Show THE BALLOT Noting that wo said a few days ago that the ballot Is not an Inherent right of man but n privilege n correspondent writes asking us to explain There Is not very much explanation loH except ex-cept that the ballot Is an Invention of man The purpose of the Invention was to provide a means for men to express their will ant it being nn Invention It I necessarily must be under restrictions For Instance the ballot used by the owners of D mining company Is confined con-fined to Stockholders for manifest reasons I rea-sons as Outsiders have no Interest or I right III dictating the policy of other peOple In the same way the men who organize a State prescribe on what I terms the people of that Stale shall be i prmitled to express their wishes through the ballot I Is generally limIted j Itcd to citizens men who have a direct I Interest In the State higher than In any I other country for i Is presumable that If a person Is not a citizen o a State there Is some other State or country which he holds dearer than he does the spot In which he lives Most States make registration a condition of v6UMg and whoever Is not lawfully reglslered though he may be otherwise fully qualified qual-ified Under the law cannot vote Some States make an educational lest on the supposition that learning Is one of the necessities which men must possess before be-fore he can use a ballot Intelligently Some make a property qualification on I tho ground U atmen who have no prop eriy in a state nave no Interest In protecting pro-tecting Its property On general principles prin-ciples when it comes to politics the thought is that a man must possess first patriotism then enough intelligence intelli-gence to judge of the Issues presented to tho people and then Interest enough thcn ShIn Sh-In the State to want to have the government gov-ernment of the State economical and wise And no man ought to bo permitted permit-ted to vote lhat does not possess these quallficallons By intelligence we do not mean acciulred education We mean that character of brain that can fully judge between right and wrong and I grasp a clear knowledge of the questions f ques-tions which the various parties advocate advo-cate When the Constitution was framed it was left to the States to fix the qualifications of voters and no Change has been made In that except that the sovereign will has declared and a majority of the States have rat Ifled the edlqt that the ballot shall not be denied men because of their race color or previous condition of servitude I |