Volume XVIII, Number I

Thursday, 3 January, 1895

The aim of this journal is to reflect public opinion. The utmost care is taken to treat each question upon which extracts are given in a perfectly fair, non-partisan and unbiased manner. The editors do not assume to determine the politics of any paper quoted, the political credits being taken from the publishers' own statements.

*The condensed extracts printed in these columns are not rewritten, but are in the language of the original article.

See PUBLISHERS' NOTICE on opposite page.

AME

MERICAN
AFFAIRS

[From Tuesday, December 25, to Monday, December 31, inclusive.] Editorial

The wave of public sentiment in favor of political reform that is sweeping over the country, so far Summary from showing any signs of spending its force, appears to rise higher with each succeeding month. In the National arena it finds its strongest and most conspicuous expression in the demand that appointments in the Federal civil service be no longer dealt out as political spoils. In local matters in the North it is reform of municipal government that especially engages public attention. The latest and in some respects the most striking manifestation of the reform spirit is to be found in the South. Many of the leading Democratic newspapers in that section frankly confess that election frauds have been carried on there in the past deliberately, continuously and on a gigantic scale, and that the election laws in many States offer unbounded facilities for such frauds. More than that, many of the prominent Southern journals excuse and even defend this policy as necessary in the past in order to prevent negro rule. But these same journals now admit that the conditions bave changed, that there is no longer any danger of a "force bill" and that honest elections are demanded by every consideration not alone of right but of self-interest. How far this change of attitude on the part of the Southern press is due to the fact that the Populists and Republicans by uniting have turned these bad election laws into a means of defeating the very men who in the past have profited by them, it is unnecessary to inquire. The important fact is that the movement for honest elections in the South appears to be gathering irresistible force.

Hardly less striking than the position of the Southern Democratic newspapers is that of leading Northern Republican newspapers. These journals, many of which advocated the so-called "force bill," now urge that such legislation be avoided, and predict that the present trend of political sentiment in the South will lead to the gradual disappearance of sectionalism. Never before since the close of the Civil War could such a symposium of press comment as that presented in PUBLIC OPINION this week have been gleaned from the hostile political press of the North and South.

Civil service reform and the general question of municipal reform have been treated at length in several recent issues of PUBLIC OPINION. The most noteworthy specific movement in the way of laying bare municipal corruption is the investigation of the police department of New York City by the Lexow committee, which has during the past week reached the climax, and perhaps the conclusion, of its investigation. Beginning with the lower ranks of the police force the committee has gradually worked upward until at last it forced from a police captain, Schmittberger, a full confession, verifying the worst charges of blackmail, bribery, corruption and partnership between the police and the most

vicious and criminal elements of the city. Several police commissioners and captains are implicated, directly or indirectly, in the shameless conspiracy against social order and decency, while the testimony of Superintendent Byrnes condemns the entire police system of the city. Such a revelation regarding the police department of the National metropolis is no less disheartening than astounding. And yet it is quite likely that such collusion as has been proved to exist in New York between the officers of the law and the professional violators of the law is, in some degree, the rule rather than the exception in the cities and towns generally throughout the country. Chicago is about to enter upon an investigation of its police force similar to the inquiry just closing in New York, and the success of the Lexow committee will doubtless lead to many such official overhaulings.

On the Civics page of this issue of PUBLIC OPINION will be found a singularly concise yet comprehensive discussion of the problem of munici pal government by the Hon. Seth Low, ex-mayor of Brooklyn and now president of Columbia College. Mr. Low speaks not merely as a student of municipal government but as one who has had a rare opportunity to put his theories to the test of practice.

And this leads us to remark that it affords us much gratification to be able to present to our readers such a series of articles as have appeared on the Civics page of PUBLIC OPINION during the last two months, in the interest of the Extension Department of the American Institute of Civics. These articles are written by recognized authorities upon the subjects treated, and cover a wide range of topics connected with the duties of citizenship. They are written in every case especially for the Extension Department and are first printed in PUBLIC OPINION.

