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Show Making Tomorrows World ! By WALTER WILLIAMS, LL.D. j (.Dun olAe School of Journalism of the Urjterjtti of MiuoarO j "ONE MAN, ONE VOTE" I Milan, Italy. Is more democracy the cure for democracy? Certainly the trend In European countries is toward the trial of the prescription. The demand for an extension ex-tension of the suffrage is confined to no nation, but may be heard from Great Britain to Gr'ece, from big Russia, Rus-sia, where the desire is for a duma chosen by a genainely popular vote, to little Portugal, where the slight semblance of republic seeks to hold power by permitting all men to vote who vote the ticket of the republic. Italy Gets Manhood Suffrage. In Italy, where this letter is written, writ-ten, the most colossal experiment in the extension of the suffrage is having hav-ing its first trial. The electoral law, passed by the late chamber of deputies, depu-ties, raises the number of voters in Jialy from 3,319,200 to 8,762,250, an Increase of more than five million. Under the new law Italy has practically prac-tically manhood suffrage for the entire nation. All males thirty years of age and over, and all males twenty years of age and under thirty who can read and write, or who have performed military service, are permitted to vote. Illiteracy and non-performance of military mili-tary duty aloae exclude from suffrage and these only where the age of the prospective voter is under thirty years. It is an experiment, which, though paralleling it in some degree, far surpasses even the war measure, which thrust unprepared the colored men of the United States into politics. poli-tics. The questions as to the extent to which the Italians heretofore excluded ex-cluded will avail themselves of the new privileges and the manner in which they will exercise their right of choice, can not now be answered with any degree of accuracy. The in- only of a minority. This is particularly particu-larly desirable in the final ballotings where the candidates have not been selected or nominated in a popular convention or primary election. The scenes at preliminary meetings and today at voting places in Milan i resemble the scenes at an election in the United States, with some differences. differ-ences. Making the rounds of the 'polling 'poll-ing places with reporters from the Carriere del Sera, Italy's most widely circulated newspaper, was not unlike visiting the polls, with American reporters, re-porters, on a congressional election day. The eager, excited crowds, the hired helpers circulating candidates' circulars, the one or two policemen to preserve order, the voters in line to cast their ballot it was not unlike an American election. Political Bossism to Increase. In making a Greater Italy, what will be the results of unJrersal suffrage? suf-frage? The mayor of an Itt'.iian city, returning for a day from a holiday in Switzerland, that he might cast his ballot for a Liberal deputy, "a supporter sup-porter of the great Giollttl of the school of Cavour," expressed one opinion: "It means the immediate awakening and going forward of Italy." Another opinion was expressed ex-pressed by a Milan merchant: "It will set back Italy a half century by giving votes to this great mass of Ignorant men. The elections will be dominated by priests who wish clerical cleri-cal deputies chosen or by professional demagogues who care nothing for Italy's real needs." Perhaps a more well-considered view was that of Dr. M. Borsa, a Milan Journalist, opposed to the Giolitti policy, but sympathetic with progress: "For a time the effect will be to give strength to what you between & party which lolds church interests supreme and a party which, holds church interests secondary. Secret Ballot in France. In other European .countries the same trend toward democracy may be found. France, under the popular president, Poincare, has just substituted substi-tuted the secret ballot for the ballot voted in public in an urn, thus giving to democracy a chance to express itself it-self without outside knowledge or interference. in-terference. At the next general election elec-tion in France a system similar in principle to the so-called Australian ballot, now general in the United States, will be employed. "It is estimated esti-mated that 100.000 isoloirs which is the French word for polling booth-will booth-will be required iu France when the system comes into operation," said a . French journalist. "And they will cost 15 francs each (about $;!00,000), an enormous and unnecessary expense," ex-pense," said a Conservative. The, comment suggested the argument of cost once employed against the adoption adop-tion of the secret ballot in the United States. Suffrage Reform Promised In Germany. In Prussia and some other German states, where the election conditions are little removed from feudalism, only the strong arm of monarchical authority has kept back reform. The growing lopposition to the illiberal "three class" system in Prussia by which one-third of the so-called popular popu-lar house of the Prussian parliament is elected by 200,000 voters, one-third by 900,000 voters, and one-third by 6,000,000 voters, has become strong enough to compel a promise of reform re-form in a, speech from the tbrone. Mecklenburg Is worse off than Prussia Prus-sia but here, too, reform Is imminent Saxony recently modified Its system by adopting manhood suffrage and the secret ballot, though giving two votes to the possessors of incomes of more than $400 a year, while incomes of $550 a year entitle to three votes and certain standards of education, certain professions and incomes of $700 a year to four votes. Baden has gone to the extreme of liberality for present-day Germany and provided in its constitution for manhood suffrage, suf-frage, Becret ballot and "one man, one vote." In all the German states the most casual looker-on at the things political finds a movement, which can not long be denied success, in favor of a modification into a more democratic demo-cratic system of the present inheritance inheri-tance from feudalism under which, as a Munich Conservative mildly pointed point-ed out, "the advantage is somewhat too large on the side of brains, caste and money." Plural Voting Doomed in England. In Great Britain the Liberals and many Conservatives are supporting a bill which will abolish there the archaic system of plural voting. Under this system it is possible for electors to be on the voting lists of several constituencies, with the results that the residents in localities have been swamped by outsiders possessing votes because 'they happened to own land in those divisions or in adjoining adjoin-ing constituencies. If the system prevailed pre-vailed in the United States, a voter might cast his ballot for congressman, for example, in Columbia, Missouri, in Kansas City, in