Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-17
PLAYING WITH FIRE.

AHS AdNCIllSeI dppedIS to lay BfedL stress upon the fact that the State Her aid Is not treating the McIver report from Morgan county as a matter of su- preme moment We think the good peo- pie of Morgan are abundantly able to manage their primary elections. If frauds were committed-of which there is no evidence beyond the assertion of McIver
 lit is very strange that no investigation was made by the people affected; that no protest was made to the county conven- tion, and that no other paper than the Advertiser made such a grave charge. No candid man can admit that the pa- per purporting to show that more men voted for him at the New Decatur box than Were counted for MT. Clarke is good evidence of the fact. The purpose of a secret ballot is to prevent employers and men who have control over the labor of others from knowing how their employees vote. A man who has a wife and chil- dren to support is approached by an agent of great corporation and request ed to vote for Mir Clarke. He under stands that not to obey means distress for himself and family. He consents to vote as directed but he is determined to resent MT. Clarke's vote against the eight-hour law and to uphold the bimetal- ljc standard. Under cover of the secret ballot he votes as his conscience die tates, and not as his boss has directed. But he must conceal the fact To admit it would be ruin He sees before him long, weary days of idleness and in the eyes of his faithful wife and darling children he sees starvation. He keeps his secret to himself. No man shall drag it from his bosom. It remains hidden be- tween him and his conscience; between him and his God.
 He comes out from his shop, and at the door is met by McIver, the pestilent agent of the Advertiser, the Ran Sniffles of the press. McIver has his pencil and notebook in hand. and in his fishy eye there is reflected all the attributes of his paper-envy, hatred, malice and all un- charltableness-that brood of contempti- ble sins from which Major Screws prays to be delivered every Sunday morning as he reads from the rubric. McIyer seizes the free and independent voter and at tempts to extort from him his consttu- tional secret. He expects the man to do what the secret ballot intended to pro- tect him in doing. Did you vote for Clarke or Johnston? If he replies John ston he knows that he is a doomed man. He is being watched. There are com rades around him who will inform the bosses. He says that he voted for Clarke The recording angel which heard the lie was the same that heard the oath of Uncle Toby. He saw the look of agony that accompanied it, dropped tear upon it and plotted it out forever.
 The paper published by McIyer is not good evidence. If there were any doubt as to the vote when the polls closed, why didn't the Clarke men demand an inspec- tion of the poll list? The laws that gov ern a regular election are applicable to primary election. But no one d1d so. No one expressed desire to do so. Everybody conceded the election to Johh- ston, and even the Advertiser, in advance of the election, conceded the county to him. How many of McIver's list, besides those already reported, were non-resi- dents, minors and bulldoZed operatives, we do not know, and we do not propose to enquire by following Mclver in such dirty work among respectable people.
 Even if we admit all that Mclver has shown, which we do not by any means, we have simply an irregularity at one box composed chiefly of men who are operatives in the shops and who, as we have said had special reasons for con cealng their votes. There is no charge of unfairness anywhere else. The vic tory of Johnston is conceded as over- whelmng, and the McIver chatter cannot break it's effect But it will have this effect: It will raise a grave doubt whether the Advertiser has been honest in the past in denying that illegalities at the polls have been committed when it's own interests were wrapped up in the bogus votes. It will lay a serious predicate for the senatorial Investigating committee But far worse than all, whether Johnston or Clarke is nominat- ed it will give color to the charge of the enemy that the nominee was fraudulent ly put upon the people and subsequently fraudulently elected. In other words, the course of the Advertiser in this petty business is marking a way for the over- throw of popular government in Ala bama. How long will the people endure this monkey with fire brand in pow der magazine?