The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-03-21
WHERE ARE WE AT7"
The People Would Like to Know.


Mr.. EDITOR PLEASE give me space
for few lines in your valuable paper
concerning our last election, The peo-
pie would like to know for certain how
the votes stood in our last election, or
rather how they would have stood if
the people could have had justice done
them. There was something wrong in
the final count of the votes cast in
Chapel Hill township for constable;
there were three voting precincts; the
votes cast at Chapel HUI was King,
300; Hogan, 217; and at Patterson's
Mill, King 8; Hogan, IS; and at Coles
Store, King, 43; Hogan, So Now any
one can make a calculation of the above
statement and they will find Hogan to
be three votes ahead Of King. When
Mr.. W n Pritchard, one of the can
vassing board, returned home from
Hillsboro, where they counted thevotes,
to suit Themselves, it seems, he said it
was tie vote between Hogan and
King; he could not tell anything about
it; several did the counting, mention
ing John Laws and Tom linen as two
who counted the votes. [ have been
Clerk Of the Court, Mr.. Samuel Gattis,
to either count or to see that the votes
are counted correctly. Was [ correctly
informed? Two years ago, when Mr..
Gattis was running for clerk of court,
in his speech at Chapel Hill, said that
he was nominated by the Alliance, and
repeated it several times so that every
body could hear it; he seemed to take
a great pride in it. But what did he
do in the last campaign? Why, he
came down in his old neighbOrhOOd
and made a speech in which he told his
hearers that the Peoples party, which
was composed principally Of Alliance
men, was nothing but the rottenness
that had fallen off of the Democratic
party. He compared it to a dead tree
the sap or Peoples party had rOtted
and fell eff, and left the heart, or Demo
cratic party, sound and solid Now
the question Is: was it Mr.. Clerks duty
or did be have anything to do with the
countiDg2 If so, then it seems as if
there is a 23O or 24O pound chunk of
rOttenness that never fell off If not,
then it sex ms there must be lot of
other chunks not quite so large still
hanging on. a friend Of mine wrote
in my name to the Orange county o.
serUer giving him the votes from the
different precincts that the men were
entitled to, asking how it was made
tie vote and asked him to publish it,
and if it was fraud to speak out and
let the people know who to put the
blame upon. But it n, Yer appeared in
the paper? Why, was it because he
w0nld not let the truth appear in his
paper; or was it because he did not
wish to expose his honest Democracy?
During the campaign I could hear
great deal about tariff reform, and the
Force bill Well, their tariff reform is
to take from one and add to another,
so think they must have used a little
Of their tariff reform by taking off
some of my votes and adding them to
my opponent in order to make it tie
vote. But then one would be left.
What did they do with that? Did
they throw it away so that honest De-
mocracy could get all Of their men
elected? But Democrats will be en-
titled to the votes sent to HIlsbOro, aNd
Dem Gratis did the counting, So it wGs
Democrats against Democrats. | am
sorry the Democrats are doing so bad,
for I always voted with them until our
last election. Now if they did stoop so
low, as Talmage truly said that there
was nothing beneath them" and steal
as little thing as @ township con
stables Office, I am certainly glad l
did not vote with them then. But the
Democrats say you must not say steal.
Why not? They said the Republicans
stole the presidency in 1911. If it Is
stealing when Republican puts in a
man not lawfully elected, why is it not
stealing when a Democrat does the
same7 If they did not steal it, how did
they get it9 Why don't they explain2
They admitted that l was elected until
after Mr.. Prichard came back from
Hllsboro. Since then they had nothing
to say. Now the secret Of the matter,
and what I want to know is, how they
made it tie vote, was it fraud relent-
lessly done? Could it have been other
wise? We claim to be religious people,
but if we cheat and defraud in our elec-
tions we are not what we claim to be
at all, for fraud and religion do not
dwell tneether. and if fraud is to take