The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1889-09-26
n MEN WILL VOTE

AnocOnOo pfOue8t8 ugolnot tne Out
rageous attempt to drive from the
polls three hundred and ninety citizens
whose anne are legally entered ON
the registry books and whose right to
vote cannot successfully be called in
question.
This thing was not prompted by mo
tives that have their spring either I'm
honor or decency. The assault on q
body of reputable residents of this city
was not made with manly intent to
guard the ballot box, or with honest
purpose to make the pending election
purer i'm it's methods. Not n Of all
the afidavits filed with the registrar
brings challenge ON the ground of resi-
dence, nor is question raised regarding
the personal qualification of any u of
the voters assailed.
Two motives are back of this das-
tardly plot. The first is to intimidate
men who have made Oaths they are
willing tn sustain, but who, 1t was
hoped, might hesitate to present them
selves ut the polls in a technicalities.
however trivial. were thrown i'm their
pathway. That part of the plot will
fail. The second motive was to delay
the vote by compelling the judges to ad-
minister an oath to each challenged man,
thus vexing citizens by the unnecessary
delay entailed and possibly preventing
scores of them from getting the official
record Of their will into the ballot
boxes. This part of the scheme will
succeed. In this city, with its large
precincts. the voters will be fortunate
:nInAl 30 H1,o Inx.r ot xuyhinh tho ,Nn1Io
are closed finds every ballot cared for.
No recognized organization within
the republican party of Montana has
presumed to stand sponsor o this put
rage. The business was done i'm a cor
ner. 1t is the scheme of political
whisperers who willingly make them
selves the ready instrument for the ac-
cOmplishment of any political Offense.
1t will he seen from references made
elsewhere in this mornings STANDARD
that most of the men against whom
the Wholesale affidavit -maker has ar
rayed himself, are mechanics and
labOring men whose term Of residence
in this city varies from eight months to
five years. These men are not pre-
tenders, they makew with modesty their
Iouilu VI toil, yVt VIC dPpICihciAu ttidt
they are as well equipped for all the
duties of citizenship III are any law
yers whose Indifferent professional
gifts force them to hold office till that
source of income il exhausted and
then linger under the shadow Of the
judiciary to catch the crumbs that fall
from court house tables.
The popular will is not to be thwarted
by cowardly warfare of this kind. The
O'Bannon plan may work all right in
Mississippi, but it will not go in Deer
Lodge county. Under legal advice
which. i'm popular opinion is far weightier
than hat which backs the afidavits,
these three hundred and ninety men
will vote. If before this, any Of them
were hating, none are laggards now.
They are not afraid that law will be
perverted SO as to be turned against
them, and they call the attention Of
voters everywhere i'm Montana, rich and
poor, men of wealth and men of toll, to
the astonishing spectacle presented in
this city, where IL party that has been
Extensively profuse i'm the declaration
Of it's complete devotion to labor, has
sought to d~isfranchise registered me
chanics i'm batallions and drive them
from the polls.
suNn.. Ill.,. ..l. An,.A Mat.