The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-28
ILLEGAL POLITICS
woMANLY WAYS OF "BRINGINa
 UP THE RETURNS" .
Testimony in shafroth Case Dis couraging to Idea of Ballot Re-
 form Through Fe-
 male Suffrage


 When woman enters politics 1t has been demonstrated she can give man points on fradulent elections. The testimony in the case of Representative Shafroth of Colorado, who resigned his seat the other day because he was convinced that he had been fradulcntly elected, is largely a story of woman suffrage. Women vote in Colorado, and the part played by that sex in the Denver election of 1902 is not very encouraging for ballot re- form.
 According to the testimony in the shafroth case, the women not only voted fraudulently, but stuffed ballot boxes, bought votes and otherwise ran the elec- tion in an up-to-date manner It is also shown that the masculine allies of these women in politics bulldozed and assaulted women election 4officials. and prevented women from voting by making the poll ] Ing places scenes which no respectable woman would care to enter.
 The Democrats had control of the cleo ! ton machinery and committed the frauds. A young woman, named Alma Beswick, seems to have been the leader in tho conspiracy Her name constantly ap- pears in the testimony, and she seems to be a young woman of great industry l and ingenuity and remarkable aptitude for politics. The only hint of ner per- sonal appearance in the evidence Is given by a witness who says that she Is dark complexioned."
 One witness, Edwin V. Brake. describes how a man, named Owens, and hts wife came to register.
 They stood from an hour to an hour and a half up next the clerk" says Brake and the lady was very courteous and nice. and requested three or four dif- ferent times to be allowed to register. They repeatedly put people in front of them-crowded them out. They would be up next the railing; they would crowd | them back; two oI three people would step In front of them. Finally they got mad and went out.'
 Here Is Brakes description of how wo- | men voters used the registry books: "I could not get the names of three women that I saw register three times | without leaving the room. I could not | get the names because they would not | let us get the names. They registered | them twice before Len Rogers and the | third time they went over to the other side to the other clerk"
 Joseph F. Maxwell testified that a number of women were put on the rolls | who did not register and were not resi- | dents, one of whom, Alice Hit, was "a | girl only IT years old." Being asked who vouched for. the names when they were | put on the rolls, he said:
 | Miss Alice Donovan, who has been | a prominent Democratic worker in that | precinct for years. She has been Demo- i cratic judge, Democratic clerk"
 Maxwell said he discovered a woman | voting in one polling place under the | name of Mary O'Leary and In another | as Mary c. Bates. He arrested her, | and she made a confession which shows | that the market rate for women's votes was $1.
 How Good Women Were Treated.
 The kind of experience good women had to undergo at the polls Is Illustrated in the testimony of A. Newton Patton. | He brought two girls named Baker to the polling place to register. both Re- | publicans. One of them had been i'll and ! was only just able to be about. The l Misses Baker took their place in line and l Patton stood talking to friends for twen- | ty minutes. Then his attention was called to the fact that there were as many peo- pie ahead of the Bakers as there had been at the outset. Billy Green. Dem- ocratic worker. was crowding people in ahead of the two girls Patton stepped mp to the counter and told the clerks | that one of the Misses Baker was Ill and that he did not think 1t right to put late corners in ahead of her.
 Green called Patton name which he would not repeat In his testimony anl told him to get out. Seeing that the sick girl was becoming nervous at the pros | pect of a fight, Patton swallowed his an- ger and stepped back. In fifteen minutes. the girls still being as far as ever from | the counter one of them beckoned Pat | ton over and said that her sister was So i'll that she d!d not think they could wait. l Green again ordered him back. At the l end of an hour one of the Baker girls | la-..- IxA L.. A. g1 called Patton to vouch for her, according to law. Green then used Language too l indecolt to be used in any place on | earth" and told Patton he could not vouch for anybody. Green then called on some tramps to throw Patton out.
 'I replied" says Patton, that one of those women was very sick and that would go in order to avoid trouble" But they fell on him and threw him out, Green putting his hand on a revolver. The object of the demonstration, of course. was to dive the Baker girls away, and 1t succeeded. Patton found them in the street and tried to get them to go back and register. "They said that they did not want to endanger their lives by going into such A place again. and all my persuasion would not induce them to do so."
 Woman out-Herods Herod. A pleasanter aide of woman's aptitude for politics is given in tnc testimony of Mrs. Mary McGrath. Republican, who | discovered way to beat the reglstration frauds. She took number of Republican women to register, but the clerks would not allow them to do SO. Mrs. McGTath was beaten for awhile. but presently shn noticed that some men who wore buttons bearing the name Simpson, tho Demo- cratic candidate for Governor, were l promptly registered.
 | T spoke to Mrs bshworth about 1t and said. Well, If we had a Simpson but ! ton we would get registered, too, and get waited on in time So I get lot of Simpson buttons and we told the women We would not go up with them any more, but gave them the buttons, and they went to Democratic headquarters and they got vouchers for them there and had them registered at once"
 Yet this natural-born politician said on | cross-examination:
 "Q.-You are a Republican? Al al- ways voted that ticket. because my hus- band was a Republicans; but don't know anything cbout politics"
 This same Mrs. McGrath detected a number of women repeaters. and gave a thoroughly feminine description of one oi them.
 "She didn't have no headdress on hel head. and had such lovely hair that 1t at, tracted my attention; it was auburn, witF was very attractive.' --.
 Woman's Frank Confession.
 But the testimony of Mrs. Beatrice Muh!eman was the prettiest thing in tHt two big volumes of evidence. She was