Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-08-21

party, who have the power to chsl-
lenge the vote of any person who
claims to be registered and, unless q
majority of the judges decide he is a
qualified voter and the person regis
tered, he can not vote. So when every
vote is received and placed in the bal
lot box, it must be with the approval
of at least three of the four judges.
"The purity of the ballot box is
hedged about with every possible
safeguard. Every conceivable offense
against the ballot is made a felony,
punishable by imprisonment in the
p~enitentiary. To even attempt to
vote frauduently is punishable by i'm
prisonment at the ~penitentiary for
not less than two years. To imper-
senate anyone in the attempt to vote
is punishable in the same manner. No
state in all the Union has greater
safeguards against fraud or dishon-
est practices than Missouri.
"In striking contrast with the i'm
partial and just laws of to-day are
the partizan prescriptive statutes
which prevailed in Missouri under re-
publican rule. 1t is not my purpose
to call attention in this article to the
cruel injustice and the fragrant par
tizanship of the elections of 1865 to
1870, when the registering officers
for the entire state, as well as the
judges and clerks, were selected eX-
clusively from partizan republicans.
The democracy had no representa-
tives anywhere among the election Of
ficers.
ut was under these conditions that
democrats like Gen. Frank P. Blair
and Gen. James Shields, with hum
dreds of others in every county in
the state, were refused the right to
vote, and ministers, lawyers and
school teachers were prosecuted and
imprisoned for practicing their re-
spective professions without taking
an unconstitutional oath.
at was under this same law, which
was in force from the time the re-
publicans secured control in Missouri
until they were driven from power,
that Col. William F. Switzler was
twice defrauded of his seat in con-
gress and hundreds of other demo-
Gratis deprived of the office to which
a clear majority of the legal voters
had alected them.
"To Show the utter inconsistency
and dishonesty of the republican talk
of the election laws of Missouri, we
need only cite one conspicuous in
stance.
AT the republican convention held
this year in Pike county to select
delegates to the state convention,
Col. D. P. Dyer offered the following
resolution, which was, of course,
unanimously adopted:
"'We denounce the so-called demo-
cratic party of this state for the
enactment of election and police laws
that deprive the citizens of st. Louis,
Kansas City and st. Joseph of local
self-government, and disfranchise cit
liens for no reason other than to
continue in control a corrupt ring at
the state capitol!'
"Although now a citizen of St.
Louis, Col. Dyer formerly lived in
Pike. While a resident of the Ninth
congressional district, he made some
election history which, in view of his
recent resolution, it may be we'll to
briefly recite: :,
I'm 1868, Col. Dyer was the repub-
lican candidate for ongress in the
Ninth district and Col. Switzler was
the democratic candidate. At that
time, Francis Rodman was secretary
of state. The election machinery,
registrators, challengers, Judges and
clerks were all intense republican
partizans. So brutally were demo-
Gratis disfranchised that in the big
democratic county of Boone, with a
voting population then of over 1000,
only 40 citizens were permitted to
vote. The democrats of Audrain. Cal
laway, Monroe, Lincoln and Rails were
similarly disfranchised.
I'm spite of this wholesale dis.
reimbursement. Col. Switzler carried
the district by a majority of 70s.
Count Rodman, however, de-
stroyed the returns and issued a GER
titicate of election to Col. Dyer, who
accepted it and compelled Col. Swift
Ter to contest for the seat.
THE official records of this con-
test, before a partizan republican
congress, show that in order to de-
fraud Col. Switzler of the seat to
which he had been fairly elected, it
was necessary to throw out the
vote of Calumet township, in Col.
Dyer's W county of Pike, to thrown
out the vote of Salt River township in
Audrain, and to also throw out the
entire vote of Monroe. By doing this,
Col. Dyer was enabled to hold on to
the seat, to which a majority of the
legal voters, accepted as such by his
w partizan election officers, had
chosen his opponent.
Il respectfully submit to the vot.
ers of Missouri that the record Col.
Dyer made in defrauaing Col. Switz-
Ter Of his seat in congress is a com.
plete answer to the demagogery, by.
pocrisy and dishonesty contained in
his recent Pike county resolution"
The Rhythm of the Songs of Birds.
How little we realize the fact that
the music of nature is always in
tensely rhythmical! An intelligent
rooster with a good ear always crows
in accurate three-four time, and in