The Constitution of the United States provides that no man shall be deprived of his right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. What right have we to attempt to deprive any man of that privilege because he does not own property and pay “direct” taxes? Mettius Curtius said that “Rome’s best wealth was her patriotism.” Yet that patriotism was deadened and destroyed by privilege and class distinction, and Rome fell. Patriotism is unquestionably the best wealth of any nation; but it cannot be aroused or fostered in a republic by dividing the people into classes, the rulers and the ruled, on the basis of ownership of property. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. The success, progress and safety of this republic rests upon the contentment of the _whole_ people, and that contentment depends upon justice and fair dealing. And every citizen, “unless he goes naked, eats grass, and lives in a hole in the ground,” is a taxpayer to a greater or less extent, according to the benefits he derives. He has the same interests in the national welfare; the same responsibilities; is entitled to equal rights and privileges before the law; and when we have fully realized the fact we will have established a higher standard of citizenship, we will each have more respect for ourselves and for one another, and a deeper, truer love and higher regard for our country and its institutions. [Illustration: _Their Joke on the President_ _Davenport, in N. Y. Evening Mail_] [Illustration: _Our Uncommon Carriers_ _Bart, in Minneapolis Journal_] [Illustration: _Sick ’em!_ _Macauley, in N. Y. World_] [Illustration: _Letters From The People_] Our readers are requested to be as brief as possible in their welcome letters to the MAGAZINE, as the great number of communications daily received makes it impossible to publish all of them or even to use more than extracts from many that are printed. Every effort, however, will be made to give the people all possible space for a direct voice in the MAGAZINE, and this Department is freely open to them. * * * * * _J. D. Steele, Charleston, W. Va._ I have been a reader of your Magazine since its first issue, and while I partly agree with Mr. George H. Steele, Rockham, S. D., that none of us are perfect, I admire you for having the courage of your convictions, and it would be impossible to estimate the good your publication has all ready done. As a remedy for the evils existing, as set forth by Mr. Bert H. Belford, Widners, Ark., I would suggest that our poor, ignorant, down-trodden farmers in the South get posted. There certainly is no reason for any grown up man of the present generation not being able to read, and almost every daily and weekly newspaper would put the most ignorant backwoodsman in possession of the facts which Mr. Belford states the farmers are ignorant of.