St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-07-22

landed, there Is no further need Of .
rating. He is marked 20. K" and the
only question is, How much will he
take?''
We had in our legislature man who
had SERVED several terms in the gen.
eral assembly of a neighboring state.
There. and with us, his record was above
par. He consistently voted against any
measure which was tainted with even
the hint Of corruption. He was in COM
Portable circumstances, and was a citi-
zen OF considerable prominence in his
home community. A certain bill was
pushed through the senate by sheer
force OF Doodle. 1t came over to the
house, and the same corrupt methods
advanced 1t to vote. This man voted
against it every time it came up, but on
the final vote he said aye"
Immediately after casting his vote he
hurriedly left the room and took the
first train for his home Nor did he re-
turn, and none Of us could learn the rea-
son for his unexpected surprising vote.
Some time afterwards was told the
story. The record-seeker for the cor
poration which wanted the bill passed
had followed his back trail, had gone
back into this mans life until he came
to the place where the man, a quarter
OF q century before, while intoxicated,
had taken money which belonged to his
employer. He afterwards made good
the theft, no prosecution followed, and
the young man, leaving the town, had
lived down his past and become useful,
reputable citizen
The sleuth hurried to the capital with
his information. and the man was given
his choice; vote for the bill and nothing
would be said of his early misstep; vote
against it, and the sworn facts would be
published broadcast He did not have
the moral courage to face the test, and
voted AYE"
We had another case "a some ways
similar to the one have cited, but the
man in the case was built of different
material. The emissaries OF the inter-
ests which were trying to put through
Doodle bill laid before this man affi-
davits which related in detail the his
tory of a crime he had committed when
a young, inexperienced, headstrong
man. He listened attentively to the
reading of the affidavits, then saying:
Il will let you know how will vote in
an hour" left the room. Within the
promised time he sent back a note
which, in substance, read as follows:
What you read me is correct in every
particular-you didn't have to swear to
it. shall vote mo- on your bill, and
you canpublish every word you read me,
but if you do, will shoot each one of
you on sight and, as your affidavit shows,
when l shoot, shoot to KILL
4 He voted mo" in such loud, def
ant tone that it attracted attention, but
the men who made affidavit to the fact
that he once had killed his man, burned
the papers and kept their counsel. The
man himself told few of us about the
affair, and the efforts of the blackmail-
ers to force him to vote for their bill
/ have cited these cases to show that
influences other than money are used
to get votes when votes are needed.
Men who want legislation enacted or
killed are not the spendthrifts which
common report says they are. They
work every trick Of the trade to win
votes without the payment of money
1t is only when the boodlers in the leg
islature refuse to act on anything but a
spot cash basis that money is used. A
man can be convicted and sent to the
penitentiary for giving or receiving
money for vote, but the lobbyist. with
impunity, can use argument, social in
fuence, business pressure and even
threats Of the kind have suggested to
win the vote he covets
Vote buyers always want to play safe
game. That is why they will spend
money and time to get line on the new
man-they may run across the skeleton
in his closet And it often is the case
that the cost Of discovering the flaws in
a. lawmakers record is greater than
would be the cost of his vote, but even
the hardened, cynical vote-buyer breads
the penitentiary.