The Grit-advocate., 1905-01-13

LII auOptlNS TIE usual Hlelliou VI
seating officials elected on the face OF
the returns" and then institutlng
contest where fraud is alleged. the Re
publican leaders have givn general sat
isfaction, although there is consider
able complaint among those who are
familiar with the details of the frauds.
They argue that a system that Will
permit governor to take the Office.
even for day, when the fact that he
was elected by fraudulent votes is a
matter of common knowledge, needs
immediate changing.
The fact that the frauds exceeded
by far the plurality of Mr.. Adams is
freely conceded by all who have had
an opportunity to tamilarize them
selves with the results of the investl-
CATION This evidence and these bal
lot boxes will soon be examined, how
ever, and the office surely returned to
Mr.. Peabody.
Conservative Action.
when they had the power to push
through more decisive and radical
course, it is pointed out will result i'll
great advantage to the Republican or
, ganizatiOn.
| The leaders point to the fact that
when the Democrats had the power
~ ~
of law, constitution or decency, and
argue that this is just the reason Trey,
the Republicans, should go slo" and
tread the straight and narrow path OF
regularity.
In the meantime the full extent of
the frauds is becoming better appre-
ciated as the Supreme Court removes
the lids from the boxes Of the various
precincts.
| Three boxes opened last week
/ showed about 500 Democratic ballots
written by two or three persons. In ad-
dition to this the evidence has been
\ more sensational and startling. if that
.
earlier cases.
Court watchers and other witnesses
testified to the fact that in each pre-
cine the challenges of the Republican
challengers were absolutely ignored.
One witness kept list of names of
| voters who had their names voted
/
challengers would publicly denounce
the impersonators as frauds and call
attention to the fact that they were per
/ sonal!y acquainted with the party who
waS being impersonatcd, the Demo
/ cratic judges would ignore the objec-
| ton and accept the bogus votes.
Thousands of fraudulent votes were
cast by this method, and of course the
number can never be accurately ascer-
tanned. Not even the handwriting ex-
perts can pick out such votes.
How Repeaters Were Paid.
The most interesting testimony was
that of witness who described the
manner in which he saw repeaters
hcrded, given ballots and money for
voting them. The following bit of tes-
timony referring to man named Ely,
a Democratic precinct committeeman,
is especially rich:
Il saw Ely pay two men two dollars
about fifty feet from the polling place.
Then he said to them, Go on in and
vote The men went into the polling
place. I saw Ely go into the family
entrance of the Coliseum saloon with
nine men | stood on the curb and
watched them. | saw Ely give them
bills and silver dollar pieces and slips
Of paper. Then they came out. three
at time. and went into the polling
place. | saw each one given ballot
and saw each one vote it.
This is sufficiently specific to satisfy
the most eXacting. That a conspiracy
existed involving the election officials
cannot be denied for such repeating
as this. which can be established by
hundreds of witnesses and which has
been established in every case IN the
Supreme Court, could not possibly
be carried out without the connivance
and assistance of the Democratic
election oliicialE at the polling places.
In this box the expert found 1G7 bal
lots written by the same person and
he declared in his sworn statement
that if he had time to examine the
other ballots carefully he could have
found mucn more. The total vote in
this precinct was 29O.
This is a sample box and like others
it smells to heaven
There is absolutely no question
about the existence of a well planned
conspiracy, and that it will run down
many prominent Democratic pOliti-
clans before the examinations end, Is
almost a certainty.
Row in the House
One Of the most unfortunate features
of the late unpleasantness in the Leg
islature was the action of the Republi
cans in getting into disgraceful
squabbe. Certain members, few in
number but aggressive and persistent