The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-01-21

a paper published in Chicago calls
itself The Republican and claims for
its motto Truth Courage JUS
tice.s One would surmise from this
that it was devoted to falsehood,
cowardice and injustice for if 1t lived
up to its motto it would not need to
proclaim it. Judging from the first
page of this publication we find con-
firmation for this surnise, for the
statements on this page are too gross
ly misleading to leave ground for a
superstition that they were issued
through ignorance. The whole page
is devoted to the effort to convince
its readers that negroes are not per
mitted to vote in the South. This
Stops over to the last page in tabular
form as follows:
The Voter Of Illinois
Illinois, population $1,000. $4,000
Popular vote 1920 1890. 2,100, 900
Electoral vote ........... 29
u. S. Representatives 1900. 81
It requires $4,000 voters to elect a
congressman in Illinois.
The Voter Of Georgia
Georgia, population ..... 3,1O0, 900
Popular vote 1920 ........ 10000
Electoral vote .......... IA
u. S. Representatives . IL
1t requires only 10000 voters to
elect congressman in Georgia.
Then there is the picture of the
Illinois voter looking at the Georgia
voter and saying: Gee. ~ didn't
know he was seven times bigge'n me. =
It is minor matter that while this
writer overstated the present popula-
ton of Illinois by only fifteen thou
sand he overstate the population of
Georgia by more than. two hundred
thousand More important is the fact
that he knew the representation of the
states was based on their population
ten years ago when Illinois had only
{, 1898, 591 and Georgia had 2609.121.
There is much greater difference
between the population of Georgia
and of Illinois now than there wasj
ten years ago, the time when the ap-
portionment was made.
The vote is confined to the popu-
Iation twenty-one years old or over
and every well informed man knows
that the. proportion of children is
much larger in the South than at
the North. The census shows that
sixty per cent of the population of
Illinois was of voting age ten years
ago while only about f0rty-five per
rent of the population of Georgia was
Lwenty-one or over. Expressed IN |
figures Illinois in 1910 had 3. 310,67S
men and women more than twenty
one years old, and as the state has
gained fifteen per cent in population
since then we may assume that 1t
now has 3, s07,274. Men and women
both voted in Illinois while due to the
fact that the registration books in
Georgia close in the spring the wo-
men of that state did not get
chance to qualify and could not vote.
Georgia had male population OF
800 GIG twenty-one years of age or
more in 1910 and gaining shade less
than eleven per cent probably had
sss.a7s in 1920. Accepting the state
ment of the Republican as true as 70 |
the vote cast, not quite one fourth OF |
the possible voters in Georgia voted |
while very little more than half OF
the nossible voters in Illinois went 70
the nolls. Instead of one Georgia
voter exercising as much poiitical
mower as seven Illinois voters one
Georgia voter did not have the streng-
i If three Illinois voters. The fact
that as large per cent OF Georglans
Who could have voted as OF those OF
r,,;nois did not vote may be easily
oxnlained on the idea that there was
- donbt Of the result in Georgia
while Illinois was a contested state
Times-U Union.