The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1909-04-15
THE sOMERS ELECTION

NSO~'AA~ASN~ A~~~~~~
The action Of prominent politicians
in voting the paupers from the city
poor farm in the Somers license cam
paign has aroused a storm of indigna
ton all through the town and strange
~ enough some Of the most emphatic
protests against this attempt to defeat
the will of the voters of the town by
the use Of pauper votes comes from
men on the winning side. There is a
disposition in many quarters to carry
the matter into the courts that may
breed trouble for the men who are
responsible for the voting Of ten paup-
ers and the attempt to vote the
eleventh. There appears to be a diff
ference Of opinion regarding the legal
right Of these paupers to vote at the
election and lawyers are little chary
about going on record in the matter
until they have had time to look furth-
er into the question but the laws in the
case are being investigated and furth-
er legal action in the matter will de-
pend on the decision made by the at
torneys who are interested in the case.
Judging from the present temper of
some of the leading citizens of the
town, both "wets" and "drys," if
any grounds are found on which an
action against the men responsible for
voting the paupers can be based, one
will be pushed to the limit of the law.
About the moral rights in the case
there can be no argument. These men
had no more moral right to interfere
in an election in the town of Somers
than they had to interfere in one in
some other state. Moreover, it is the
plain duty Of the citizens of Somers
not to drop this case until. the question
of the right Of these paupers to vote
in future elections in their town is
clearly settled one way or another.
There will be other elections in that
town on this same question just as
soon as the law allows and now that
the men Of Somers know something of
the methods of fighting of the men
who propose to take part in future
no license campaigns in their town
they should make every effort to have
their own rights defined by law. Had the
election this year been as close as it
was two years ago the paupers would
have held the balance Of powers and
a question in which every man in the
town is vitality interested would have
been settled by these pauper votes.
Fortunately their votes did not de-
eide the question this year and elimi
mating the ten pauper votes the re-
turns show that the town stood prac
tically where it did two years ago on
the question. Men who are familiar
with the feeling in the town just at
present assert, however, that should
another election be held today that
Somers would go dry, so strong is the
Indignation OF even the strongest be-
lievers in personal liberty at the at
tempt to run their town by pauper
votes and the action Of the license
leaders in voting these men is going
to be felt in any future election on
the license question. These men may
have had legal right to vote in the
town on this election-whether they
had or not is question for the lawy
ers and the courts to decide-but they
had no moral right to interfere in the
affairs of Somers in any way and
there are a whole lot Of men among
the drys that resent the attempt to
defeat the will of the people by such
means