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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1905)
1 jc-w-jW- Pi i &i ,! The Commoner. VOLUME 5, NUMBER 15 lflUfnjiiMHi"iHHM ww 14 575 to 19,038, but in 1902 he was elect ed by 32,279 to 24,541, and in 1903 by 30,279 to 29,275, whllo at the recent election ho was defeated by a vote o 33,821 to 32,9G5, a plurality for his opponent of 850. The meaning of these figures is that Governor Garvin has successfully fought the republican machino in his state, winning two. olections, and, although defeatod, scor ing a groat moral victory in the last election. Ho has accomplished this without money: with the organization of his party at times badly demora lized, and never working in harmony under his leadership, with his oppo nents, the republican state leaders in possession of all the ofllces, civil, mili tary and judicial, and likewise provid ed with a superb organization, in com mand of ono of the most astute politi cal managers In the country General Charles II. Brayton, with the leading newspaper in the stato, the Providence Journal, constantly opposed to him, misrepresenting his position and villi fying him personally while, in addi tion, the republican machino has had at its command unlimited amounts of money having Senator Nelson W. Aldrich to call upon which, to say l ho least, was expended freely, if not judiciously, in the stato campaigns of 1903 and 1904. During the two years ho has been in office, 1903-1904, Governor Garvin has boon entirely shorn of executive authority, neither having the appoint ing power, the right of veto, nor the power of approving legislative acts; but ho has exercised, nevertheless, a greater influence on the conscience and intelligence of tho stato than any governor who has preceded him or than any public man in the previous history of tho state. For sixteen years previous to his election as governor ho was a mombor of the state legis latureelected as a democrat and constantly agitated for political equal ity and for tho rights of tho people. As Rhode Island has always been! backward in rogard to these matters, ho had a largo flold for agitation, but very littlo hope of- success; conse quently he was regarded for many years as a sort of political Don Quixoto, whose antics were subjects for mirth and derision, but were not to bo taken seriously. Gradually, however, it began to dawn upon the popular consciousness that the derided doctor, as ho was called, was accom plishing something, and the credit of securing the extension of tho suffrage to foreign-born citizens, in 1888, the passage of tho ton-hour, weekly pay ment, and labor bureau laws, and a great deal of labor and other legisla tion were more largely due to his efforts than to those of any other man, or, indeed, group of men. As a re sult the common people and" those of independent proclivities came to be lieve in him, with tho consequence that when an opportunity came he was elected governor on his own per sonal record and character. Handicapped as he was as governor, with no real power, Governor Garvin has during his two terms exerted a unique and telling influence. By spe cial messages, by magazine and other articles for the press, but particularly by speeches delivered on every pos sible occasion, before church clubs, at society and organization dinners, at public school and college functions, he has, aided therein by the prestige of his office as governor kept up a con stant and tolling fight, which has re sulted in making the political condi tions of tho state better known than over ueforo. These tactics worried the republican managers more than anything that ever happened before in the state, and they dreaded their continuance. The strenuous efforts to defeat Gov ernor Garvin in tho olections of 1903 and 1904 wore duo largely to the de termination on tho part of tho repub licans to get rid of him at all costs as, a state official, so as to mlnlmlzo the force of tho blows ho was dealing them. They attempted Jto make an issue against him in 1903 on tho ground that ho was "defaming the state," but although this shibboleth had some weight with the ignorant and unthinking, and thoso whose Interests led them to tako that view, it did not prevent his election in that year. When it is considered that tho re publicans are said on good authority to have spent in this campaign in the stato $200,000 in a variety of ways, uniforming marching clubs and. for torchlight processions for political meeting; for control of certain sec tions of tho foreign-born voters; for inducing liquor interests and the law and order interests to act with them; for the influence of all the "powers that prey;" for bringing about relig ious and race animosities that would help their cause for direct bribery of voters, and, last but not least for cor rupting democratic leaders and demo cratic election officials and that like wise the national ticket helped them Governor Garvin's defeat by only 856 votes on November 8 was in reality, in view of all these circumstances, a great moral victory, which is not even Surpassed by Folk in Missouri, La Follette in Wisconsin, Douglas in Massachusetts, Adams in Colorado, Toole in Montana or Johnson in Min nesota. With an outward appearance of re spectability Rhode Island is probably as corrupt politically as any state in the union. Tampering with the ma chinery of election has never in the past been conspicuous and glaring as in Pennsylvania, there has not been the palpable fraud in elections that has occurred in New York City, and there has been no wholesale boodling such as has taken place in St. Louis, Cincinnati and elsewhere, but Rhode Island has been absolutely in the con trol of a boss who by means of his political machine has been able to de spoil the people of all the public fran chises and to pass any legislation he saw fit. There has been very little petty grafting, but the large results have been because these conditions obtained even more effectively than elsewhere. Consequently "Rhode Isl and Is more thoroughly in the grasp of the capitalistic exploiters, whose aim is tho control of government for their own enrichment by the securing of public franchises, than any state In the union." In order to retain their power the Rhode Island republicans in the late election adopted all the objectionable tactics for 'corrupting the people and controlling elections that has pre vailed elsewhere, so that even now the state can not boast that in these respects it is better than tho worst of the politically corrupt, while the out look for the future is