he trouble, however, is not
in the vote, but the voter. If the one is corrupt, there is no legal
process known to law-makers that will purify the other. If a man holds
his vote in the light of property and knows of a purchaser possessed of
means, it is extremely difficult to keep the parties apart or prevent
the sale.

This, however, does not apply to that well-known evil of undue influence
on the part of party leaders, or "strikers," as they are called. Those
partisans are reinforced by men who have others in their employ
dependent on such employers for a living, and of course possessed of an
influence calculated to control the vote of the dependent, whether such
voting is in accordance with the wishes or conscience of the voter or
not.

We know, for example, that in the late canvass every capitalist with his
investment depending for its profit on the success of the Republicans
took pains to inform his workmen that unless Harrison were elected the
works could not continue, and they, the laborers, would be discharged
and left to starve. He was animated in this only by the highest
philanthropic motives, not by any wish to influence the votes of his
laborers.

Now, the operatives were intelligent enough to laugh at this, but they
were well aware of what he meant, and that was to inform them of his
wishes; and as he had it in his power to know how each voted, it was as
much as each man's place was worth to vote the Democratic ticket. That
there might be no mistake about this, the few who ventured to disobey
this champion boss were soon disposed of. It is scarcely necessary to
say that the smoke continued to pour up and out of the chimneys until an
unfortunate wheat deal at Chicago sent the head centre of the attempted
corner to the penitentiary, and made this capitalist who thus sought to
intimidate his laborers quite fit for the same locality.

If some process of voting, whether Australian or not, could be devised
to end this "bulldozing," as it is popularly called, it would be an
excellent reform. It would also go far towards weakening the blind
adhesion to political organizations. Many men are held to this more by
association and that lack of independence necessary to a severance of
old ties. This denies the voter the right to scratch his ticket when he
finds a name on it that he knows to be that of a man he cannot approve
and ought not to vote for. To keep abreast of his party he must vote
"the ticket, the whole t