While the press of all parties and of all sections of the country favors the building of the Nicaragua Cana', if practicable, there is much diversity of opinion as to the relations which the United States Government should assume toward the great and costly undertaking. It seems quite unlikely that the Morgan bill or any similar measure will pass this Congress. There is a growing impression that the engineering features of the project have not yet been examined into with sufficient care to per mit a reliable estimate of the cost to be made.

A bill has been introduced in the House, prepared by Labor Commissioner Wright and Mr. Kernan, one of Colonel Wright's colleagues on the late strike commission, providing for a National board of arbitration to settle strikes on interstate railroads. The bill is drawn upon the general lines recommended in the commission's report on the Chicago strike. The bill makes it a misdemeanor for employes to strike or for a company to discharge an employe without thirty days notice during the pendency of any arbitration. Press comment on the bill is little more than a repetition of the comment upon the plan as outlined in the report. As yet there is no indication regarding the chance of the bill for consideration or passage at this session of Congress. An interesting article by a prominent labor leader, advocating the contract system as a remedy for labor troubles, will be found in the Sociological department of this issue of PUBLIC OPINION.

A two days' conference of about 300 leaders of the Populist party, including 25 members of the National executive committee, was held in St. Louis last Friday and Saturday. An address to the people of the country was adopted, demanding free coinage of silver, denouncing the employment of Federal troops to suppress strikes, condemning the conviction of Debs, indorsing the Omaha (Populist) platform, and calling upon the people to unite "to rescue the Government from the control of monopolists and concentrated wealth." A committee was appointed to publish the evidence regarding the alleged frauds in the recent Alabama State election. Coxey's bond scheme was commended to the consideration of the people.

Many thousands of people in the drouth-stricken counties of Nebraska are reported in dire distress, and contributions of food and clothing are urgently requested.

FOR BALLOT REFORM IN THE SOUTH. Baltimore Sun (Dem.).

THE political future of the South is one of the problems which has long been a source of anxious concern and perplexity to unprejudiced minds. Ever since the hasty enfranchisement of millions of colored voters who were utterly unprepared for the intelligent discharge of the duties of citizenship it has been evident that one of two things must come to pass in every part of the South in which the negroes were in the majority. Either the educated white race would have to go to the wall politically and allow the black race to govern, or it would have to keep the reins of government in its own hands, in spite of the principle of majorities. Neither alternative was a pleasant one, but under the law of self-preservation, which is as strong and imperative in the case of nations as of individuals, the latter was, of course, infinitely preferable to the former. Neither alternative would have been presented had the Republican party after the war been governed by real patriotism and an honest desire for the true welfare of the freedmen as well as for that of the whole country. But the Republican partisans and political adventurers of that period thought they saw in negro enfranchisement an instrumentality for keeping the South in a condition of perpetual political vassalage, from which they might reap untold advantages of every sort. A system of gradual enfranchisement, based on an educational qualification, would have created no alarm, aroused comparatively little antagonism, and by its more deliberate operation would have prepared both races for the change and prevented the political convulsions and upheavals that followed the sudden and violent alteration in their relations.

The position in which the Southern people are placed is, however, not of their choosing, and would long ago have been abandoned but for the hostile attitude of the Republican party and the threat of compulsory legislation. Now that these political menaces have ceased, there is reason to expect that there will be before long a general movement in the South for such reforms as will put the exercise of suffrage upon a new and more satisfactory basis, and thus remove existing political grievances and the complaints and antagonism to which they give rise. objections to the educational qualification as there are to every other test of this kind, but on the whole, it is probably the best that can be devised, and it has the advantage of acting as an educational stimulant and aiding in raising the intellectual standard of those whom it affects.

New York Tribune (Rep.).

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THE Hon. Matthew C. Butler, of South Carolina, has been taking lessons of Governor Waite. Butler, like Waite, is greatly exercised over the wrongs of his people. After twelve years of happy existence under a law which enabled him and a few of his friends to rule the State as they saw fit and disfranchise objectionable opponents, he has waked up to the fact that, when by chance the opponents happen to be executing the law, it is a powerful instrument for evil. Consequently he has suddenly become "interested in peace and good order in the State." His friends made a law which, according to his own account, was constructed for the express purpose of disfranchising a large body of the citizens. "It put all elections in the State practically under the control of a State machine, and things went just the way the machine said," and under its management it was possible, acting strictly under the law, to deprive of their votes 40,000 citizens-white or colored, just as the pleasure of the machine dictated. "Of course we all acquiesced in those laws for a great many years," says Senator Butler, and he adds that nobody knew how bad they were until the last campaign. That campaign was the one in which the Tillmanites, who had got control of the machine in spite of the law enabling Mr. Butler's friends to disfranchise negroes and enemies, used their power to elect a legislature which has retired Mr. Butler from the United States Senate. No wonder he thinks the Registration law a bad one, and is convinced that it is unconstitutional. He has sowed the wind; he does not enjoy reaping the whirlwind.

