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3815
the election, or even a few weeks or any short time prior to the 
election, politicians will use the privilege of paying it for the 
purpose of indirectly buying votes; in other words, parties or 
candidates for office will pay the poll tax of a great number of 
voters upon condition, express or implied, that the votes are to be cast 
for their party or for themselves.   Wherever a poll-tax provision has 
existed without some limitation as to the time at which it shall be paid 
prior to the election that has been the case. Mr. PARKER of New 
Jersey.   May I ask the gentleman a question? Mr. WILLIAMS of 
Mississippi.   The provision of this bill is that the poll tax shall be 
paid "prior to registration," and the present Hawaiian law fixes the 
registration about four months prior to the election.   But of course 
that law might be changed at any moment.   Moreover, four months is 
not a long enough time. If you fix it at nine months - a period 
sufficiently short - then it will tempt no corruptionist in politics to 
pay the poll taxes of any voter, for the simple reason that the man 
who is willing to give his vote in consideration of payment of his 
poll tax is not a man that can be trusted for nine months.   He may 
be bought by the other side after that. We have a provision like that in 
Mississippi - that is, for the payment of the poll tax of the previous year 
- and the consequence is that nobody has ever paid the poll tax of 
anybody else with the hope of buying a vote, or indeed for any 
purpose. Mr. PARKER of New Jersey.   When is the election to be 
held? How would you make it applicable to elections in the current 
year? Mr. WILLIAMS of Mississippi.   It is the poll tax due nine 
months before.   It makes the poll tax due nine months before 
payable.   Of course no taxes not due at that time could be col-
lectible, nor are they brought in question when the voter comes up 
to vote. Mr. KNOX.   The purpose of this provision was to extend to 
every citizen of Hawaii that could read and write and who resided in 
the proper district an opportunity to vote, with the sole condition 
that he shall have paid his poll tax.   It was thought not right that a 
man who had a tax assessed against him, and who should offer to 
pay it at any time before the close of the registration, should be 
disfranchised.   I suggest to the gentleman from Mississippi that in 
any State I know of the poll taxes for the current year are not 
assessed nine months previous to the election. Our taxes are assessed 
in May, for instance. Mr. WILLIAMS of Mississippi.   My amendment 
does not make the poll tax for the current year the test for his vote; he 
shall pay the poll tax due nine months before the election, and that 
would necessarily be the poll tax of the previous year. Mr. KNOX.   
Then the other language in the section will have to be stricken out, 
as it refers to the payment of the poll tax for the current year.   Now, 
we do not think that a man who has failed in the past year to pay his 
poll tax, the year for which they are assessed, is in any better 
condition; he may have been deprived by sickness or misfortune in 
the past year from paying his poll tax.   Now, if for the very year 
that he is assessed the poll tax he pays it, I do not think it is just that 
he should be deprived of his vote. Mr. WILLIAMS of Mississippi.   
Well, Mr. Chairman, I wish to modify my amendment.   I will strike 
out the word "current," in line 2, page 74, and substitute the word 
"previous."   I did not notice the word "current" in the section.   That 
will cure the trouble. Mr. KNOX.   Now, Mr. Chairman, I call for a 
vote. Mr. UNDERWOOD.   Mr. Chairman, I wish to be recognized 
on the amendment.   I think this is an important amendment and one 
that should be passed.   The present bill before the House is virtually 
making a constitution for Hawaii as long as it remains tinder 
Territorial form of government, unless altered by Congress. I think it 
should be the effort of the Congress of the United States, whenever it 
is possible to do so, to raise the citizenship of this country, to raise 
the value of the American franchise, whether it is in Hawaii, New 
York, or Alabama.   I think that only those persons should be 
entitled to vote who have shown themselves qualified to exercise 
the right of citizenship; and I believe that when a man is unable or 
unwilling to pay $1 to support the government that furnishes him 
protection, he is not qualified to properly exercise the elective 
franchise. But you do not throw that protection around the citizens 
who are entitled to the ballot if you merely put it up as a premium for 
some one to come in and purchase their votes by paying their reg-
istration fee.   You should place it in a way that when the registration 
is paid it is paid by the citizen because he appreciates the value and 
privileges of the American citizen, the privilege of voting as an 
American citizen, the privilege of being one of the governing body of 
his country.   I say that if you limit this, if you merely put it before 
registration, the Hawaiian legislature may some day change the time 
of registration down to a week before

the election, when those who have money will be able to pay the 
registration tax and thereby control their votes. Now, in this 
constitution (for it is practically a constitution we are about to adopt 
for Hawaii) I say we ought to protect the elective franchise to that 
extent and adopt the amendment offered by the gentleman from 
Mississippi, and at least put it nine months in advance of the election. 
