Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-06-07
Senator Saunders Speech on
Primary Given Lie by Re-
suits in Pottawattamie
VOTERS WERE INTlMIDATED
A Free Expression of Choice for Gov
ernor Was Not Allowed, Because of
the Fear of Railroad Voters That
They Would Lose Their Jobs If They
Voted For Cummins.
Special to rimes-Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
last winter Senator C. G. Saunders of
Pottawattamie county, made what the
Blythe followers pronounced the best
speech of the session against the pri-
mary election law. Senator Saunders
spent several hours In the address and
in 1t declared that the present eau
Gus system was ample remedy, and
that If the people wished to depose
any system or machine or politician
they could do it thru the caucus sys-
TEN. He maintained that the caucus
system was not a protection TO the po-
ltical boss and argued that the people
of the state We're not familiar enough
with measures and men to cast a bal
lot for the nomination OF any but
county officers ut the most and for
nothing above that. Information is
gradually coming in that is definite as
to the action and conduct of the Pot
tawattamie county caucuses, which
were dominated by Senator c. G..
Saunders and which perpetuated the
rule of Saunders political boss, j. w.
Blythe. There is every evidence that
the people of the county We're aroused
and anxious to throw off the yoke of
Blythe. Labor leaders who visited the
county before the caucuses We're held.
and on the day of the caucuses and
primaries, assert that aboring men
everywhere We're for Cummins. They
declared they would vote for him. and
as soon as they saw the colored ballots
with the Blythe delegates and the
white ballots with the Cummins dele
gates, they declared they couldn't do it
and hold their jobs. III. A. LennoX,
painter of Council Bluffs, was in Des
Moines yesterday and today, and told
some more of the conditions. A Cum
Minis man was sent into one precinct
with lot of Cummins ballots. The
Saunders underlings kidnapped him or
bought him, and some time after the
voting had begun it was discovered
that he was not there. Cummins vot-
ers came to the polls to vote, and not
being able to get ballots went away,
and it was some time before the defect
could be supplied. Corporation men
stood about the polling places and
watched for the colored ballots, and
the warning to the railroad men and
other laboring men was as clear as tho
in so many words, that they should
vote tire ballot or lose their jobs, ac-
cording to the way I4ennoX ex-
plains the situation. And yet
Senator Saunders told the SEN
ate last winter that if the people
wanted to change the political COM
plexion of things they could readily do
so thru the present system If they
would get out TO the polls. BY Mr.
Lennox the conditions in Pottawatta-
mic county are described as being dia-
bolical as conducted by Senator
Saunders and the rest of the Blythe
contingent in that county.
Mr. Lennox declares that the action
in PottaMattamie as a contradiction to
the statements of Senator Saunders is
only paralleled by the action in
Montgomery county where the stand
patters carried the county by major
ity of the popular vote by the judges
in Red Oak refusing to count the
Cummins ballots. There being no law
governing the control of primaries and
caucuses there was absolutely no way
to punish the guilty judges and the
chief offender will be at the state con-
vention at the head of the delegation
from Montgomery, tho his action at the
primary if committed at an election
would have landed him behind the
bars.
Information from Guthrie county is
that Lieut.. Gov. John Herriott is a
disappointed and broken hearted man.
Relieving that the political situation in
Iowa was a case of the field. against