AMENDMENT TO SECTION SIXTEEN OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON TAXATION AND FINANCE. Patron-Mr. Turnbull. Add at the end of sub-section "b" the following: But the exemption mentioned in this sub-section shall not 2 apply to any industrial school, individual or corporate, not 3 the property of this State, that contracts for work of 4 any kind, establishes work shops, printing establishments, 5 or factories of any kind that do work for compensation, or 6 manufacture articles for sale in competition with like work 7 shops or factories in the community in which such school 8 is located. REPORT OF A MINORITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE, QUALIFICATION AND ON ELECTIONS. To the President and Members of the Convention: Being unable to agree with the report filed by a majority of the Committee on the Elective Franchise, etc., we ask leave. to submit the following report as to the right of suffrage, and method of voting: We do not think that any man who now has the right of suffrage should be deprived of that right. There is no right which a man has in a government like ours that can be dearer to him than the right of suffrage. It is the right preservative of all rights, and we most earnestly insist that we have no more right to take away his right to vote, than we have to take away his property. To take away his right to vote is in effect to take away his right to protect his property, his liberty and his life. We, therefore, must decline to lay upon any of the present voters of this Commonwealth a burden, as a prerequisite to voting, with which it is impossible for them to comply. Under the majority and one of the minority reports the voters of the State are divided into the soldier class, the property class, and non-property holding class, and the non-property holding class is to be subjected to examinations and tests not laid upon the others. This dividing of the voters into classes and subjecting one class to burdens not laid upon the others is contrary to the nature and spirit of our institutions. The first class provided for is the soldier class. It is but proper to allow them to retain a right which they already have. Many of them are now, and doubtless were when they rendered military services, non-property holders. This suggests the thought, is it wise to discriminate against the non-property holders who furnish so many of our soldiers and thus destroy, or at least lessen, their love of country? The second class mentioned in these reports are those who, or whose wife, shall have paid to the State taxes for the year preceding that in which he offers to vote amounting to as much as $1.00 on property owned by and assessed against him or his wife. At the present rate of taxation this would require the ownership of $250.00 worth of property. This property qualification would exclude perhaps two-thirds of the present voters of the Commonwealth. We submit that a property test is not a just and proper test for suffrage. The property holder does not bear all the burdens of the government. As above suggested, a great number of the soldiers who fight its battles are not property holders. The laborers in the fields and in the mines and shops, who do so much to create the prosperity and wealth of the State, often own but little property. It is their lot by hard labor to create the wealth of the State, yet they are to have no voice in the making of the laws, or in selecting those who shall administer them. Under the majority report the test provided for the third class of voters is that indefinite, uncertain and immeasurable thing," a reasonable explanation of the general nature of the duties of the various officers for whom he may at any time under the law then existing be entitled to vote." How many voters will be deprived of the right of suffrage under that test no one can tell. It is as elastic as a rubber band and can be adjusted to any voter to suit the desire of a partisan registration board. Under this provision the partisan board can deprive their fellow-citizens of their right to vote and then comfort themselves with the thought that the supremacy of their party is necessary for the salvation of the country, and that their fellow-citizens were unworthy to vote because they were of a different political party. It will not do to claim that men will not take advantage of a law so loosely drawn. There will always be those who are ready to use any advantage that may be taken of the law. We were told of old that "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: Who can know it?" Human nature has not changed. Yet it is proposed by this law to put at least 250,000 of our voters at the mercy of a registration board. Under it the registration board can discriminate against one voter and in favor of another. It is needless to say that it is susceptible of fraudulent administration. In our opinion it encourages and invites such fraudulent administration. Who can doubt that under it many voters will be fraudulently discriminated against and deprived of their right to vote? We cannot believe that we will make better citizens of any part of the people by unjustly discriminating against them. To deprive a man of his right to vote by unjust discrimination must of necessity turn him against the State and to that extent make a worse citizen of him. Again, a law so uncertain in its terms and so susceptible of fraudulent administration cannot command the respect and confidence of the people; and all upright men, jealous of their good names, will refuse to take part in the administration of such a law, and the administration of it will fall into the hands of unworthy men. Men who can adjust their consciences to suit the emergencies of any case. That these are the kind of men selected to administer such a law has been abundantly illustrated in this Commonwealth by the men who have in recent years administered its election laws. Again, the men who administer such a law are made worse by administering it. In our government every man must necessarily be more or less a partisan, and in administering such a law the temptation to serve partisan ends is always before them. The Great Master taught us to pray "Lead us not into temptation." But under this law partisans are to be placed. in a position which invites them by fraudulent discrimination to advance the interest of their party. Every wrong that a man does tends to harden and make him a worse man, and every unjust discrimination that these partisan boards shall make will make worse men of them. Again, all classes of citizens seeing that the law invites such fraudulent discrimination, and seeing the officers of the law engaged in such fraudulent methods will despise the law, and hold the law and those who administer it in contempt. We conclude, therefore, that if the majority report should be adopted it will demoralize the people, and work untold evil to the State, because : First. It will cause those who are discriminated against to despise and defy the law. Second. It will cause honest and upright men to lose respect for the law and to refuse to take part in its administration. Third. Its fraudulent administration will make worse men of those who administer it, and bring the law and those who administer it into contempt with all classes. We believe that every citizen of the State should be justly and honestly dealt with. The law defining who shall have the right of suffrage should be as plain and certain as it can be made, and, as far as the ingenuity of man can devise, it should be so drawn as to prevent any partisan or fraudulent administration of it. This will inspire confidence in the law and cause all men to take part in its administration-a result greatly to be desired. We think it more important to have a reform in the method of voting than in the suffrage. It must be admitted by all that the present election law is so drawn that great and many frauds are constantly committed under it. Under this election law the illiterate voters are placed at the mercy of one election officer, and every safeguard is placed |