The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-30

Tue supervisors and assign them to duty. 1t
was provided that he might set a man at
work anywhere within the Congressional
district IN which he lived, regardless where
MS residence might be. He might send a
man 70 help supervise an election In a town
which he had never been within 100 miles ~
ana THIS man, aperfect stranger in q strange
place. would be one of the officers Of the
election,
The supervisors range Of duties was to be
from the beginning Of the registration to
the close OF the canvass OF the ballots and
the return OF the same. Every proceeding
connected with the preparation for an cleo
tlon or the holding thereof was to be open
TO his scrutiny. Election day he was 20 90
behind the ballot box and watch
Votes that the moderator would not re-
celve he was to take In if he liked, attaching
TO each memorandum OF facts relative 90
It's presentation and the status of the person
presenting it as TO citizenship.
At each polling precinct two counts were
to be made, or, rather, the supervisors were
TO make count; the local Officers might
count or not, just as they pleased. The
count by the supervisors was to be the de-.
termlnlng count. The other would amount
TO nothing, for the certificate of election
which the governor of the state might issue
on returns Of local affairs would be of no
value whatever. A man might carry his
congressional district by 10000 majority
and get certificate from the governor Of
his state declaring his election aud still be
unable to get into the House of Representa-
tives. The bill directed the clerk of the
house In listing congressman for districts
wherein returning boards had been put in
operation to consider only the certificates
issued by the returning boards Governors
certificates, the bill declared, wouldn't be
worth looking at To get into congress
from one OF the returning board districts
one must have certificate of election from
the limited States Board of Canvassers. u
That was the name given to the returning
board
Each of these boards was to consist Of
three men appointed by the United States
circuit court To this board were to 20 the
returns Of the supervisors The law said
that it would be the duty of the board to
look over all the returns from the polling
precincts and then decide what it would be
best to do
Now see how the thing would work. Here
IS district where republican has carried.
The supervisors with their blanks and blank
books, their cautions, their threats, their
arrests. and nobody knows what not, have
succeeded In soaring the majority to such
an extent that the minority candidate has
won. There Is nothing harder for the re-
turning board to do than to write the re-
publican candidates name into certificate
and adjourn.
But suppose that it's not the republican
who has won at the polls. Suppose that in
spite Of all that the supervisors have been
able to do the democrat has carried his dis
trict. Suppose, to take some figures that
have already appeared in the Times, the
democrat has a majority of $50 votes
Ali that's different thing. There must
now be great care exercised. The board
must act with immense discretion In comes
a supervisor With g story that in certain
town l, 600 voters refrained from voting be-
cause they dared not go to the polls. That
settles the democrat. The secretary of the
board puts down these figures:
Due republican candidate on account of in.
timidation Of voters .....................l,OO 900
Apparent democratic majority ............ $50
Actual republican majority. ....,........ 80
Mr. Democrat may appeal II he likes, but
he must 60 TO the same court which ap-
pointed the members Of the returning board.
He might as we'll appeal to a stone wall.
After that he may go on to Washington
and appeal to the house. Of which his re-
publican opponent will be a member. He
may take a train load of evidence with him,
but he'll not get in. As for the certificate
Of his election given him by his governor
why, it will get as much consideration, and
no more, than a certificate of good moral
character would get if he should take one
along signed by his family preacher.
1t is hard to imagine one OF these Lodge
Hoar returning boards In actual operation.
The bare thought of such an institution is
enough to make mans blood boil. Think
OF it! Three men appointed by a partisan
court clothed with such authority that they
may set aside the verdict of the people of a
congressional district and grant certificate
OF election TO man who was not elected
Surely nothing more despotic than this was
ever heard Of. 1t is a startling thing that
such system should have been proposed in
a civilized country; it is incredible that the
people OF the section of the country against
whom it would act weuld tamely submit
to it.
But that is not ali. Reading the bill In
connection with existing statutes it is clear
that to back the supervisors and in fact,
the entire system, there would be available
not simply great posses of United States
deputy marshals, but, In addition, the en-
tire army and navy of the United States.
John Smith is sent TO Abbeville to serve
as supervisor of election. He has never
been in the place; don't know a soul there
He enters the town, puts up at a hotel and
goes to work In conjunction with one other
man or, perhaps, two. After he has been in
town one day the people make up their
minds that they will not have him about
any longer. So they send committee to
the hotel and the chairman pounds on
Smiths door and tells him to hurry up or
he will lose his train. which is to leave In
twenty minutes.
81 amt goin' on no train, says smith.
"Yes you are." replied the chairman.
you've come to the wrong town. We
can run our elections without assistance
from you"
Smith goes, but two days later back he
comes with posse of United States deputy
marshals, and if they cannot give him suf-
fcient protection as he goes about town
gathering evidence for the returning board
perhaps Mr.. Harrison will order fifty or a
hundred bluecoats to Abbeville, and then
Smith, inside of hollow square of bayo-
nets, will continue his work.
But actually it would make no difference
In the result il Smith shouldn't come back
to Abbeville at all after taking his depart
ure. The fact that the people Of Abbsville-
having some respect for them selves, de-
clined to allow interference from outsiders
in their election and kept the supervisor,
entirely aloof, would be just as good mate
rial for the returning board as anything
else. Plausible pretexts are what the bill
called for, and the fact that town declined
to be super vised would be as good ground
for counting out democrat as story
about thousand or more intimidated
non-voters.
The republican orators will tell their
audiences this year, as they did in 1890, that