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A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

VOLUME LXXIX.

JANUARY-APRIL, 1905

FOUR MONTHS

THE OUTLOOK COMPANY

NEW YORK

Copyright, 1905, by the Outlook Company

APR 0 9 1032

Political Chaos in Colorado

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1905

The State of Colorado is still suffering the consequences of the long period of social and political disorder which has existed in that State. It was generally supposed that in the November gubernatorial election the Democratic candidate, Alva Adams, was chosen Governor and that Governor Peabody was defeated for re-election. There is, however, a serious contest which is now before the courts and is not yet settled. The Republicans accuse the Democrats of wholesale corruption and fraud, and the Democrats make similar accusations against the Republicans. The courts are now issuing writs and rendering decisions which the canvassing board and other officers are evading, and there is a general taint of lawlessness in the political atmosphere of the State. What the final decision of the courts will be it is at the moment impossible to tell. Despatches to the newspapers indicate that Governor Peabody is going to issue a message as though he were elected. A telegram to so influential a Republican journal as the New York "Tribune," however, speaks of Alva Adams as the Democratic Governor-elect. The most hopeful and clarifying statement which has so far come out of this political confusion is one issued last week by Mr. Adams :

I have no question about my election by substantially the majority reported on the face of the returns. I believe if the frauds

in outside counties could be unearthed my honest majority would amount to 20,000. But I want no tainted seat. It is of far greater importance that extensive election frauds be unearthed and punished than that I or any other particular individual should be sworn in as Governor.

I don't know who committed the alleged frauds in Denver. I know nearly thirty men are in jail ostensibly for contempt of court, but really charged with election crimes. If they are of the character reported, I feel assured that there are men at liberty far more deserving of jail than those who are

incarcerated. I feel that some of those in
jail have been unjustly dealt with. But be
made; I want it to extend from the head to
that as it may, I want this investigation
the foot, and I want the truth known.
If Mr. Adams is declared the Governor
by the courts, and can inspire his
administration and his fellow-citizens
with the belief which he thus so well
well worth while.
expresses, his election will have been

The Southern Vote

Whatever theories we

in National Elections may hold regarding the disfranchisement of large groups of citizens in certain Southern States-whether such disfranchisement be regarded as an unmixed evil, as a necessary evil, or as a well-ordered working out of sane concessions to the highest form of political expediency-this at least is true: there is now and has long been a marked disparity between the vote cast in National elections by these Southern States and the vote cast by Northern and Western States of corresponding rank. Nor can this disparity be laid wholly to negro disfranchisement. In moe than one State of the South the white vote is itself relatively small-in a few cases almost insignificant-as compared with the white vote of Northern States. In the accompanying table, the vote of each Southern State at the last Presidential election is compared with the vote of the Northern or Western State which approaches it most closely in population and in Congressional representation. It is shown, for example, that Alabama, which ranks eighteenth in population among the States of the Union, cast a total vote of 108,855 at the recent election, while Minnesota, which ranks nineteenth, rolled up a vote of 292,870. In other words, Minnesota sent one voter to the polls for every six of her total population; Alabama sent one for every

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seventeen. If, on the other hand, the entire colored population of Alabama be disregarded, and her million white inhabitants be accepted as the basis for comparison with Minnesota's million and three-quarters, it will be found that Alabama's ratio of voters to white population is one to nine, as against Minnesota's one to six. Alabama has no constitutional disqualification for illiteracy. In Louisiana, South Carolina, and Mississippi-States which have such a disqualification the ratios are, respectively, one to twenty-five, one to twentyfour, and one to twenty-seven. Cali⚫fornia ranks next below Mississippi among the States, and has the same number of Representatives in Congress; the ratio of her vote to her population is as one to four and one-half. Mississippi has a negro population of 907,630, and a white population of only 641,200. Disregard her colored population alto

gether, as we did Alabama's, and her ratio is as one to eleven. Mississippi casts an average of 7,280 votes in each of her eight Congressional districts; California casts 41,443 in each of hers. In the border States of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri we find a wholly different set of conditions. The vote of each of those commonwealths was heavier, in proportion to population, than the vote of Massachusetts, Kentucky's vote corresponding closely with Wisconsin's and Maryland's with Nebraska's. It should be remembered in this connection that negroes form 13 per cent. of the population of Kentucky, and almost 20 per cent. of the population of Maryland. In Virginia and North Carolina, where the blacks constitute more than one-third of the population, there is a marked falling off; but of the two States, North Carolina shows a decided lead, her ratio of votes to population being as one to

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nine, while Virginia's is as one to four
New Jersey ranks next below
North Carolina in population, and next
above Virginia; in each of her ten Con-
gressional districts an average of 43,255
votes were cast at the last election. In
North Carolina's ten districts the aver-
age was
20,789, and in Virginia's,
13,054. Leaving out of account the
border States already considered, we
find that Virginia's ratio of one voter to
fourteen inhabitants very fairly repre-
sents the actual voting strength of the
South as a whole. The general subject
of Congressional representation is dis-
cussed editorially on another page.

New York and Its
Senator

of considerable ability, but lacking entirely the breadth, the solidity, and the dignity of character and career which have been associated with the United States Senate, will be re-elected to a position which he has already held for one term without making the slightest impression on the National Legislature, and without apparently attracting any serious attention from his colleagues. The State of New York has not been represented in the United States in any adequate way since the day of Mr. Evarts. It has simply made its contribution to the group of political bosses, masters of political mechanics, who to a considerable extent have taken the place of the old type of statesman in the United States Senate. That this state of things will not continue indefinitely The Outlook is certain; but the most sanguine car.not see the end of a system which is a practical nullification of popular government. Other States are in the same situation as New York. They have assigned their political rights, duties, and privileges, executed an informal deed of trust, and become the mere beneficiaries of a group of men of very considerable practical experience and sagacity, who excel in the arts of the politician, but who are wholly lacking in the great qualities of statesmanship.

Highways

The announcement that Governor Odell has "graciously consented to waive his personal preferences" and, for the sake of harmony in the party, agreed to the re-election of Mr. Depew as a representative of the State of New York in the United States Senate, settles a question concerning which the four million residents of New York have not been consulted. The only open question with regard to the representation of New York in the Senate appears to have been as to whether the mind of Governor Odell and the mind of Senator Platt could be brought into accord. The State of New York has been as completely ignored in the matter as if it had no An important decision. existence; and it has been rightly ig- Advertising on the has been rendered by a nored, because it has really assigned its political privileges and duties to these two gentlemen, the rival Republican bosses; neither of them in a large sense a public man, neither of them continuing in any way the traditions of statesmanship in the State; both of them skillful political mechanicians. They have looked at the matter of the representation of four millions of people. in the highest legislative body in the country, and one of the foremost in the world, simply from the standpoint of party politics. Apparently the names of Mr. Choate and Mr. Root and of other men who ought to have been considered have not been mentioned. Mr. Depew, an amiable gentleman, a capital campaign speaker, and a man

Judge of the Supreme Court in New York City, more important in the principle involved than in the immediate issue decided. The lot on which the new library building is being constructed is surrounded by a high board fence; the Park Commissioner granted to a firm the right to cover this board fence with signs; a suit was brought by the Municipal Art Society to compel the removal of the signs; and the Judge decided that the signs must come down-that the Park Commissioner had no authority to grant such a permit. The language of the Court is as follows:

It is too obvious to require demonstration that business advertisements painted on a board fence contribute nothing to the bene

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