Chicago, and in Louisville, if he owned property in or adjoining these constituencies. There are tens of thousands of British Brit-ish voters who are thus entitled to cast their votes in more than one constituency and at least 50,000 university uni-versity voters who can vote mere than once. It is a remedy for this condition by giving "one man, one vote," that the new election bill in England provides. It will doubtless soon become a law. s Officialdom the Plague of Europe. It is perhaps the official in Europe, pointed out Henry W. Nevinson, rather than the crown, the aristocracy aristoc-racy or even the plutocrat, who now most endangers liberty. Bureaucratic interference with personal life, long the plague of most European capitals, threatens to infest the world. We are called upon to accept "the expert" as our ' controlling - guide and "efficiency" "ef-ficiency" as the final test of government. govern-ment. Many of the perils of monarchy mon-archy or any other government from above lurk in such advice. Bees and ants are efficient, but their progress appears to have stopped stopped dead, as we say; or, if you want expert ex-pert government watch thevlaw and order of sheep before a dog. Officials, Offi-cials, even in the best countries, usually usu-ally govern badly, because they naturally magnify their office and routine rou-tine above life, regarding the intrusion in-trusion of reality as an unwarrantable disturbance to their habitual toil or leisure. But that is not the worst of it. as the traveler through Europe soon learns. Even under the most efficient officialdom, the governed suffer suf-fer a degrading loss of personality. It is disastrous to maintain order, however mechanically perfect, or to organize virtue and comfort, however judiciously proportionate, if personality personal-ity and variety are gone. Self Government Gaining. It is the increasing sense that "self-government "self-government is better than good government" gov-ernment" to quoto the forceful phrase of a British statesman that is promoting the movement for democracy, democ-racy, for political liberty, and for its expression by b.Mlot at tho polls, which is so pronounced in Europe, and of which Italy's experiment in universal manhood suffrage is the most recent and significant result. Yet this movement finds indifference, indiffer-ence, if not hostility, in unexpected quarters. "We have too much voting in rr,y canton," said a Swiss university univer-sity professor yesterday. "I am fined if I do not vote. Ar.d there have boon three elections this year. Voting is petti nir to be a nuisance!" (Copyright, 1014, by Joseph n. n,,,-..) fed j t oil I ssas Scene in Italian Chamber of Deputies. dications tonight, at the close of the first day's voting for members of the Italian chamber of deputies or parliament, parlia-ment, are that at least 60 per cent of the electors have voted and that the relative membership in the chamber of the principal political parties or groups will be only slightly changed, the clericals and radicals each increasing in-creasing their vote and gaining a few seats. The Latest Election. The election today in Italy wus for 508 deputies in the parliament. The candidates numbered more than 2,000. The political issues were somewhat vague. Signor Giolitti, the prime minister, appealed for an endorsement endorse-ment of his past achievements without with-out any definite statement as to his future policy. "Here is what I have done," said, in substance, Italy's most powerful statesman, "I have carried on with success the Libyan war, I have perfected the state monopoly of ' insurance and given other social reform re-form legislation and now I give universal uni-versal suffrage." The opposition, led by Baron Sonnino, urged that Giolitti gives no assurance as to tomorrow. "Program? Why I am the progiam!" Such, urge his opponents, is the Italian premier's reply. Without any more definite statement, however, and despite the coldness, not a characteristic character-istic Italian trait of Giolitti, the first day's balloting gave him an overwhelming over-whelming majority of deputies chosen. Balloting Done on Sundays. Elections in Italy, as in other countries coun-tries on the continent of Europe, are held on a Sunda.y. In Italy, if the candidate for deputy does not receive at the first ballot a majority of all the votes cast, a second or supplementary supple-mentary ballot takes place on the following fol-lowing Sunday. At the second ballot raters must chooso between the two names for which the highest number voted at the first ballot. In this way the camlidato selected is really the choice of a majority of the electors, lot. as is frequently the case in elec-i:ous elec-i:ous in the United States, the choice call bosses in1 America. These men will, to a greater or less extent, control con-trol elections for several years. This, however, will not continue for gradually, gradu-ally, indeed swiftly in northern Italy, tK-9 masses will learn to appreciate their own power and will support men and measures of geunine value to the nation. Tomorrow Italy will be not only freer politically, but stronger agriculturally, ag-riculturally, industrially and commercially commer-cially for universal suffrage. But this will take time." Socialist Demands Moderate. Two elements enter into a consideration consid-eration of Italy's tomorrow, concerning concern-ing which prophe jy is vain, the Socialists So-cialists and the Clericals. The Italian Socialist, led by El Secolo, the Milan journal, is in the main more moderate in his aims than the members of political po-litical parties bearing the same name in the countries of northern Europe. The reduction or abolition of the corn duty and the transfer of the burden of taxation to inheritances and incomes in-comes are among the chief planks in his platform. With increased power he may demand more, as indeed now do the few extreme Radical Socialists. Uerical Party Develops; King Democratic. Tne other element which is big with ; significance in Italy's future is the j Clerical party. Gradually, in an elec-; elec-; tion constituency here and there, the , doctrine of "non expedit," enunciated by the great Pope Leo XIII, has been j tacitly abandoned and a party formed I which is devoted first of all to tho j I interests of the Catholic church. Gio- j j litti has been able to hold together j in coalition two groups so widely dif- j : fering in views as the Clericals and : Socialists. To one he promised that . no law should be enacted permitting ! divorce ana that religious instruction j in the schools should continue; to the other he promised certain social reform re-form legislation. Should either element ele-ment gain sufficient power by the coming com-ing of universal suffrage or otherwise, the coalition will fall to pieces and the conflict for dominance will come I |
