People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-10-21
After the Election.

crats claim majority Of 10000, but
up to date, although more than 4
week has passed, We have not vet
seen a statement Of the total vote.
They have determined to crush out
the movement in this state. 4 pri.
yate letter just now received saws
that the Southern Alliance Farmer
has been crushed and as it did not
come at all last week. it is evidently
true. The same letter states that eff
forts are being made to crush the
Peoples party paper. Tom Watson
has backed it with all the money and
energy he had, but while he has an
inexhaustible supply of the latter.
his money is not inexhauStible by any
means and whether they will succeed
is yet to determine. The object of
the old parties is to crush out the
movement in the south entirely and
by convincing the people Of the north
and west that we still have a solid
Democratic south, they hope to be
able to drive the people of the west
back into the Republican party. This
once more accomplished and the two
sections busily engaged berating each
other, plutOcracy will have ample
time to complete the schemes for he
permanent establiShmentOf a mOnied
Oligarchy. Now let us see how they
managed it here. They commenced
their campaign very carefully. They
appeared to acquiesce in most of the
demands and put them in their state
platform. The Republicans COM
menced at once to show a disposition
to fuse with us or at least make some
agreement by which the negro vote
would be thrown to our ticket. The
white vote of the state is beyond all
question almost equally divided be-
tween the Peoples party and the
Democrats, hence, of course the party
that got the negro vote was sure to
win. Everything indicated grand
victory for us until a few days before
the election, when it became very ey-
ident that fair election could not be
secured. They have the offices and
the election machinery all in their
hands and in many instances posi-
lively refused to let us have any rep
resentatiye on the election boards.
Some places they promised, but when
the day came would not do it. Some
counties pOlled larger Democratic
majority than the total vote. i heard
of one negro who voted the Demo-
cratic ticket eight times. 1t may be
asked, why not arrest him, but sup
pose we did, how would we prove it?
A political party that will throw rot
ten eggs and spread lies, sworn to,
about Gen. Weaver, would swear a re-
peater clear, of course.
The poor people of the south are
just as completely slaves to the bOur-
bon Democracy as ever was a negro in
ante-bellum days, only they do not
have the power to buy and sell indi-
viduals, as they did then. In the
late election fully twO-thirds of the
negroes voted the Democratic ticket,
thus proving that the two old parties
are in league. Another proof on the
same line is that the Republicans Of
the north are now pointing to the
Georgia vote as an argument TO get
the Peoples party voters TO return to
the northern wing of plutOcracy.
There is, however, nothing discOur-
aging in the returns even as they are.
Our party has not been organized
more than five months and according
to Democratic returns, we have pOlled
5000 votes. A little more than one
year ago l publicly announced my in
dependence Of the two old parties and
at once commenced to talk it up in
my Alliance lectures in the county,
and so far as | was able to learn, at
that time only two Others in the
comfy were ready to come out boldly
for independent action. The recent
election was the first one since that
time and we polled 29l votes in the
county, or One-third of the total vote
and it is straight Peoples party too.
/ only say this to show how the doc
trines of the reform movement are
growing and a vote of 5000 in the
state is a big thing for us. This
would give the Democrats and two
thirds Of the negro vote, $4,000, So
900 Of which would be negroes, leav-
ing only 10000 more Democrats than
Peoples party, even in the face Of
frauds and force measures. One thing
we have done; We have split the
white vote and it will never unite.
This is certain. There will be two
parties in the state hereafter, COM
posed of both white and colored vo-
ters in both parties, instead Of a
white and a black party. That we
will become the ruling party in the
state is as certain as anything except