The La Jara chronicle. (La Jara, Conejos County, Colo.) 1896-19??, 1905-01-06

trlct OF Denver.
The frauds in twenty-four precincts
are briefly told in addition to the nine
which had at that time been investi-
gated by the Supreme Court, and he
states that columns could have been
filled with similar records of frauds.
The statement contains little or no
comment by the chairman, but 1t is
nevertheless a most convincing one.
Abandoned Hope.
Senator Patterson has utterly aban-
doned all hope of making the fraudu-
lent Denver votes count for Mr..
Adams. He has reached the fooled
villain" stage, where he stands and
foams and fumes and demands
blood"
1t is a foregone conclusion that re-
CARELESS OF the action of the Supreme
Court the Legislature will investigate
the frauds and be guided by sane and
just judgment in deciding the matter
Agents of the Bigg Mitt in Denver
who had for years superintended the
election frauds in that city, and who
were familiar with the various tricks
and devices to defeat the will Of the
voter at the ballot box, were sent to
many of the counties in the state.
A Smooth Scheme.
They did not succeed in making any
such a haul of votes as they did in
Denver. but their mission was never
l fail I~t.
| plan to do what is known as raw
work" in the smaller country pre-
cincts. such work was reserved for
Las Animas, Pueblo and one or two
other places. The plan was to have a
little fraud committed in each precinct
in the state where the influence of
the machine reached the local cleo
ton officials. An average of ten fraud
ulent votes in every precinct In the
state would mean a total of $4,000.
An average of but three bogus votes
in each precinct meant $500. and these
frauds would naturally be so wide
spread and individually so small that
they would be very likely overlooked
and ignored by the Republicans. To
register an unnaturalized person here
and there to get vote that was in
any form illegal or to prevent by any
] trick or device, legal or Illegal, a Re-
| publican from voting, was the scheme.
1t was gum shoe" campaign this,
and it was carried out to a much
! greater extent than is generally be-
lieved.
| An Instance.
The very small plurality received on
| the face of the returns by Mr.. Ward,
Democratic candidate for senator from
| Boulder. disclosed one of these in
stances of Democratic fraud in a Re-
publican county, which many Rerrb-
licans have heretofore believed im..,''s
| sible.
Investigation developed the fact that
the Lafayette precinct was one of the
outside places where the gum shoe"
artists from Denver had gotten in their
work. Affidavits from well known peo-
pie furnished the names of eighty-five
Democratic voters who were either un-
naturalzed or who did not live in the
precinct. 1t was also charged that the
| Democratic judges (of which there
were two instead of one as there
should have been in a Republican
county precinct opened the ballot box
after 1t had been sealed for some pur-
pose and that they did it while the
third judge tRepublican) was absent.
The discovery Of this fraud was the
means of preventing Senator Willard
from being robbed of his seat.
In Trinidad naturalization frauds
were committed and precinct No. 81
was colonized with Italians and other
foreigners and the vote almost dou-
bled Illegally. 1t was because of such
frauds as these that Senator Barela
was given his seat over his Democratic
| opponent.
Questions for Adams.
Mr.. Adams has been the recipient of
another open letter which be no doubt
wishes had not been written. Among
the questions asked by his public cor
respondent are the following:
"Who was it that tried to prevent
the occurrence of Democratic election
frauds at the recent election?
"The Republican organization, was
it not?
"Who opposed this action of the Re-
publican organization and its efforts
TO get the fictitious names stricken
from the registration books?
who was it that opposed the issue
of the Supreme Court injunction, COM
manding election crooks to obey the
law?
"Who was it that opposed the APP
pointment of Supreme Court watchers,
mort to the Supreme Court the work of
the Democratic Big Mitt' at the polls?
II appreciate that this is an annoy
ing question, for you now want the
boxes opened In fact, it is really en-
barrassing, but
"Was 1t not the Democratic organi-
cation opposed every effort made by
the Republican organization to pro
vide means of detecting these frauds?
This question is really deserving oil
specific answer"
The assembling of the members OF
the Legislature has furnished an OPP
portunity to make the preliminary
"size up" OF the general average OF
the membership. 1t is but fair to say
that the average seems to have been
raised several notches. The legisiat-
ors as a whole are unusually active
and brainy looking men. as legisla-
lures 20. There are several members
OF exceptional force and ability In both
houses and the people of the state are
justified in expecting much from them
in the way OF sane legislation and