see that
the corruption of the electorate is more
clearly the outgrowth of the dishonest
election laws of Virginia than the pro-
duct of corruptiouists who handle the
corruption funds of the moneyed inter.
ests for the benefit of some particular
party or candidate
General Ayers il reluctant to admit
that the poll tex qualification for voting,
which he helped place in the new con-
sttution, has done more to make the
voters venal than any other thing that
has been known in the politics of our
state. But in a card, addressed to the
voters of the district shortly after his
nomination for Congress, he uninten-
tionally admitted the corrupting infiu-
ence of the poll tax qualification. when
he said:
Il do rot want the support of
men who have TO be brihed to give
IT. l, therefore, appeal to
every voter in the district who has
not paid his poll tax and qualified
himself to vote to 90 so ut once
pay It yourself-pay it with your
own money; qualify yourself to ex-
sTeice the PRIVILEGE of an Amer
lean citizen without wearing any
mans collar. Permit no man to
say when you come TO vote: 1 paid
your poll tax end you must vote for
my man but come to the polls and
vote Independently"
Is this no. an admission that the Doll
tax qualification for voting is an mex
haustib!e source of corruption? The
Congressional campaign of two years
ago, perhaps, had aroused the attention
of General Ayers-it being an undeni-
able fact that a movement for the col
lection of a poll tax fund was originated
at his home town by one of his man
ayers in this campaign; and that the
fund raised was sufficiently large to pay
the poll taxes of eight Thousand delin-
quents, vino were expected to vote for
my man"-Stuart. Cannot the demo-
cratic candidate see that he and his
democratic associates in the constitu-
tional convention have degraded the
sacred right of suffrage that attaches
to every American citizen into cheap
privilege? General Ayers says to the
voter: Qualify yourself to exercise
the PRIVILEGE of an American citi-
zen, by payment to the Commonwealth
of one dollar and half for each of the
three years next preceding the election
at which you offer to vote Can it be
denied that the constitution of Virginia
has degraded suffrage into a commod-
ity? Having 80 degraded the elective
franchise and having debauched eight
thousand men by paying their poll taxes
for them two years ago, is it not cruel
for the democrats to be now prosecu-
ting and prosecuting The poor voters
who dared to sell the privilege which |
they had bought themselves or that had |
been purchased for them by political |
corruptionists?
While the poll tax qualification for
voting is the fountain-head of the cor
rupt ballot in Virginia, there are many
other polluting arteries that come into
the stream along which the voter has to
travel as he journeys to the ballot box.
These corrupting arteries or feeders
are the registration and election laws
which General Ayers assisted in framing
and putting in the constitution.
Is General Ayers really and truly for
a pure ballot? We would dislike to be-
lieve he is not. But if he is, why rest
upon his idea that they can be secured
by using money only legitimately; and
without granting the request of Mr..
Slemp and the republicans to have the .