Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-01-01
IS THIS A FREE COUNTRY

will INQUIRE if this is a free country-and we
mean, are all the people free in the sense that
there are no hampering conditions that limit
men in the exercise of their God-given rights!
And in answer we have to say that this is not
free country; at least, only in name
Republicans generally insist that elections
are not free in the Southern states, and, with
some truth. 1t is claimed that the colored
voters are kept away from the balot-box; or,
If they vote, enough of their votes are not
counted as to leave the colored people in mi
nority.
Democrats claim that the Hanna class of
Republicans coerce the white voters III the
Northern cities. AS in the charge made by
the Republicans, there is abundont evidence of
the truth of the charge; and if the allegations
of both parties are true, elections are not free,
either in the Northern or Southern states.
This is not free country in the fullest sense
until everv voter can vote and have his ballot
counted without intimidation of any descrip-
ton. If any man can be restrained from vot-
ing his political sentiments, and having his
vote counted, he is not free.
Now, there are influences surrounding voters
that are intimately connected with elections,
far-reaching in their effects, and that impose
dangerous restraint upon the voter A man
who is free from debt, OWNS his home, and is
in no way dependent upon his fellow man for
living, cannot be bought and cannot be intim-
idated, unless physical force is employed i'll
such strength as to render successful resistance
impossible.
Southern whites intimidated their former
slaves because of their poverty and ignorance,
as we'll as because of their timidity.
The present conditions, as well as the past,
made bulidozing and ballot-boX- stufing pos
sibility
In the Northern states, to some extent, at
least, intimidation has been made possible be-
cause Of the poverty of the masses; and Hanna
was not backward in using the opportunity
presented him in the late campaign The
many depended upon the few for employment,
and lob meant bread and butter for the wife
and little ones. And so, men voted the Re-
publican ticket who did not believe in Repub-
licanism; and they were, in sense, as much
coerced into voting that ticket as if the shot
gun had been employed; or, in other words,
men, because of the conditions surrounding
them, appeared to sanction by their ballots
what they did not sanction in their hearts.
Here we have an indirect form of coercion
that has existed for years, but was never so
glarngly open as in the late campaign, and
what was once small affair has assumed vast
proportions, menacing liberty and threatening
The total destruction of our republic.
The former STAKEHOLDER kept the books of his
employees, and the former slave settled accord
ingly. There we're two parties, but one party
was silent in contracts, and there could not be
two parties at the balot-box where conditions
were so unequal as formerly in the Southern
states. We have, to large extent, reached
the same dangerous condition in the Northern
states. Although the laboring people have
made great struggle, the defeat of Bryan
means that more and more will there be one
silent party in every contract made between the
rich man who hires and the poor man who is
hired; and more and more will there be just
one man heard at the ballot-box The North
srn employer will do the voting-is doing the
votinp-and while the white man in the North
falls, the Southern colored man rises. Every
thing considered there was no fairer election
in the Southern states last November than in
the Northern states
There is still another way of defeating fair
election, and that is by wholesale lying. There
Is lying about persons, lying about principles,