The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-29
SIDE ISSUES IN INDIANA
IMPORTANCE OF THE NEGRO VOTE
 TO EACH SIDE.
His Recognition as a Mere Football Re- tween the Parties--Ta1gart's Pe- cuIiar Genius for Devising Ways and Means to Get Possession of it--Aspects of the Cam
 didacy of the Negro,
 Knox, for Congress.
Indianapolis, Correspondent of New
 York EyeninR Post.

Indianapolis, Correspondent of New
 York Evening Post.
 referred in my last letter to the vote this year in Indiana. With the close of the campaign only two weeks distant. everybody Is still at sea as to how this part of the business is to be handled. As 1t means some 2o,- GOO ballots in round numbers, 1t is by na means of a negligible consideration The balance of power may, In state as close as Indiana bids fair to show herself this time. be landed py IL on the one side or the other at the last
 The one man in this State who has the reputation of being a negro vote expert is rom Taggart. He has a with these people, large body or whom do not seem to have been nor ally improved by their migration thus far northward from the Ohio river. worked faithfully, acquired property and made themselves respected as citizens. the mass of those who nave chung to the cities and towns have tics are recognized as mere football between Ahe parties. Unfortunately, too Indianapolis, owing to its>~ geo. graphical position and transpor11ari,oa pr1an,oa from Kentucky-not quite so easy as Cincinnati, but sufficiently inviting to the professional partisan colonizer to make Its reputable citizens uneomtor- brooches. This year, 1t Is said, Tag gart will be at hand himself to see to the Democratic work on and just be- fore the polling dny ms ass tnat Ihe registration from ''Bucktown"-the name given to a quarter of the city wholly occupied by negro dwellings of the shady sort-will be riRidly seru- haf tho challenges af fba polls will break the record for multi jude. and that every case of Illegal registration detected will be prose- cS :a TSi T%y Of tSe svS sGsaG of plots to flood Indianapolis with col ored voters imported from Kentucky. and that this Is the ground for the extra precautions, l., 10 ,bsss De tSasn casn: ,x ot ten hard to obtain" said a former Democratic manager with whem I was discussing the subject Some years sgo was aeSG such % proof fe myseif and I devised a scheme which worked admirably. but which probably ex- hausted it's practicability with our one for 1t. The election and registration machinery was in the hands of the Re publicans, and the negroes brought in here from outside were put to work on the street improvement. l got hold of A labor organizer who was friendly to our interest. and said I: You have got 10 bring these negroes into un- ion He Kicked against the idea; but I Insisted. and together we got up an organization with 8 ritual which would be attractive to the negro fancy, but which involved. among other things, an inquisition as to the antecedents of every novitiate. He was obliged to tell where he had lived before, and at what employement he had worked. with the dates. etc. He also had to state his present place of residence This gave us the data we wanted, ana by comparison with our registration rolls we were able to locate more Hlen in a single house in Bucktown than the building could possibly hold. and also showed that hundreds Of them had lived here for too short q period to be entitled to vote even If they had settled here in good faith. With the evidence at our command we swept down big swaths of Republican votes.
 The Candidacy of G. l.. Knox;
 There is a negro newspaper publish ed here. called the Freeman. Wnose editor. George K Knox, has long cher- ished political aspirations He was getting cn in years, and this seemed to be a good time for him to lay the foun- dation for a career; so, as there ap- peared tn he a considerable dtsaffecS tion towards Representatives Cver- street. Knox concluded to takq the feld as a candidate for Congress. oyerstreet had been re.nominaKtd by