The argument which my friend from Massachusetts makes, that the 
voter may be sick on that day or prevented by some reason from 
paying his registration nine months in advance, has no force, for the 
same rule may apply to four months or a week in advance.   Not 
being obliged to pay it on any particular day, he has full opportunity.   
But I say, as the matter stands now, you have not properly guarded 
the bill against the corruption of the voter, and you should do it 
when you have the opportunity. Mr. GROSVENOR.   Mr. Chairman, 
if I had my way about this matter, I would strike out all reference to 
this poll tax.   There is no greater outrage upon the institutions of the 
American people than to say that a man unable, in the language of 
the gentleman from Alabama, to pay a dollar shall not be permitted to 
vote for the men who are to be his governors during the succeeding 
year.   Though, on a small scale, it still, in essence and fact, is a 
direct money power operating against the voter if he happens to be a 
poor man.    [Applause.]   But, Mr. Chairman, in the wisdom of this 
committee, this bill has been so framed that the individual voter who 
desires to vote must pay his taxes, upon the first official notice to him 
or he can not vote.  Let us see how well this machinery works in 
comparison with that. The voter comes to the proper place to 
register.   He wants to vote - that is an indication of it.   Then it is 
suggested to him, "Have you paid this dollar?" and then possibly - 
and very likely for the first time - it comes to his knowledge, or at 
least to his recollection, that he owes a dollar to the State or to the 
Government.   Now, is it not enough if he pays that dollar then and 
there, in order to avail himself of his right to vote?   Is this a 
machine to prevent voting?   Is it a machine to send Congressmen here 
with 1,700 votes?   Is that the purpose? Mr. UNDERWOOD.   Does 
the gentleman desire to leave it open for somebody else to pay the 
taxes for the voter? Mr. GROSVENOR.   I care nothing about that.   If 
the. gentleman challenges me, I will say to him that I would rather 
have a thousand scattering bribed votes than a condition where there 
are no votes and the election is made by a caucus. Now, Mr. 
Chairman, what is the proposition here?   How many of us remember 
to pay promptly on the day that they fall due all the little obligations 
that we owe to societies to which we belong or even to the State that 
taxes our property and taxes us in various ways?   Has not a citizen 
done his whole duty if, when reminded of it, he pays and discharges 
the obligation he owes to his government? I say there ought to be no 
obstacles thrown in the way of the voter.   There ought to be no 
deliberate purpose here to entangle and defeat the votes of this great 
body of men.   I am willing to vote for the proposition as the 
committee has reported it, to require the payment of a capitation tax.   
I do not believe in it; it is a burden upon many people.   But certainly 
if people discharge their duty in paying this tax at a time as far in 
advance of the election as when the registration is taken, that surely 
ought to be sufficient.   We ought not to permit such an amendment 
as this to go into the bill. Mr. LINNEY.   I would like to occupy a 
minute or two. Mr. KNOX.   I trust the gentleman will remember 
that we are to vote at 4 o'clock. The CHAIRMAN.   Debate is 
exhausted on this amendment. Mr. LINNEY.   I move to strike out the 
last word. The CHAIRMAN.   That would not be in order. Mr. 
LINNEY.   I hope the gentleman from Massachusetts will allow me 
two minutes. Mr. KNOX. Very well; I yield the gentleman two 
minutes. Mr. LINNEY.   Mr. Chairman, I am opposed to this 
amendment.   I believe in manhood suffrage.   I believe that crime 
should disqualify a citizen from the exercise of the right to vote, but 
misfortune or even negligence should not do so.   If I read history 
aright, Sheridan, one of the grandest characters in all history, had his 
blanket sold, two days before his death, from off the cot on which he 
lay, for a tax.   Yes, Sheridan, of whom it has been said:
                         Nature made but one such man. And broke the die in molding 
Sheridan.
The day before yesterday I had the honor of addressing an audience of 
2,000 people in the State of North Carolina upon the proposition to put 
in pur constitution a provision somewhat like this. And I put to the 
sheriff the question, "How many white men in Moore County (one of 
the richest counties in the State) have not paid their poll tax up to this 
date?"   He replied, "Seven hundred." Mr. KLUTTZ.   I ask the 
gentleman whether that provision in

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