The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1919-01-30
CURING A DISEASE
Why Forty Thousand Rule Nine
Hundred Thousand

hear some of them talk that the,
have exercised every possibl
weapon they had to prevent thes
abuses" including, of course
the right Of the ballot. But sucl
is not the truth.
The Times-Union tells us thai
the prohibition amendment was
recently adopted by less than g
fourth of the voting population o1
the state; and that this is true nc
thinking man can doubt.
The Punta Gorda Herald also
takes a hand in the matter and
says that out of more than 1876.
900 males of voting age in the
state some forty to sixty thousand
do the voting, rule the state and
play the devil with it's interests
and its population"
These papers have told the
truth, for without debut there are
in our population of over 100000,
one in five of voting age, or over
175,000 and of this, as the Herald
says, there must be at least 1885,
900 qualified to vote. The fact is
that there are more men of voting
age in Florida than either of the
above papers claim, while the ra-
ito of voters to population is per-
haps lower in this state than in
eny other state in the South.
The Herald thinks that "pu"e
indifference" and "fear of Jury
duty" are the two reasons for this
low voting figure.
We do not agree with this: We
have seen too many instances of
men not paying their poll tax, to
believe it is anything more in the
great majority of cases than the
fact that so long as they do not
register they are not liable to be
caught for poll. We have had
men in this state tell us that they
did not intend to register because
they had never paid any personal
or poll tax, and if they
got on the books they would prob
ably be checked up and made to
pay that personal property tax.
When we have a law compelling
the return of personal taxable
property, and the payment of the
poll tax every year, instead Of
when the party wants to vote,
then we will have greater voting
population. 1t is a matter of rec
ord that when the state of South
Carolina placed the collection Ct
POLLS in the hands of its school
trustees in each school district,
and required his poll tax receipt
to be presented before the regis
tration ticket was given, it, at a
bound, advanced it's voting
strength to such degree that it
astounded the state and caused
many reports of "stuffed ballot
boxes" and other duplicating
frauds.
Put the collection of poll tax on
he school trustees in each district,
ind amend the school law to COW
sr this need, make the poll tax
payment each year compulsory in
stead of optional, require the poll
ak receipt with the application
or registration, and let tn; mat
er rest. There will soon be
away from the old mi
lority ruling the majority; and
he day will. soon pass when the
politician with his handful Of adj
lerents can do what the entire vot-
ng strength of the state alone
hould AZ. must do.
We do not believe the plan Of
he Punta Gorda Herald will
york, because forcing a man to
.ote will be surely interfering
vith his personal rights" and
is personal liberty" Besides,
you force man to exercise the
allot when he does not want to h
e VIII probably exercise it in a ]
ote to repeal the law compelling
i'm to vote. But if you force al