SO-CALLED ILLITERATES
Suppose the legislators who were
elected by the “illiterates” as a re
sult of “mass voting,” had been de
feated, and in their place there had
been elected men of the “literati,”
what would have been the result in
the last legislature ?
In other words, is the absence of
a “literacy test” a good thing or a
bad thing for the Territory as it,
relates to “law and order” and “busi
ness”? Or wherein would legislators
elected by the “intellengensia” have
acted better ?
Those earnest souls who are ask
ing that Indians be prohibited from
voting should consider what the re
sult would have been had their wish
been accomplished. In other wor Is,
let us consider the practical phase
of the question.
In the southeastern division of
Alaska, the Republicans were sup
ported by the “illiterates” under
“boss rule” and elected their candi
dates by “mass voting.” The Demo
cratic candidates represented the
votes of those “who understood ihe
history of our government,” wh)
w$re able to “read newspapers” a id
thus form an “intelligent” opinim
of their own.
The “illiterate” members of t lie
legislature prevented by their voles
the repeal of the Primary Laws.
They defeated the repeal of the
Alaska Bone Dry Act, a bill intro
duced by Democrat N. O. Hardy in
the House, and supported by boot
leggers, their attorneys and their
friends.
They defeated the attempt of Sen
ator Tony Dimond and Boss Jos.
Murray of Kennecott fame, to brands
Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone|
and Delegate Dan Sutherland as
being liars and fools.
Let all citizens remember that the
cry of “literacy tests” is only a
smoke screen. The real purpose
back of the demand for “tests” is to
repeal the Primary Law, to get
back to the old corrupt convention
system, and to repeal the Prohibi
tion Laws.
CITIZENS OF A REPUBLIC
We have had a wide experience
with all classes of people and we
find human nature very much alike.
Some will deny it, but still every
normal person feels that he “can
do it a little better than some one
else.” And indeed it would be a
dangerous sign if that feeling were
not prevalent.
This feeling prompts much of the
quarrels we see in life, neighbor
with neighbor, partner with partner,
brother with brother, and so on
through city, Territorial and na
tional politics.
The capitalist thinks that because
he has proven his ability to occumu
late money or wealth that he should
be allowed to run the country, and.
for a long time in our national his
tory, the only person who couM vote
was the person owning a certain
amount of property—providing of
course that no mere female could
vote.
But when wars were conducted,
the capitalist found out that he had
to have manpower to protect his
property. Then the manpower said
to the capitalist, “since we must
fight to protect you, then we must
be allowed to vote and have some
thing to say about how, when and
why we should fight.” And thus
sprung up manhood suffrage.
But even then, men refused to
concede that womankind had any
right to the elective franchise, again
basing the reason upon the fact that
it is the male sex that must wage
wars and defend the country. Women
thus continued to be classed among
criminals, the insane, infants, idiots
and other incompetents and they too
were refused the franchise.
Again the triumph of right over
might saw to it that woman should
be treated as a human being, and
the best of our mothers are no
longer treated as lower than the
lowest man.
Human nature, however, has been
the same the world over and through
out the centuries. Albert Guerard,
in writing on race problems (“South
ern Memories”) “No party has ever
been willing to extend suffrage to
its enemies, or even to a new and
uncertain element. It took Great
Britain nearly a century to grant
all adult Britishers a vote. Guizot
faced a revolution, rather than give
the franchise to such dangerous char
acters as professors, attorneys, and
notaries. We know how tenaciously
the Suffrage amendment was fought,
and the French Radicals still deny
women political equality, for the
same reason that Southern Democrats
exclude the negroes; the future of
the party is at stake. A party
needs a bogey as a rallying cry; it
may be a foreign foe, the Jews,
Catholicism, Socialism. In modern
France, whenever Radical govern
ments were at their wits’ end, that
is to say most of the time, they
raised the cry: Down with the
Jesuits! Southern politicians would
lose the best of their stock-in-trade
if they no longer had to “keep the
nigger out.”
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