The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-13
THE BALLOT AND HOW II WORKS
 IN SMALL AND LARGE ELEGT0RATEss

~OME.s HARTFORD opinion leans continually o to the view that every voter ought to have an opinion upon every question, and vote thereon As an ideal, the view is well enough. question and does not vote to every question It is fortunate that this is so There is no req son why a man who has no opinion upon a questions should give opinion His vote does not help the adjudication at all
 It is, in fact, one of the advantages of the ballot that those not interested in the questions decided arc automatically eliminated by their own free act.
 The electorate as whole operates very much like the smaller electorate. usually term ed a legislature, or a representative body.
 Only extraordinary occasions will every member of a legislature be in his seat.
 On ordinary occasions the proportion of those present in a legislature and voting to a question is SMALLER than those present and voting in an ordinary general election
 Both legislature and general electorate reach questions in 8 very similar way. The body Of the vote listens to the evidence as it is offered by the more expert, or the more inter- ested. for and against the proposition. Some acquire no real views of their own, but vote by authority Some refrain from voting at all
 But the voter of the general electorate has a certain advantage over the voter in the legis- 1ature Before a matter comes to a general cleo ton it has been long discussed. The proceed ings relating to it have been deliberativesin the highest degree.
 The legislature, however, sits for brief time only. Matters before 1t are thrashed out in committed The member who is to vote up- on it seldom gets full view of the subject, and all the proceedings relating to 1t. are, so far as most of those who vote upon it are concern ed, are hasty and tumultuous-s
 The vote upon the Hartford bonds is case in point How is the result affected because only half of those voted upon the bonds who voted for mayor? Suppose those who voted upon the bonds we re mainly those who pay taxes in Hartford? What harm? The bonds had been tentatively approved by the legislature, and they had been tentatively approved by the proper representa- tive body Of theseity Under older conditions there would have been no vote by the people at all. Tn the legislature were some 300 persons who knew Iittle and cared less about bonds in Hartford. In Hartford s municipal legislature were "a very few men
 How superior, as a test Of public opinion, was the thousands of votes cast to this question, over the few votes cast by the smaller tri- bunaIS!
 What advantages too there are in the mere ability ot say of important problem sTHE PEOPLE HAVE SETTLED IT!0
 As 1t stands, about half as many persons tConstitution of ISIS of which our Hartford friends are staunch admirers.
 1 If 12OOO people, voting ill ISIS, were able to make an admirable constitution, then 6,OO0 Ipersons, voting in 1914 or even 500. ought to give a satisfactory result on mere matter Of Ibonds, especially since the world knows so much more than it used to- and the average man is so much better informed than he used to be