The Bad Lands Cow Boy

It is not uncommon to observe in various quarters where there are complaints of misgovernment, attempts to prescribe a property qualification for the elective franchise. The complaints, when sifted to the bottom, are of extravagant expenditures, contracted in nine cases out of ten to further the schemes of property holders, and at their solicitation. At all events, manhood suffrage has come to stay. The idea of imposing a property qualification as to the suffrage or holding office is impracticable. Reforms in municipal government must be obtained without it.

The Boston Advertiser, in some sort a representative of the capital and culture of the American Athens reaches this conclusion, apropos to the discussion of the question of a limited suffrage in that city: We have a system of government by the people, it says, "and so far as human eye can see, it has come to stay. All hope of good local government must be founded on an expression of the will, not of a selected number, but of the whole people. The fundamental assumption is that the majority of the whole people prefer honest, efficient and economical government to the opposite, and that those who have an interest in maintaining order will not be outnumbered by those who seek personal gain by disorder. If in the large cities this assumption is false, then our system will surely fail there."