The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-12-19
CHEATING THE POPULIsTs.
killing the POpulist Vote in Pennsyl
yaniQ.

Vam1Ns
To the Editor:
Your editorial, Room for Reform in the
last issue Of the Representative, has the
true ring. If the Peoples party make that
reform the key note of their campaign,
there is no doubt but that they will sweep
the country in 1896 I prevailed upon some
Of our local candidates in the Peoples
party at the last moment to come out
nouncing themselves in favor of reduction
of public salaries, and while the fact was
only published in the National, a little cam
paign circular, Dune Harms, running against
| John DalzelL received, that is, was cred
| tied with receiving, more votes than any
| other Peoples candidate in his district.
| Had it been generally known that he was
| in favor of reduction of public official sal
aries and his vote been counted, l think he
| would have been elected. But unless there
| is some plan adopted by which honest
| count of the votes be had, 1 doubt
whether any Independent candidate opposed
| to the abuse of the boodler Republicans and
Democrats, can possibly be elected while
| the Baker Ballot is used. In support Of
| this I give some facts which have come to
| my notice since the election in reference to
this question. After failing to get any cam
| didate for governor or any of the parties
| to come out on the platform of reduction of
| public official salaries, after it was too late
| to get out nomination papers and secure
place on the ballot, l decided to run as an
| independent candidate for governor, taking
| advantage of the privilege (Which the Baker
| law in our state affords voters) to write
| the name of a candidate in the column pro-
vided for that purpose. 1 had no hope or
| desire of being elected, but simply to give
| opportunity for intelligent, patriotic citi-
ZenS to enter protest against the abuse of
| our public offices which our boodler legis-
| lators, in face of the prevalent distress of
| the people, increased in some instances
double, while paying more than double
| what the service brings outside of
public office. To give the people of Penn
| sylvania an opportunity to resent this in
| dignity upon their manhood and travesty
upon justice | decided to run independent.
l was surprised beyond measure to find that
| in the face of hundreds of people writing
| me for my papers and circulars and hun
| dreds Of my neighbors volunteering that
| they intended to vote for me, the election
returns for the state only showed about 100
votes for me. Immediately after the cleo
ton men would stop me and say they had
| voted for me. This became so frequent /
| decided in my own precinct to keep tally,
| SO L wrote the name of every one who said
he voted for me until it doubled and trebled
| the vote published for me. One of the
board met me and said l lost several votes
by voters writing my name and making a
cross for another candidate, thus throwing
| out both. Then in course of week an an
| onymous writer writes asking me to go
| into court and ask to have the ballot boxes
| opened, saying l would find l received 10
votes in the city of Pittsburg to cred
| tied to me in the state, also informing me
| that an order had been passed along the
| line by the Democratic and Republican
| bosses to their ward heelers to fix a men,
| Der or two in each ward to kill the Corey
| vote This anonymous writer says in sup
! port of his statement that he got his in
/ formation from the inspector of his election
board. who, after filling himself with bug
juice the night of the big Republican blow
out, "limbered' up enough to give up the
way 1T was done, and reasons. Therefore,
| he says the members on election board
fixed had a short period with which they
could easily make cross for another can
| dldate, or run line across my name Civ
ing appearance of the voter changing his
mind. then make a cross for Republican
candidate and count the vote for him. We
| also volunteered the suggestion that no
| candidate which the Democrats and Repuh-
| leans wanted to kill ever could be elected
while the Baker ballot is used. This | think
will account for the passage of that law by
| the Pennsylvania legislature which is so
| completely dominated by the Republican
] rlngsters. as no bill not in their interest
could possibly pass. Then this is also in
Pursuance of a publicly announced plan to
| XIII the Populists in the United States SEN
| ate. This inspector of election. when asked
| by the anonymous writer, if he was not
AFRAID of being found out, said: "Oh hell
| how can they. Men voting for independent
candidates do it usually on the sly If one
| or two votes are conuted they all think it
| IS their vote. He also said the way bosses
| under Baker ballot law could fix one or
| two men for a few dollars as compared with
| thousand to buy voters under the ''old svs-
| tenn An anonymous writer is not a reIa-
bic authority upon which to take issue with
! an election board. but when you consider
| ms reasons for Withholding his name by
| Tear OF losing his JOB which his family
| depends; also the revelations of other states
| where such abuses of the ballot box has
| prohlblton and the ballot box stuffing along
| with the incentive the boodler politicians
| would have to kill the vote or any other
| vote IN the interest of integrity in public
once I'VE have very strong presumption
| IN favor of voters " statements write
you these facts for two purposes first 70
| express my earnest approval of your edito-
rlal' and also to call attention to the neces-
SHY OF seeing some way is provided to Sc
cure the ballot box against Stuffing and an
| honest count of the votes after being voted
| Yours in haste p COpE,V
| PttSburg, Dec. s.