Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-19

Fictftious stray Votes.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
The story to which extensive circulation
was given by the Eastern papers that
ballet was recently taken in the Illinois
steel works, resulting in 1000 votes for
Bryan and 800 for Mckinley, is one of the
many subterfuges resorted to by the wan
ing cause of Organism to induce the belief
that our wage-earners stand for silver in
f1ation. The storys has no foundation In
fact and was conclusively refuted in a
trustworthy communication published in
the Philadelphia Record on the 14th in
stant The original statement announced
that the men deposited their ballots in
three separate boxes, and that all the
ballots We're placed in the Mckinley box,
but when the votes were counted there
were only 800 for Mckinley and over 1900
fc- Bryan. The Record correspondent, who
can be implicitly relied upon, declares that
the only poll among the employees of the
Illinois Steel Company was taken on Sep
tember Il. Two of the employees acted as
judges. One of them is silverite and will
vote for Bryan; the other is the secretary
OF sound money club. The auditor of
the company and two Of the head clerks
aiced in counting the vote. The result of
the balloting was as follows: Total vote,
3.29l; for Mckinley, 2,765; Palmer. l6o:
Bryan. 366. Each voter was furnished with
three white ballots of the same size, each
vote Tor Mckinley, Bryan or Palmer
The ballot was secret There was one bal
lot box and it was impossible to say how
the men individually voted. The count
was carefully conducted and the silver
judge acknowledged the correctness of the
return. The voting list represented "a per
cent of the company's paw roll. The same
correspondent also fatty refutes another
story to the effect that a vote in the great
Chicago packing house of Armour & Co.
showed a large majority for Bryan. The
TACT Is that no such vote was taken this
year, and the firm has made no attempt to
discover the political status of the estab-
lishment.
Inc Ledger has received a communica-
tion from the secretary of the Working
mems Mckinley League. of Chicago, in
which the writer declares that another
widely published report concerning the po-
litical beliefs of certain Chicago workmen
is false and misleading. This canard an
nounced that of the employees of the Chi
cago Times-Herald fifty-five voted for Bry-
an or test vote, and only four for Nc
kinley. The correspondent declares that
no test vote of the Chicago newspapers
has been taken. As to the Times Herald
more than thirty of the employees of the
composing room are members of the Nc
hlniey League. This correspondent also
declares that the statement industriously
circulated by Chairman Jones, of the Dem
ocratlc national committee, that the trades
unionists of Chicago are solidly for Bryan,
Is not the fact. The correspondent AYERS
furthermore, that not a single organiza-
ton of working men Of Chicago has de-
ciared for Bryan. Attention is called to
the course of the Eight-Hour Herald, d
labor paper of very extensive circulation,
the organ of the Illinois Federation of
LABOR, which is doing yeoman service for
Mckinley and sound money
1t is difficult to understand why any
wage-earner should vote for Bryan and HI 8
destructive financial heresies. A vote fo:
Bryan Is vote for the reduction of wages
and hard times. The interests of the work
Ing men are clearly defined in this great
contest for financial honor. No intelligent
worker can go astray, and it is the con-
fident belief and expectation of the Ledger
that the wage-earners of the country will
declare overwhelmingly for the party, the
candidates and the financial policy which
will insure for all willing workers the op-
portunities for employment and a wage
OF the greatest purchasing power. A work.
man who deposits his vote for the 50-cent
dollar is strangely oblivious of his own
welfare.