St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-26
THEY KNOW NO LAW.
The Minnesota Iron Company
Preparing to Bulldoze
5000 Voters.
Polling Places in Ely in the
Offices of This Great Cor
pOPation.
How the Voters Will Be Per-
suaded to Vote as De-
sired.
Time to Call a HaIt--Strong
Words Of a Duluth
Paper.

Corporation dictation must cease in
Minnesota politics.
The people of Minnesota, without re-
gard to party Affiliations, are opposed to
the interference in politics of the great
corporations of the state.
The ancient and m~oss-covered Repub-
lican ring that has been in control so
long that its managers think that they
W the state offices, of course does not
believe in this, but the vast majority of
the voters of the Republican party agree
with all other good citizens that each
voter in this state shall have the right
to cast his ballot without intimidation.
The GLOBE has recently called the at
tentiOn to the methods of the Minnesota
Iron company at Tower, Soudan and
Ely, by which the officers of that cor
poratiOn have been able to cast nearly
the solid vote of those places as they
desired. 1t was thought that the Aus
trallan ballot law would prevent this
disreputable work. but it seems that
this arrogant corporation proposes to
get around the law and this year again
cast the range vote as best suits its in
tereStS.
Two of the voting places fixed upon
in the city of Ely are i'll the buildings
and offices of the Iron company.
The people OF st. Louis county are
watching the range m%anipulatorS, and
are determined that the elections at
Soudan, Tower and Ely shall have a
sembiance of fairness. That they will
have their hands full is shown by the
following from the West Duluth Appeal:
Plans All Laid.
The Appeal has information OF a
scheme of the county ring to cast the
vote OF the range solid for the q. o. p.
The plan is the wholesale delivery of the
miners votes by a miSconStructiOn of
the new ballot law. The gang is to
have II boss or trusted man for every
two voters; these two voters, under pain
of dismissal from the service Of the
iron company. cannot read or write,
or, in other words. they must
say that they do not know how
to mark their W ballot, then the
trusted man is to be called in and go
into the booth and mark the ballot for
them. One of the friends of Paul Shar-
vey openly boasts of it that this is the
way the range vote is going to be car
ried solid for Sharvey, and says that the
court will place such a construction on
the law. Now, we do not know what
construction a partisan court would
place upon the secret ballot law, but we
do know that the following which we
had from a learned attorney is correct:
hi Is the Law.
Sec. 81. Whenever any elector shall make
oath that he cannot read English. or that be-
cause Of physical disability he cannot mark
his ballot, he shall have the right lit is the
electors privilege, and not a matter that can
be forced upon him) to call to his aid 0he
elector selects the man himself. nobody else
for him one or more IF the Judges of the
election, or a qualified elector "a man who
has the right TO vote, who may read the bal
lot 10 or mark the ballot for such voter. The
ballot shall be read so that the voter can
understand il, in the presence of two of the
judges of election. (This reading and mark
ing of the ballot must be in the hearing and
presence of two of the judges of the cleo
ton, of opposite political parties; that is, the
two judges must not both be Republicans or
both Democrats, nor both Peoples party
men, but one must be of one Of the
three parties and the other judge of the
! other party.f Provided, that 10 person
shall so mark the ballots of more than three
such electors in any one election district at
one election. Chat is, the person selected TO
mark the ballot may be a voter in some
other election district, but he ann i'll one
and the same election district mark more
than three ballots, but he may then, it
seems, go into another election district and
there again, if requested by any voter, he
may again in such manner mark another
set of three ballots and then again in like
manner go into another district where the
same operation may in turn be repeated and
SO on indefinitely and, provided further
that such persons shall mark the ballot of
eacn voter as directed by such voter, and
not otherwise. 1t seems that there is 10 pro-
lection agaist frauC. or imposition, except
such as is given by o lie of the judges, ore of
whom must be OF a different political party
from that of the other party"
1t Will be seen from the above that
the voter has the choice of choosing the
man to mark his ballot, and the Judge
of election belonging to the same party
as himself is not allowed to see the bal
lot marked, and if all the judges on the
range are Republicans none of them
can see him mark his ballot whether he
can read or not.
The political history of that range is
enough to convince fair-minded men
that they will stop at nothing to carry
their point. They know no law, nor
care for one The f~usionists want to
be on the alert and make this iron-clad
corporation respect this Australian bal
Iot law