New-York tribune., 1919-07-31
The 18th Amendment
To the Editor of The Tribune

10 the Editor OF The Tribune
Sir The almost frenzied energy and hvs-
terical clan1or accompanying the LEGISLATION
to enforce the prohibition amendment to
the Constitution, together with the riots in
Washington, prompt the writer who has
read The Tribune for forty years and more
(nearer ifty), to ask why You DO not sue-
gest and urge and fight for some attention
being paid to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Is the liquor question of more Importance
than the right to vote and proper repre-
sentation in the Electoral College? Or are
we like the Athenians, of whom st. Luke
says in Acts, "Now all the Athenians and
the strangers sojourning there spent their
time in nothing else but either to tell or
hear some new thing? Is the latest amend
ment good because it is new?
know we'll the reason why our Repub-
llcan leaders in the past have not touched
the question | want you to fight for. | do.
not mean force bill; mean the repre-
scntaton in the Electoral College, which is
reflected in the national convention But
have VIC not paid the full price? Take the
1916 figures. ] will refer to but one state
South Carolina. The vote was: Wilson.
$1,000 t'n round tigures); Hughes, 1900
proportion Of over thirty to one. South
Carolina had population of 100000.
Thus the number of persons voting was one
in twenty-five. The states electoral vote is
on the same basis as New yorks In New
York the old normal vote was one in five
in California, with woman's suffrage, it
was, in 1915. nearly one in two and one
half.
Does anybody suppose an aldermanic
election in this city would stand for one
minute on any such returns as those from
South Carolina in Presidential election
1t would be impossible. And yet the coun-
try swallows the South Carolina returns
without a shrug of the shoulders.
The Fourteenth Amendment covers the
situation. Congress can and should re-
duce South Cardinals representation in
Congress and the Electoral College or next
year there will be the same disgraceful cleo
tion returns-a situation under which the
Democratic party enters the election with
forty votes at least in its pocket before
ballot is cast, which are in excess OF any
thing that party~ is entitled to were the
Fourteeuth Amendment enforced.
That amendment refers to the civil rights
ana pOuClc1l 1reeuOm OF the American cltl-
zen. 1t is not enforced. The prohibition
amendment restricts the freedom of the citi-
zen and apparently is to be enforced to
the hlt. Now it is not question of reviv-
ing the force bill, so called. Let the Re
pubicans say to those states -unfortunate-
ly, they all Of the old Southern states:
keep your election laws, restrict the right
to vote, but suffer the consequences by los
ing votes in the Electoral College, And
then let those states, where from one voter
in ten to one in twenty only is allowed to
vote, think the thing over
1t is far from impossible that those forty
odd votes might win the 1920 election for
a Democrat, even in these days of vocif-
erous humanitarianism. And /, therefore,
ask you seriously to raise the question on
your editorial page, for once honestly put
there can be but one answer. Mr.. Wilson
or the candidate whom he may select surely
cannot want forty odd votes of the kind
l describe. Or does hec
AN OLDTIME YANKEE.
Brooklyn, July "a, 1919.