The Glenwood post., 1906-11-03
ANOTHER BUBBLE BUSTED

were shown to exist in that city
Having listened to the arguments up
on both sides by the ablest lawyers of
the state. the committee met to rem
der it's final verdict; its members
found themselves hopelessly' divided
into four distinct gloups, each of
which made a separate report of its
findings. Report No. 1 found that
Peabody had been elected by either
2443 or by 22sO majority; report To.
3. signed by democrats only, found
that Adams had been elected (not by
10, 956 as claimed on the face of the
return) but by some of the following
majorities, either 4429. 30a1. 2760 or
1928; report No. 3 found that Adams
had been elected by 1919 or 1912; re-
port No. 4, which was prepared and
signed alone by the writer. stated that
so great were the frauds committed
and so impossible was it to separate
the legal from the illegal ballots, that
it was an impossibility to honestly de-
w htlutI VI EAudlS
had received the highest number of
legal votes. and recommended that
vacancy be declared in the Office of
governor and that the lieutenant gov
ernor be permitted to occupy the
Office. This report was ultimately
carried into effect and Lieuten ant
Governor Mcdonald became the gov
ernor.
Was this action right, or wrongl
Let US see.
The election laws of Colorado, as
of all states, provide that every cleo
tion for public Office shall be deter
mined by absolute mathematical ac
curacy; that is to say. how many
legal votes did a certain candidate for
office receive. Did he receive one
more legal vote than his opponent; if
so he is elected Did he receive one
vote less, he is defeated. Nowhere
does the law contemplate that the re-
suit of any election shall be deter
mined by mere partisan guesswork.
Such practice would render every
election an ignoble farce and would
speedily lead Us to. utter political
chaos and destruction. Every letter
and line of our election statutes de-
clare for absolute honesty, absolute le
gality, absolute accuracy, and for
these conditions the contest committee
searched in vain.
Let it here be stated that the testi-
mony taken by this committee, when
compiled in book form, comprises
IL, 900 closely printed pages, and if
there is any member of any political
party in Colorado who thinks he
knows who was legally elected gov
eruor and will take those II, 600 pages
of conflicting, contradictory testimony
and point ont the majority which his
candidate received, | will take the
same testimony and disprove com
pletely his assertions.
Were further evidence needed to
prove the impossibility of untanglipg
the frauds and arriving at the true
result. we have it in the reports of the
contest committee, each of which con-
tiict with the others, and finally con
clude by alleging nine different ma
iorities for the two candidates If
this committee which had heard all
of the evidence, did not itself know
who was honestly elected, or what
his majority WAS las plainly it did
not), with what degree of accuracy
could outsiders, who knew nothing of
the evidence excepting partisan news
paper reports, judge of its merits or
decide it's resultsr
The plain and honest conclusion,
therefore, was this: 1t was physical
and mental impossibility to separate
the legal from the illegal votes, and
until that was done no living person
could know whether Peabody or Ad-
ans had receievd the highest number
of legal votes for the governorship.
Jesse F. Mcdonald had been chosen
lieutenant governor by about $4,000
majority. The state constitution very
plainly provides that when vacancy
exists in the office of governor, or
when because of any legal or other
disability, the governor cannot act,
then the lieutenant governor shall be-
come the governor. In other words.
the lieutenant governor is substitute
governor, elected for no other pur-
pose than to I'LL the governor Office
whenever that position is not or can
not be filled legally in any other man
ner.
The people of Colorado had de-
clared themselves by overwhelming
ma jorities in favor of the republican
party and its policies. Mr.. Mcdonald
was republican. and was the one.
and the only citizen of Colorado who