The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-07-22

way 0ASkpHl"ht ANA thS SAHANHiN w
eellenee OF the treatment given (
one OF the livest questions before tht
electorate of Oregon, and in the full
tilment OF q plain duty the press owe.
70 the people to extend such en-
lightenment to limits not covered ev
en- by the great paper in which i
originally appeared;
1t is apparent from the correspon
dence of the Oregonian that the
statement" is arousing more dis
cussion since the election than before
II is equally apparent that the situ'
alton is misunderstood by the friend:
of the statement Well-meanine
members OF the Legislature find they
are pledged to elect man Senator
who is opposed to their political prin'
ciples, They never dreamed this
was possible How has il beer
brought about3
The primary law provides that the
voter shall declare his party affiliation
on registering; and at the primary
election he gets the ballot of the
political party thus declared; and he
swears to his statement. 1t was as
sumed that no honorable man would
make a false statement. But what
are the facts? Disregarding all honor
and fair dealing, a large number Of
Democrats falsely declared them
selves to be Republicans in order to
get the Republican primary ballot and
vote for Republican for Senator
that would be obnoxious TO his party,
one that George E. Chamberlain
could defeat at the polls.
How do we know this7 While the
registry OF voters in this city was pro-
ceding leading Democrats openly de-
nounced the fact that Democrats
were registering as Republicans,
and it was so published by The Ore
gonian. Since the election the
Grants Pass Observer has estimated
that 200 Democrats registered as Re
publicans in that town, and that TO-
900 Democrats falsely registered as
in the state. Immedi-
ately after the election the Oregonian
declared that Cakes majority over
Fulton was due to Democrats voting
for Cake. None OF these statements
Ila,c ever tts d,puted by d nc
:iats or ANYBODY else.
Now for the record. The total
vote cast for the two Republican can
iidates for Senator in the primaries
IS 48,940. while the total vote cast for
The Republican candidates Tor Repre-
sentative in Congress is 46,953; show
ing that 1887 voters marked Repub-
ican ballots for Senator that did not
vote for the Representatives. Where
lid these 1887 votes come from?
Nowhere in the world but from Dem
ocrats falsely registering as Republi-
cans. Their interest was wholly in
the Senatorship, They could have
no hope Of electing Representative.
No Republican would have voted Tor
/ Senator without also voting for
some man for Representative. Sol
hat it is a dead moral certainty that
At least 1887 Democrats falsely regis
tered as Republicans, swore to the
lie, then went to the primaries and
marked the Republican ballot with
The name they thought Chamberlain
could defeat; and then went to the
polls and voted against the man they
voted for in the primaries.
What is the plain English Of this
business? The Senatorial primary
election was corrupted by Democra-
tic ballots falsely sworn in as Rcpub-
leans. The result is barefaced
fraud and swindle without a single
element of legitimacy, honesty or
lair dealing to support it. For more
.han 1000 years every court in every
civilized country has uniformly held
that fraud vitiates and annuls every
founded upon it. Sup
pose the Democrats had broken into
The polls, stolen out of the ballot box
es 5000 votes cast for Fulton and put
in their place 5000 votes for Cake,
what an uproar there would have
been all over Oregon. But what is
The difference in stealing the ballots
and replacing them with spurious 9TH
,r ballots, and in falsely swearing
that the voter is Republican in or
ier to give him secret opportunity
10 vote for man he don't intend to
support at the polls;' and which vote
was cast for the sole and only pur-
pose of confusing and defeating the
nan who relied on that ballot, and