Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-23
ARE THE REPUBLICANS
PLANNING FRAUD

Jos: Oil. in Atlanta Constitution
E WASHINGTON, October 20.-Are the
Republicans paving the way for the
wholesale purchase OF farmer votes in
the close States? Is that the real mean
ing of the claims which they are put
ting forward of great Sains in the rural
communities?
These questions are being asked by
Democratic politicians who regard these
Republican claims with suspicion
born of experience. There must, these
observers think, be some reason for
the Republican willingness to acknoWi-
edge losses in the cities and the vigor
with which the Presidents friends are
assuring him, for publication, that
vast accessions' from the rural vote
in the close ..ates may be looked for.
Are these claims put forth as sort
OF notice to men in the small towns and
claes that they can find market for
their votes?
That is certainly not an impossibility.
The Republicans are now making no
secret of the fact that they have gi-
gantic campaign fund; they do not at
all object to the inference being drawn
from that fact that the fund is for .-e
purchase Of votes; and having placed
their money in the cities to the limit
OF its effectiveness, they now want it
understood that the rural voter, who is
on the market, can get his pay as well
as his city brother.
We, in the south, are naturally in
clined to resent the suggestion that the
farmer can, be purchaseable quantity.
1t is natural that We should feel that
way for ,Aere is no man so Jealous
of his right to vote, as no body of men
more incorruptible than the southern
farmers. 1t is not so everywhere, how
ever. We hear tales-and they come
from unoeniable good sources-of the
virtuous New England farmer, who, as
election time comes round, begins in
quiring the price of votes. This applies
to some of the residents of rural COM
munities, some of the farmers of those
States, not by any means to all; but
there is enough of that sort of thing
to warrant the broad statement that
this is one essential point of difference
between the southern farmer and his
New England brother.
Then, to illustrate that the itching
palm is not confined to New England,
we have to turn back to a page in
not far off Presidential contest.
That is the page which contains the
story of the Blocks-of-F letter and
the results attained through it.
"A prominent Democrat, who that year
had an active hand in the manage
ment of the national campaign, told me
yesterday the inside story of that.
Blocks-of-Five letter, with which Cen
eral Dudley's name will go down into
political history. 1, may be remarked
incidentally in passing, that this same
General Dudley is taking an active
part in the Republican campaign out
in Indiana this year as he did in 1888.
The Republican tnat year did not at
all like the indications that came 10
them from the cities, so they determ
ined to go systematically after the
farmer vote of Indiana-the State they
deemed absolutely necessary to the sue
cess of their ticket. Senator Quay had
fried 100000 out of the protection ''ba-
rons' of Philadelphia and Pennsyl-
vania, and the Republican managers
in Indiana were given to understand
they could have as much Of that as they
could use effectively.