Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-06-24
THE OREGON ELECTION.

| AAOAO 10 OHiJ OuO uolIy paper III Lie
state of Kansas that dares to give the
facts in connection with the recent
frauds which defeated the will of the
people in the late election In Oregon.
That paper is the Topeka CO. Operator
and Press. The following is its &C.
count of the way the republicans in
Oregon counted the popullst congress
men out. It is matter of great salts
faction that we have a paper at last
that will publish the plain and unvar-
nished truth and thus show up the con-
temptible tactics employed by the re-
publican party to defeat the will of
the people:
I'VE have been waiting with what
ever degree of patience the condition
of the weather would allow us to COM
mand for the freight" to get in with
the returns of the Oregon election. We
have at last received a report which is
astonishing in that it shows that the
| most braZen and wholesale fraud has
been practiced in counting out the pop
ulist candidates.
The Oregon City Herald shows up a
few cases. Here Is sample of repub-
lican methods of carrying popular cleo.
tions. The Herald says:
In one county alone an error of 200
votes was found In Mr.. Tongues favor
after the result had been announced.
1t was an error IN casting up the fig
ures. 1t was discovered after the
watchers had gone home and while the
tally sheets were in the hands of the
county clerk. In another county SIM
liar error OF l73 votes was checked up
to Mr.. Tongues credit, and, strange to
relate, 1t took more than week to get
the returns from some outlying repub.
lican precincts
But this is not all. In Lincoln coun-
ty,patriOtic republican leaders marched
up l65 Indians and republican judges
did what these noble followers of Abra
ham Lincoln could not do, fixed their
ballots. Noble Red Men-republica ms
who voted for so much a head, while
intelligent American citizens stood by
amazed, If not chagrined. The same
is true of Umatllla county,
How do you like it you republicans
who have been protesting against the
outrages perpetrated on the ballot box
es of the south? Is it any less a crime
when committed by republican in
Oregon than by democrats in Georgia?
The poll books in Marion comfy show seven
precincts where the return is illegal. The
precincts in question are, Englewood, Marion,
North Salem, Howell, st. Paul. Labish, Lin
coin. The judges in these precincts were not
sworn according to law and there are other
defects in the return.
In the vote on congressman this had
the following result:
Tongue (rep). ............ ... .434
Vanderburg(pop). .............. -. ...... 500
Tongue gains. Observation-Disclosures. 125
This leaves the result in the district
as follows:
Tongue(rep). ............. " 10 800
Vanderburg(pOpl. 192Sl
This leaves the republican elected by
"a majority.
This story tells the tale of other off
GERS so that it is not necessary to point
out like proceedings in other places
BE it said to the honor of Marion coun-
ty that her good citizens are not lying
supinely while these wrongs are being
perpetrated. A call for a mass meeting
to protest against these outrages is be-
Ing circulated.
1.-The call recites that there Is ample proof
that hind-handed piece of fraud and trick
cry Is being perpetrated under color of law,
whereby Hon. W. s. Vanberburg, the legally
elected congressman for this district, is being
| unlawfully and frauduently counted out, and
Hon. Thos. II. Tongue is being counted In,
contrary to the expressed will of the majority
! of legal voters of this district
Therefore, we call upon all good and law
abiding citizens who believe in honest elections
! In an honest and a fair count to unite with us
in public mass meeting duly and lawfully as
| sembled, to take such lawful measures as may
| be necessary to protect the purity OF the bal
lot box. and to utter our protest and indigua-
| ton against the most disgraceful attempt to
defeat the will OF the people ever attempted In
the history of our state, and if allowed to be
contaminated would be a lasting disgrace to
the name of our state"
There is a lesson In this that we
should not fail to learn and that is that
these methods are neither republican
nor democratic but they are decidedly
plutocratic. 1t is in keeping with the
threat made by Rev. Joseph Cook a
plutocratlc apologist several years ago
when he said Come on with your
schemes of confscation and lrredeem-
able currency under universal suffrage
and we must get rid of universal suf-
frage." This shows the spirit of plu-
tocracy spirit that must be met with
t1rmness as uncOmpromising as JUS
tice and as harsh as truth on the part
of the common people.
M. S. PETERS, the popullst nominee
for congressman of the Second district,
has been endorsed by the democrats.
His election is assured by reason of the
fact that the republicans are divided