The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-05-15
A Well-Meant Idea Foolishly Stated

Assuming that illitcracy and corruption are one and
the same thing in a voter, Frank j. Loesch, chairman
of the Chicago Crime commission which is trying to dis
pose of racketeers by making faces at them through
the medium of who's Hoodlum in Chicago?" "has come
out with another proposal to bring about the millennium.
This time he would disfrancnise the ~iliterate voters. He
made his plan public through the Chattanooga univer-
sity institute Of justice, recently. -
1t doesn't matter much how a bad voter is disfran-
chised, just so you catch him some way and perform the
operation, but it is not certain that branding the litter
ate as an undesirable elector is strictly the proper class
i~fication on which to base the new reform or even what
Mr.. Loesch actually meant. ~1lterate voters have per-
formed vital functions in the development Of the nation
in it's time. The colored vote in the day when it was
hardly to be rated as anything but ~iliterate was the
decisive factor in many states in retaining them in line
for the party which guided the nation in progress into
prosperity and to a status Of international power among
the nations.
. However. it is plain that Mr. Loesch actually is driving
at voters who lack the simple virtues of honest citizen
ship and respect for law. In that the illiterates have no
monopoly, nor are all ~illiterates that. There are q good
many educated people who are not good citizens and
whose exercise of the franchise is a pernicious privilege.
What Mr.. Loesch means is that there are voters who
are just so many accomplices of criminals because they
do not possess the sense of honor to shun alliance be-
tween politics and criminality. If there is any way to
get rid of these, Mr.. Loesca will win appreciation the ma
ton over by pointing out how 1t can be done-witl due
consideration for the political conception of the right Of
ballot.
Mr.. Loesch says it would justify the revision Of the
constitution to excise this cancer in the body polite. Or
ganized crime, he says, is directly traceable to the re-
lationships which the underworld is able to build up with
inscriptions politicians. These politicians have in
fluence from top to bottom of the law enforcement ma
chine-from members of the legislature, and judges,
down to the policeman on the beat.
The underworld, therefore, has things its own way be-
cause its political friends can pull strings for it. And
the politicians keep themselves in office by manipulate
ing great masses of i~lliterate or seni-iMiterate voters, who
vote blindly, as they are told, but whose votes count for
lust as much as the votes of ministers, university presi-
dents or bankers.
T. So, says MI. 1oesch:
1.-THE ~iliterate voter must be disfranchised, after a
reasonable time is given to qualify the voter, and the
right to vote given to men and women only who intelli-
gently use the English language"
Now we know what we suspected at the outset, that
Mr.. Loesch is talking foolishly. E@-z---
without denying that crime conditions are rapidly
getting uncomfortable, and without denying Mr.. Loeschs
knowledge Of the facts, it is quite possible to disagree
viii this rather sweeping conclusion.
Unfortunately, the mere ability to read and write does
not guarantee that a man is going to vote intelligently.
A dunbbell who can read may be even more dangerous
than one who cannot, for he can pore over the propa-
ganda emitted by the INSCRIPTIONS. 1t might be desir-
able to limit the vote to those who can vote intelli-
gently; but how on earth are you ever going to succeed
in drawing that line? And how many of us would be
able to go to the ballot box if you did?
Our democracy has its faults, beyond a doubt. The
demagogue and the rascal have always been able to get
votes, and very likely they always will. But the history
of the nation shows that a real leader-a Lincoln, a
Rooseyelt-does not get ignored. No man can make a
greater mistake than to underestimate the American
capacity for following a genuine statesman.
There are plenty of defects at the bottom of the So
cil structure. But there hasn't been any too much good
leadership in the last decade, either. ~