The South, with the race question solved, will be a new South. The negro is no longer the factor in politics that he was a few years ago. A reaction against the demoralizing effect on the whole people by continued election frauds has set in. The conviction is gaining ground that the South has new problems to solve, and cannot go on forever listening to the fervid oratory of war-time reminiscence. North Carolina has been among the first of the Southern States to respond to the new conditions, and, forsaking the traditions of Bourbonism, boldly to face the issues of the day. With honest elections, a fair measure of home rule, and a people undisturbed by dread of negro domination, the State will be on the road to a new prosperity. Then there can be free and fair discussion of National questions.

Richmond Times (Dem.).

THE statement which Senator Butler, of South Carolina, has put ou of the condition of affairs as elections are concerned, now existing in South Carolina, is most startling, but no one need be surprised at it Senator Butler tells us that the Tillmanites use the machinery for fraudu lent elections, not only to disfranchise all the negroes, but to disfranchis also 40,000 of South Carolina's best white citizens, and that it is by the use of this fraudulent election machinery that Tillman's party has taker possession of the State and sent Tillman to the United States Senate We hope most sincerely that the Senate will adopt the resolution offered by Mr. Allen [Pop., Neb.], providing for a committee to investigate the last election of a Legislature in Alabama. These cases illustrate the vita importance of the fight the Times is making for honest elections in Vir ginia. We have often pointed out, what every man's common sense tell him is true, that if we tolerate frauds in elections to beat the negro, jus as soon as the negro is no longer a menace one part of the white popula tion will begin to cheat the other part to appropriate to itself all the hon ors and emoluments of government. When, nearly twelve months ago the Times discovered that our elections had become rotten, the State wa at once furnished with a tremendous illustration of how we should win up if cheating in elections were tolerated at all. Many men are still apa thetic when they are at the verge of a system that will enslave them corrupt them and degrade them. We want every stimulus applied to these men that is possible, and therefore we want all the facts in the South Carolina and the Alabama cases brought out into the broad ligh of day.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Rep.).

THE movement for free and fair elections is rapidly extending through out the South. The division of the white vote into opposing factions has eliminated the race line in politics and resulted in a demand for honest methods. In several States laws have been recently introducer for better securing an honest conduct of elections, and the press of the South, almost without exception, is earnestly urging reform in this important matter. In the Georgia Legislature what is known as the general registration bill is about to become a law. The Atlanta Constitu tion which-holding its own as a leading paper of the South-first inaug urated the movement for ballot reform, is enthusiastic over the evident effect of its agitation. It has advocated the adoption of the Australiar ballot system, but has not yet succeeded in educating the masses of its readers, or at least the legislature, quite up to the desired plane. It is assured that it will come later, as in fact it is the natural supplement to a general registration law. To this radical change of sentiment and method at the South, every patriotic man will bid godspeed. It will destroy sectionalism, obliterate the line of demarkation between the old slave States and the North, extinguish the yet smoldering prejudices begotten of slavery and intensified by an unsuccessful revolution. It will stimulate immigration to the South, invite capital and intelligent labor, build up manufactories and encourage that freedom of discussion and action without which no State or section can be truly prosperous and progressive. It will emphasize and confirm the declaration that there is indeed a New South.

Indianapolis Journal (Rep.).

