The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-09-18
Dirty Democratic Work.

The Argus is engaged in very dirty as well
as dangerous work. 1t is endeavoring to
lead honest men who look to it for political
advice and mistake its assertions for infor-
nation, into the belief that election returns
have been tampered with by the Republ-
cans, that the vote has been manipulated by
town officers and that Plaisted has been
cheated out OF two thousand majority cast
for him at the polls. In order to convey
this impression it has itself suppressed and
mutilated telegraphic dispatches giving the
vote, and printed articles purporting to be
telegraphic dispatches entirely misrepre-
senting the truth. 1t has even the effron-
terry to say that returns of Fusion
gains have been held back by the associated
press, when the contrary is notoriou sly the
case. The Fusion gains were those first re-
ported, and caused the false cry that Plaisted
was elected. The delay in getting reports
from towns far off from railroad or tele-
graphic facilities is easily understood, and
the impossibility that the returns could
be changed in favor of the Republicans
where the town officials are Fusion, is obvi-
Gus. But the Argus withhods from its
readers the facts in the case, and instead
shamefully misrepresents the truth.
The estimates of Mr.. Berry, the agent of
the associated press, have always been sim
gularly accurate and unbiased by partisan
feeling He has given his figures, based on
the actual vote of the towns heard from and
on the last years vote of those yet to re-
port. The Argus disputes those figures.
Let it give its own and prove Mr. Berry in
error, and no longer pursue the indecent
course it entered upon few days ago.
In his latest letter to the Philadelphia
Press, Col. Burr, whose Maine correspond
ence has been so highly praised for its fair
ness and intelligence, speaks as follows con-
cerning the Democratic threat to seize the
First District:
The feeling of bitterness between the parties
does not abate in the slightest, and the Fusion
lists seem inclined to take every possible advan-
tage of their slender success. Especially is this
true in this the First District, where such ~.
effort was made to beat Mr.. Reed -1srcy al
are Collecting and formulating the evidence
upon which to have a contest. They charge,
of cor,rse, bribery and corruption, and with the
material they have at hand they can probably
prove anything they care to. 1t is something
really strange to find men of character who
willingly Justify the most questionable meth
DDS, not only in carrying on elections, but in
manipulating the result. The contest of last
Winter seems to have entirely blunted the
moral sens bilities of the Fusionists and
brought them to point where they are will
ing to commit almost any political crime to
defeat the Republicans anywhere and for any
thing. 1t is the baldest excuse for seizing
Congressional District which never belonged
to them, and which they have honestly lost in
the bitterest contest that ever took place in
the State, to allege bribery and intimidation,
when the vote cast in the State represented
one voter TO every four and a half of Its inhab-
itants, vote almost without parallel in the
country's history