People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1894 — Purifying Politics. [ARTICLE]

Purifying Politics.

That our practical politics is subversive of our system of government no one who knows anything about practical politics will deny. Not only does the minority rule, but it is at insignificant minority. It is the boss or a small ring of bosses—about which there is so much indignantly said and written—that is always on top. The majority earnestly desire pure politics and decent representation intellectually and morally; and often they make real sacrifice to obtain such results. But whatever the respectable, high minded portion of our voters do or there is no general improvement in political methods or in the character of candidates; and when a reform, like the Australian ballot system, is secured, it is found that it offers no relief for the worst abuses that it was intended to correct. Indeed the Australian ballot makes the work of opposing machine politics and defeating machine can-

didates only the more difficult. No difference how corrupt a nominating convention may have been or how utterly unworthy of confidence and support the candidate may be. the work of the convention and its candidate can be defeated by an independent movement only by the red tape of a petition; and perhaps not even then, for the Australian ballot is so complex that thousands are afraid to mark it anywhere except in the circle. This system has not produced the results that were anticipated by its advocates. It rids the polls of a herd of noisy ticketpeddlers; it saves the candidates the expense of distributing the tickets, and it permits a comparatively few, who might, un der the old system of voting, lose their employment by not voting as their dictated, to vote as they please. These are the advantages and all the advantages of the Australian ballot system. The disadvantages, in addition to the one already mentioned—the difficulty of making independent nominations—are several. In actual operation of the law, fraud is more easily committed than under the old system. In Chicago 1,900 fraudulent votes have been cast in one ward; over a hundred votes have been known to be miscounted in a single precinct; and whatever fraud is committed is covered up as effectually as if the evidence was buried beneath an immovable mountain. The ballots cannot be reached except by the election commission, and, in our experience in Chicago, the frauds have been to the liking of the commission. We never shall huve pure polities until voters are ready to vote independently and have a full opportunity to make the independent vote felt. If the ballot law can be amended so as to make independent nominations more easy of accomplishment, it will better subserve the interests of the voter.