A STAFF correspondent of the New York Tribune in North Carolina finds encouraging indications there of a breaking up of old party lines. The people have become tired of machine government and dishonest elections, and there is a general and growing demand for reform. The present system of elections and local government in North Carolina was established by the Democrats in 1877 for the purpose of perpetuating that party in power. It reduces machine government to a very simple system. About all that the people have to do is to elect a Legislature. The Legislature elects justices of the peace for each county, and these justices appoint five commissioners for each county, who levy taxes, regulate public expenditures, elect the school boards and appoint registrars and poll-book holders for every election district in the State. Thus the election of a Democratic Legislature insures local Democratic government throughout the State and the undisputed control of the election machinery. The mayors of nearly all cities are elected by boards of aldermen, and the cities are gerrymandered so as to make these solidly Democratic. The result has been that for seventeen years past the Republicans of North Carolina have been practically disfranchised and the government has been republican only in name. But the people are getting tired of the state of things, and out of sheer shame are beginning to demand better election laws and fair elections. The Populists, finding that the Democratic machine was used against them as relentlessly as it had been against the Republicans, have joined hands with the latter in

demanding election reform and home rule in local affairs. There is no longer any fear of negro domination, and the repeal of the Federal Election laws has removed what nearly all Southern whites regarded, whether reasonably or not, as a standing menace. It is certainly an interesting fact that the repeal of these laws should be followed so soon by a decided movement in several Southern States for better State election laws. The Tribune correspondent thinks a revival of the Lodge bill or any similar form of Federal legislation at this time would be harmful in that it would tend to solidify the Democratic vote and reopen the race question. "This may be strong talk for Northern ears," says the correspondent, "but it is justified by the opinion of all earnest and intelligent Republicans in this State, who have made a courageous and often heroic stand for principles and convictions, and patiently endured insult, persecution and obloquy." As the present disposition of the Southern people seems to be toward better election laws and fairer elections, perhaps it would be wise to await the outcome of the movement rather than take the risk of arresting or retarding it by a revival of the race question.

Springfield Republican (Ind.).

THE problem which these Southern election reformers are trying to solve is this: To enact election laws which shall be substantially fair in their application to all citizens, black and white, and which shall at the same time keep the Government under white control. There is an influential and growing wing of these reformers, which is principally anxious to keep the control of affairs in intelligent hands, regardless of color, but the feeling of the majority is that nothing which has been accom. plished by way of suppressing the negro as a factor in politics shall be abandoned. The consequence is that substantially all the election reform legislation which has been enacted in Southern States discriminates in some way practically, if not avowedly, against the negro. This is the case with the new constitution of Mississippi, in its understandingthe-constitution clause, which gives election officers an excellent opportunity to reject negro applicants for registration; with the poll-tax requirement in the Tennessee law, some provisions of the Alabama law, and the Virginia law also. There are some Southerners who would discriminate only against ignorance and unfitness in the new election laws, but it is to be expected that the precedent already established of discriminating against the negro will be generally followed in future legislation.

Florida Times-Union (Dem.): The public conscience of the whole country was never so thoroughly aroused as now on the subject of honest elections. There is no noticeable divergence of opinion. All men of all parties and all factions are united in favoring the adoption of such measures as will insure a free ballot and a fair count. Changes in election laws in the direction of superior assurances of fairness will be made in many States. In none will they be more needed than in Florida. Our present law could not be worse. Any election law administered by honest men would be fair. Under our law we have not a real republican government. The county commissioners and the inspectors of elections constitute an oligarchy that can and too often does rule the people. The State convention demanded a change in our election laws. This is the one good thing that this convention did. The people demand such change as will give each ticket representation among the inspectors. The legislator who opposes this demand will not only make a grave mistake, but will also commit á grievous offense against the people he represents. New Orleans Times-Democrat (Dem.): We quite agree with a correspondent of the Times-Democrat in what he says about the bugaboo of "negro supremacy being used as an excuse for ballot-box stuffing, fraudulent counting, etc., to perpetuate a Democratic ring in power; and we believe the people are beginning to understand this trick. At the same time, we do not agree with our correspondent that "the movement for ballot reform is nothing more nor less than an effort to postpone honest elections." We need both ballot reform, including therein a qualification or limitation of the negrą suffrage which will get rid of the negro bugaboo, and honest elections, and we believe that both can be won together. Our correspondent thinks that the great political battle in Louisiana in 1896 will be for honest elections. We hope and believe so. The Times-Democrat hoped that we could secure some improvement through the late legislature. We would suggest to our correspondent not to doubt the advocates of ballot reform, but to unite with all the honest elements of the State, who constitute an immense majority of its population, to protect Louisiana from the rule of the ballot-box stuffer.

