The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-10-13
BALLOT POLLUTION.

phia's Elections the Most Corrupt on
Earth--some of Their Leading Infa-
nous Features--How the Machine
Downs Attempts at Ballot Reform.
Machine Leaders Who Boast of
Their Shame and Make Jest of 1t.
From machine rule to debauchery
of the ballot box is a logical evolu-
tion. No machine ever held sway for
any length OF time without 1t. Even
abe Republican party of Pennsylvania,
complacent as are it's followers, ready
as they are in their prejudices and bigo-
tries to tolerate almost anything that
comes in the name of and labeled Re-
publicanism, could not have been so
long and SO completely bossed but for
the aid the bosses have had from un-
lawful purchase and coercion of the
voters, Justification of election returns
and kindred inquisities.
The writer of this article has himself
seen 81 colored men voted in Philadel-
phia out of single four-roomed house.
1t was perfectly manifest that they
did not regularly live there, that they
were there for election purposes only,
[and would be in perhaps a half dozen
other precincts or wards for the same
, purpose on the same day. Yet, so far
as their record showed, they were legal
voters, and their right to cast ballots
could not be successfully disputed.
1t is, not probable that elections are
more corrupt anywhere on earth than
in Philadelphia. Fully half the Repub-
lican majorities returned from there
are manufactured. By far the greater
number of the election officers are men
who have absolutely no respect for an
oath, and will hesitate at no crime
provided they are literally paid for its
commission, and the machine leaders
are never without ample funds for this
purpose. 1t makes no difference how
the votes are cast, they will return
whatever majority they are ordered to.
Men are regularly paid to pose as
Democrats and stand as Demo-
cratic candidates for Judge or inspec-
tor, or to become clerks of election. in
order that the perpetrators of these
shameless frauds may be made secure
against detection and conviction. In
the rear of nearly every polling place
on election day there is an improvised
gin mill. where free liquor is dispensed
to those so depraved that they can be
influenced by 1t. The liquors are paid
for out of the party Golfers, and dealt
out by party heelers. Policemen, who
owe their places to the machine. are
posted at the entrances of the alleys on
which these demoralizing dens are To-
Gated, to protect them, and to arrest
and imprison, on trumped up charges
Of drunkenness and disorderly con-
duct, any one who may show a dispo-
siton to kick at the business.
A few years ago an attempt was
made, under the auspices of one of the
many evdnescent reform movements
that are forever bobbing up there, and
falling to pieces before anything is ac-
complished, to purge the registry lists
in some of the down town wards Of the
thousands of names of fictitious voters
with which 1t was known they were
padded. The gentlemen composing the
committee charged with this work were
so annoyed and threatened by the Re-
publicans of the purlieus under the
spur of their respective local leaders,
that they were compelled to abandon
their undertaking. This did not fol-
low, however until they had ascer-
tanned that from 25 to so per cent of the
names on the lists were Illegally there,
dilo tudl ia OuG u uOB IdQ aC-
tually been registered.
That these outrages are not only toll
Grated, but encouraged, by the Republi-
can party as a whole is made manifest
by the fact that in every election con-
test that comes before the Pennsylva-
mia legislature the decision is invaria-
bly, with the Republicans, no matter
whether he be the contestant or the
contestee. and regardless of the evil
dence in the case. Some of the testi-
mony in the Saunders s-Roberts case.
which was up at the '97 session, show
ed a degree of shamefulness in the
manner in which the Republicans con-
duct elections in Philadelphia that
almost passes belief.
Most of these wrongs are expressly
forbidden in the law. Some, however,
find conformation in the statutes. This
is notoriously the case with reference
to the men employed by the party to
assist incompetent" voters in making
up their ballots. These helpers are
the handlers of the party bribe money.
They buy the voter, and then make IL
a condition that he shall declare to the
election board his inability to mark
his own ticket, and call them into the
booth with him, in which way these
scoundrels make sure that the goods
they have paid for have been delivered
as per the contract.
This fragrant defect In the law has
been pointed out times without number
and demand for its correction has been
made by every reputable newspaper
in the commonwealth. Yet 1t has, thus
far, been found impossible, such is the
power Of the machine over the senators
and members, to make the necessary
CONVECTION. Bills have been presented
with that object at every session, but
{ all have fallen under the veto of the
machine. At the '97 session Represent
ative Keator. of Philadelphia, intro
duced bill, designed, among other
things. to prohibit helpers unless in the
cases of voters who would deliberately
swear that they either could not read
or where physically incompetent to
mark their own ballots and to require
the helper in such cases to make affi-
davit, on blank to be provided at the
polling places, that he would never
divulge how the helped voter had voted.
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