ominous. In Rhode Island American demo cratic ideas have never prevailed ex cept in the early" colonial history. The system of government has always been an aristocratic oligarchy, with a constant effort on the part of democ racy to fight its way out, but thus far without permanent success. Neither manhood suffrage nor equality of rep resentation in the legislature hag ever existed in the state, and these facts explain the existing low political con ditions. A property qualification for voting has always existed. In 1842, when the present state constitution was adopted in place of the King Charles the Second charter under which the colony and state had been governed from 1G63, the property qualification was somewhat modified, to tno extent tnat non-taxpaying citi zens of native birth were given a lim ited right of suffrage, while foreign born citizens were not allowed to vote unless they owned real estate. Through tho efforts chiefly of Dr. Gar vin this discrimination as to the foreign-born citizens was removed by an amendment to the state constitution passed in 1888. . At present there are three classes of vvotors, real estate, personal property and registry. The property voters can exercise the suf-frage-on all questions and for all offi cials, but the registry voters can not vote on any question involving the expenditure of money in any town or city nor for members of the city councils in any of the five cities in the state. Ono effect of this system is that while the cities elect democratic mayors they at the same time elect republican aldermen and councllmen. Sometimes it has been assumed by writers on municipal reform thatif the-" suffrage could be restricted to "those who have a stake in the com munity" wo would have better gov ernment, but the examples oi tne Rhode Island cities do not bear out this theory. On the contrary, the city council of the city of Providence has been exceedingly , recreant in caring for the city's interests, and has nearly always favpred instead of opposing the public franchise exploiters. The inequality of representation is the chief means by which the repub lican machine maintains itself in power. In the current discussion of state matters brought about by Gov ernor Ga.rvin's campaigns the past two ye.ars it has become common to refer to the small towns as "rotten boroughs." This is a very good char acterization, as the Rhode Island con stituencies so named exhibit the same phenomena as their English proto types did previous to the passage of the reform bill namely, representa tion given to a locality with a very small population equal to a locality with hundreds of times "greater popu lation. Every town and city in the state is given one senator, but as the city of Providence had a population in 1900 of 176,597, while the town (ship) of West Greenwich had only 606, the inequality of the representation is very apparent. In 1902 twenty small towns, with a population of 36,672 and 8,934 enrolled voters, elected republl can senators' by a total of 3,855 votes, while the rest of the stato elected the other nineteen senators. (In 1900 the state had a population of 428.55G, and in 1902 the number of enroling voters was 78,542, of whom 59,792 vot ed for candidates for governor.) Tho senate consists of thirty-nine mem bers, and practically governs the stato like an executive committee; conse quently the twelfth part of the entire population, which resides in these sparsely settled country town (ships), is actually in control of the state government. The Rhode Island legislature has always had executive powers. It elects the greater part of all civil and criminal officers, all commission ers, as well as the judges and clerks of the inferior and supreme courts; and its power of legislation is abso lutely untrammeled, since the gover nor has no veto power over legisla tion, nor do legislative acts require his signature to be valid. Until 1901 the governor did have some appoint ing power, including the right to name some commissioners and a few depart ment heads, but in that year a law was passed practically taking away all his appointing power. This "law pro vides that the governor can "appoint" these officials, but if the senate fails to "advise and consent" within three days then the senate itself can pro ceed to elect. The only civil appoint ment left by this law wholly in the governor's own control was that of his private secretary. The senate only "confirmed" seven of Governor Gar vin's appointments in 1903, of whom five were women serving without sal- 1WJVIWTX'J A New Book By William J. Bryan, Entitled Under Other Flags Travels, Speeches, Lectures. giKOE Mr. Bryan's European tour a year ago ho has boon boslcgod by requests for copies of lot-- tors describing his travels abroad. Thoso lottors togothor with a number of his lectures and othor public addresses, havo boon gathered togothor and publlshod In book form. Tho Euro- t poan lottors contain Mr. Bryan's account of what ho saw and learned whllo In Europo, and present Interesting vlows of Ireland, England, Scotland, Franco, Switzerland, Gormany, Russia, Holland, Belgium, and tho Netherlands, togothor with a description of his visits with Count Tolstoy and Popo Loo. In this volumo Mr. Bryan writes ontortalnlngly of tho ."Birth of tho Cuban Itopubllc." Ho also included his lectures on "A Conquorlng Nation," and "Tho Valuo of an Idoal." Other artlclos In tho volurao aro "Tho attraction of Farming," wrltton for tho Saturday evening rosi; "i'caco," tho address delivered at tho Holland Society dlnnor In 1DM; "Naboth's Vlnoyard,"" tho address at tho grovo of PhUo Shorman Bonnott; Democracy's Appeal to Culture, address boforo tho Alumni Association of Syracuse Unlvorslty; and an account of hla rocont trip to tho Grand Canyon entitled "Wonders of tho Wost." Tho book Is Ulustratod, well printed on good papor and substantially bound. Ono of tho features of "Dndor Othor Flogs" Is tho "Notos on Europo," wrltton after his ro turn from abroad, and giving in brief form a rosumo of tho many Interesting things ho saw. The sale of Vnder Other Flags has been Oery gratifying to the author. Although the first edition appeared in December the fifth edition is now on the press. The Volume of sales increases from day to day. Agents find the book an easy seller and order them n lots of from 25 to 100. Neatly Bound in Cloth 400 Page Octavo Under Other Flags, Postage Prepaid ... . $1.25 With The Commoner, One Year .... . $1.75 ...AGENTS- WANTED... I Address THE COMMONER, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA WWhMWM)flAMVWj .m jmi J'2 llj.,