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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--
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Neatly Bound in Cloth 400 Page Octavo
Under Other Flags, Postage Prepaid ... . $1.25
With The Commoner, One Year .... . $1.75
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Address THE COMMONER,
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