The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1910-08-12

OF A PARTISAN
STATE SECRETARY cRITIcisEs
CITIZENS WHOSE PETITIONS
HE REFUSED TO FILE.
Adds Insult to injury In Commenting
on the Signatures to the Huge
Petition Filed by Walter 8.
Dickey and Others.

VIII the peOpie Oh misbouTI uHdiiy
rebuke the ~audacity and recklessness
characteristic OF the leaders OF the
Democratic party in their dealing with
public interests or will they remain
Indifferent? The effort to bring about
fair play In the matter Of representa-
ton of the people in the State Senate
has met with a kind OF opposition hat
ought to startle every honest man in
Missouri. Not content with having as
sumed judicial authority in rejecting
the petition for submitting the pro-
posed senatorial redistricting am end
ment to a vote Of the people, Con.
Roach, secretary of state, has persist
emily attacked the character of the
petition and the motives of the COVER
nor and other distinguished citizens
who promoted the movement. In a
published interview in the st. Louis
Republic last week Roach said:
I'VE have discovered that negroes
| predominated among the signers from
Jackson, Boone and Howard counties,
and il the ratio in those counties is
kept up in the petitions from other
Dai . vi IL CNNNtf nv w ~
are a decided minority.
The claim of the Republicans that
many Democrats signed the petitions,
Is not borne out by an investigation of
the signers. Democrats are c%onspicu-
ous on the petitions by their absence.
1T also has been discovered that
several of the signers laid themselves
rf.AI- 90 -rDonatffor he GfUrfn mora
than one petition or signing n petit
ton more than once. The law plainly
prescribes a penitentiary sentence for
such acts, and il any one presses the
charge, more than one of those who
signed the gerrymander petitions is In
danger of an enforced stay at the
state prison.
In their zeal to get the required
number of petitioners, it seems the
Republicans disregarded the law, and
some of them may suffer as a result"
Seldom has such a contemplate
statement come from a public official
In Missouri. 1t is the ebullition of a
bitter partisan feeling that no man in
the service of the great State of Mis-
souri, ought to cherish for a moment.
It is to be regretted that a man in the
Office of Secretary of State for Mis-
souri, should exhibit such intolerance,
such i~ndefensible partisan prejudice.
The truth is that NO petition ever filed
in the office of the Secretary of
State has represented SO generally the
intelligence, the manhood, the wealth
- ~ AgrL -h-.~. 80 &k4 4fy1nn
ship and especially of the yeomanry
of Missouri. Thousands OF loyal
Democrats signed the petition. The
Cassville Republican of recent date
says:
out Of the 4S,911 voters who petit.
toned for a redistricting of the state
into senatorial districts many were
Democrats who believe in a square
deal. Folk Democrats signed these
petitions right here in Barry county
and in Flat Creek township and all
over the state. If further information
is wanted call at the Republican office
where you will be furnished with the
sworn affidavit of these facts. The
statements were made because they
were tn6 tTutu. Auc Si6udtukCS WCiS
sworn to before a notary public"
Similar testimony m from good
citizens all over the state, especially
those who circulated the petitions
On the petitions circulated in the
larger cities are the names of many
of the best known and most reputa
BILE men in business, professional and
public life. 1t was bad enough To-
Roach that he attempted to save his
party by refusing to file this honor
able petition; it is worse for him thai
he assumes to pass judgment upon the
motives Of the men who circulated II
and to discount the many thousands
of honorable citizens who signed 1t
That petition is an elephant on the
hands of Roach and his partisan ad
visers. 1t will yet trample them IL
the dust.