Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-06-10

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Jsuch cry to attract to his STANDARD q
certain class of voters.
1t is to this spirit that appeal is
| made when attacking big business. =
II is to this spirit that the great cost
Of elections is due. 1t is to the same
spirit that the selling of votes is due,
and # is the same spirit that puts up
money to buy the votes.
This condition has been reached by
| degrees and know that many will
question my reasoning. i shall there
fore try to show bow it has come
about.
More than thirty years ago my at
tention was directed to the failure OF
! manhood suffrage by an article in the
North American Review, written by
DIR. Winchell, president of the Univer-
sity of Michigan
Give Birthright Away.
The burden of his complaint was
that men Of education and refinement
would not go to the polls to be jostled
by dirty coal beavers and dusty labor
ers and thus a large percentage of the
vote was lost Since that time / have
met many men who could not mix in
politics because 1T is a dirty bust
ness" The statistics OF. elections will,
| think, sustain DR.. WineheH. They
will also show that men of such metal
give their .birthright away
On the occasion of an important
election in my home town three very
respectable friends Of mine declared
their intention of voting early to. be
sure to get in their votes When they
got home to supper election night,
their landlady asked them il they had
voted They had forgotten all about
the election They had given away
their birthright
We all know how frequently bust
ness men find the chance to make a
few dollars valid excuse for failure
to do their duty as citizens
Some time in 1880 I was in my
home town. While walking along the
street with an elderly man who had
served his country faithfully IN the
pulpit, in the army, and IN public Of
fee, we were met by a committee
which was seeking him in order to ask
him to be candidate for congress
In stating disposition the gentleman
said among other things: Il shall be
glad to accept the nomination if ten
dered, but will not stock any saloons
with whisky and cigars in order to
obtain votes. If nominated I will
rake a vigorous canvass for election.
The reply was, We'll. gineral. you
needn't run Thin days when the Of
flee seeks the man is gone by. If we
can't do nothing for the. boys, the boys
Won't do nothing for you. The Gin
eral' did not run.
In 1896, or 1893, was driving
through my home county in Illinois
with one of the most prominent Demo-
Gratis and the most proI:;fnent Repub-
iicans in the county. As usual was
seeking information as TO some politi-
cal matter This time it was informa-
ticn as to the use of money at cleo
tions.
One OF the gentlemen told me that
was then passing farms uneneumbered
by mortgage and yielding good CROPS.
the owners of which never voted I'M
less they were paid S. fer their day,
and that oven then they must be fur
nished TRANSFORMATION to the polls Or
be paid IS for the use of their own
team to take them.
orioars Sell Their Vote.
IN 1910, in the town of Lima, Ohio,
an investigation showed that many
citizens had accepted money for their
votes and according to the newspaper
reports the pastor of one Of the
churches, a foreigner, admitted taking
money for his vote.
A more extensive investigation
would only produce more evidence OF
the state to which we have been re-
duced.
There is not well informed citizen
of the United States who does not
know the facts Ishave stated or many
similar ones, and yet how many take
them TO heart and attempt to change
them?
And it has not been the corrupting