Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-09-11
The Massachusetts Plan.


two weeks ago, n comprehensive and
compact summary of the evidence
taken before the Wallace Investiga.
ting Committee in Massachusetts,. Mr..
Wallace encountered the jibes and
sneers of the entire Republican press
of the country as he and his committee
wended their way to the Bay State to
look into its election machinery. 1t
had been specifically charged that in
timidation and coercion had been used
by the great manufacturing corpora.
tions toward their employees with
view TO directly controlling their
votes; and that the various Federal
Offices were used solely to further the
success of Repu blican candidates, to
the detriment of the public service.
With great unanimity the subsidized
party organs have endeavored to be.
little the investigation, and to convey
the impression that the evidence rs
adduced before the committee did not
justify the charges previously made.
In order that our readers may read
and judge for themselves we have
taken the salient features of the evil
dence and lay it before them this
week. They will observe that in Man
chang employers used the most dan
gerous and disreputable means to
Influence" the votes of their
employees. They threatened them
with dismissal if they voted against
their wishes, and actually did dis
charge large numbers of the poor
laborers who dared to vote as they
pleased. They refused the use of the
town hall to Democratic candidate
for Congress who came there 10 speak
upon the issues of the day. And not
content with dismissing men from
their employ who refused to bow in
submission to the dictation of these
Yankee bulldozers, they afterwards
tried to drive them from the town
before the election. In Chelsea and
Gardner the same disgraceful state of
affairs existed. In Gardner the agent
of a national bank operated openly
and boldly, offering money in large
sums for the votes of the poor opera
tives. In Plymouth a native-born
citizen was compelled to take out
papers of naturalization before he
was allowed to exercise the right of
suffrage. The evidence also shows
that a Republican collector of Gus
toms dismissed n large number of eff
cient officers, among whom were many
ex-Union soldiers, with no other appa-
rent cause than that they we're not in
political sympathy with the collector.
Altogether the evidence as taken by
Senator Wallace discloses q most dis
heartening picture to every lover of
pure, fair, untrammeled elections, and
that such things are to be found in
the puritanical State of Massachusetts,,
which We have always been taught to
look upon as the seat of morals and
the home of political purity, is not
calculated to impress any one with
complaeency. If such things had oc-
CURED in any of the States of the
South a burst of indignation from the
radical press would have informed all
mankind that such a thing as free
election was unknown there, and that
deputy marshals and the soldiers of
the government were essential to the
purity of the ballot-box. One thing
is certain that whatever intimidation,
if any, Is used in the South, it is done
openly and in the glare of day and
not in the insidious, underground way
adopted by the White Leaguers of
Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
Before the Republican organs get
tuned up to fresh Southern outragcs
let them explain, If they can, this
damaging indictment as IL comes from
Senator Wallace's Committee.