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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1896)
6 THE BATTALION potism arose, and with it what a state of desolation our eyes behold! r l he monuments of the arts, the fabric of genius and skill and the creation of science, have been prostrated in the dust. The places where Demosthenes and Cicero spoke, where Homer and Virgil sang, and where Plato and Aristotle taught, are now exhibited as mementoes of the perishable na ture of human glory. Oh, let us not contemplate such a ter rible fate for our beloved America. Still something must be done for the conservation of our republic, and what should it be? Surely no stone fortifications with a large army to de fend our cities, or a disciplined navy with destructive iron clads to pi'otect our sea coasts, because our foes are imper vious to the heaviest artillery. For the protection and de fence of our country we must build fortifications around our institutions with the letter of the law, and say to the invader, not by the point of the bayonet, but by the point of law, so far and no farther. As it was pointed out that the real government is the people, and as the safety of a nation lies in the chaaacter of its citizens, we have a right, which the Constitution of the United States explicitl3 r guarantees to us, to say who the peo ple should be that are to constitute our government, and what qualifications they should possess to be entitled to suffrage. While it is to be admitted that the Immigration laws of this country, however great the restrictions put upon them within the last few years, are loosely constructed, and open a wide avenue for the influx of an undesirable class of immi grants, the prohibition of which would undoubtedly lesson the danger with which this country is surrounded, 3^et, I shall not discuss this phase of the question, as it involves a number of great constitutional points. The remedy that suggests itself to my mind is, I believe of far greater importance than the one mentioned. I believe that our Naturalization laws ought to be amended as to re quire an educational qualification for suffrage. Let the ballot be conditional upon a certain amount of knowledge. A man before being entitled to suffrage should have at least, a knowledge of the essential parts of the Constitution to which