Chattanooga Times (Dem.): We cannot reform the ballot by trusting the enactment of right laws and their enforcement to mere partisans.

The ballot must be purified or our Government is doomed. That it will be reformed the late crushing defeat of Tammany is evidence of an impressive nature. Nearly all election frauds can be stopped by just a little vigorous enforcement of the penalties provided in the law. Send a few rascals to jail, from sheriffs down to poll-booth judges, and we will soon see the end of most of that business. The Chattanooga Times has been, for lo, these many years, pleading for decent election laws, with suitable penalties attached for their violation. We shall go on thus pleading, and meantime we shall not worry over what others may say.

Nashville Banner (Dem.): The purification of our elections is not to be accomplished or promoted by going behind the election returns for the partisan purpose of changing results. Such a method is necessarily dangerous and gives opportunity and encouragement to fraud. It is not by overthrowing the certified returns of the sworn officers of elections that the ballot box will be protected, but it is by hurling the penalties of the law upon the officers who violate their oaths. What we need in this State is to send a lot of ballot box, manipulators and election corruptionists-Democrats and Republicans-to the penitentiary. The man who steals a vote or connives at such a wrong is as much a thief as a till-tapper or pickpocket, and he ought to be punished as a thief.

Memphis Commercial Appeal (Dem.): It is undoubtedly true that in past years this State has had its full share of election frauds and corruption; and we do not pretend that the Democratic party has been guiltless of these wrongs. What we do say is, that the Democratic party has never been so guilty as the Republican party has been, and that the Democratic party has steadily sought by good laws to guard the purity of the ballot, and that it has done this over the united opposition of the Republican party.

New York Press (Rep.): The Press cordially commends the course of the Atlanta Constitution in battling for honest elections in Georgia. The Constitution says that "public opinion in Georgia never has indorsed election frauds, but only during the past few years has it begun to open its eyes to the threatening possibilities and demoralizing results of dishonest elections. It is now demanding that prompt steps shall be taken to guard against fraud and preserve the purity of the ballot box." We hope this is true and that the struggle for honest suffrage will be carried forward to success. The question should not in any narrow sense be a partisan one, for the experience of New York has shown that no party can afford to depend for supremacy on fraud and intimidation at the polls.

PROF. B. F. RILEY, D. D., of the University of Georgia, in an article in the New York Independent, says: "Within the last thirty years election frauds have been frequent in many parts of the Union; but perhaps no section has had greater notoriety for this species of immorality than the States of the South. It has been a matter of much serious and critical comment alike from the press and the representatives of the National Congress. But little attempt has been made to deny the charge, however frequent have been the efforts to palliate the offense, or to justify the wrong. Within a short period of time there has sprung up, in different portions of the South, a salutary sentiment against a practice the reaction from which is demoralizing and ruinous. It is interesting to note how rapidly the spirit is growing as the denunciation of the practice is caught up by one prominent journal after another throughout the South. Of course the majority of our people have opposed it from the beginning, but the dextrous manipulation of politicians and machine managers has put the matter beyond the control of the protesting element."

O

"DROP THE RACE QUESTION."

Cincinnati Tribune (Rep.).

THE president of one of the banks in Rome, Ga., in a recent letter to J. D. Hearne, Esq., of this city, says: "As you and I have touched on the political situation more than once in the past, it is with pleasure I mention to you some of the results the election has had in the South.

"There is not a particle of bitterness. On the contrary, the people are taking it good humoredly. In fact, many say that they are glad of it. If we now have a return of prosperous times, and the Republican party will let the negro alone, they will divide the vote in the South so largely that we will never again hear of the Solid South.' As a lover of peace and good order I ask the co-operation of yourself and all my Republican friends to this end. There are many, many of us in the South who would vote with the Republicans on economic questions if they would just let the race question alone. Believe me, there is nothing but trouble and annoyance to the American people to agitate the race question, where peace and prosperity will reign if let alone."'