Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-04-28
VOTE BUYING.
President Barrett Talks of an Evil
That Is DANGEROUS.

President Barrett Talks of an Evil
That Is Dangerous.
To the officers and Members of the
Farmers Union:
During the past few months papers
in America have teemed with accounts
of vote buying and selling in Adams
county, Ohio. The country affects to
have been scandalized as it has not
been in years.
Traffic in the franchise is not pecu-
liar to Adams county, or to Ohio, or
to any other American state. At the
risk of being termed a sensationalist
/ assert deliberately that it is preva-
lent in great many counties in the
majority, perhaps all, of the American
states.
choose this particular time for
drawing the attention of the farmers
union to this evil, because it is an of
year in politics. II l waited for an
election year, with politics and par
tisanship raging, l would be accused
of unduly dabbling in politics. AS II
is, that charge cannot be sustained.
The Farmers Union is assumed to
be great moral force. That is why
it's members should concern themselves
with scourging bribery from American
politics.
Our organization is also great
educational movement. We shall not
fulfill the first qualification of that
mission until we purify the ballot.
AS long as our men and boys see vote
buying and selling going on, all the
education We preach into one ear will
go out of the other.
make these statements regarding
barter and sale of votes with the
greatest deliberation. 1 know whereof
speak. My citizenship has been held,
mainly, in three counties of Georgia.
In the county in which l was born, a
small multitude of white men were
known to be willing to sell their votes.
In the county where l spent fifteen
years of my life a similar percentage
of white voters were purchasable. In
the county in which have now re-
sided for about three years, in the
neighborhood of two hundred voters
are regularly on the market.
Conditions are no worse in these
than in other Georgia counties. They
are no worse than in many counties
throughout the country. Human ma
ture does not vary with geography
nor is it altered by partisanship.
Around a large number of court
houses in this country you will find
one man, or one or two men, who
know just about how many white vo-
ters in the county will sell their votes
You will also find-in- -a-large- NUNS
ber of counties in America men you
must fix" before they will help you
in an election. do not mean to say
that these men will brazenly accept
money for their influence.
That would be too crude. You go to
such individuals and say, for instance:
III, L
if 1 offered to buy your influence, and
| know you're for me anyway. But
you've got to get away from your
business to work for me. That means
l ought to pay you for your time, with
little more for expenses, and lit
tie more to treat the boys, ETC."
Get many politicians in a really
candid mood and they will tell you
they owe their election to this type OF
men. They may deplore the system
but they want office, and the most d.
rect way of getting it is to bow to the
god of things as they-are.
This condition cuts two ways.
1t debauches the voter and the elec-
torate and it secures, frequently, an
Indifferent public servant.
The man indebted to such a method
for his election has a contempt for
the constituents he bought, and an in
difference to those who let such things
exist.
naturally he has not incentive to ex-
ert himself to any extent and the pup
lie service is the sufferer.
| need not dwell on the viciousncss
of dealing in votes as in merchandise
1t pollutes popular government at its
source.
Day by day we get government clos
er to the people. Soon we will elect
all officials by popular vote-United
States senator's, judges, all of them
from the highest to the lowest.
We want to purge the electorate In
advance of that day, that we shall
have the ablest officials, and the clean
est, most incorruptible government.
II can be done too. Twelve men In
any community infested with traffic IN
the suffrage can put a period to the
practice. with the proper courage and
proper vigilance.
Members of the Farmers Union can
engage in no more patriotic or ser
viceable labor. They are false to
their obligation to the order unless
they do so, in the first place. And
in the second place, We can no more
effectually apologize for the farmer
who trades his vote for money than
for the veriest city repeater or
bum" marshaled to the polls at the
command of the boss or his hench-
men Charles S. Barrett.
Union City, Ga. April 25, 1911.
The Naked Truth.-Both Fred