The Forrest City times., 1912-09-06
which he regarded fraudulent ann :.
 order a new one. to


 This placed the control or fno o.. government in the hands os oa ."Oe 1 baggers and negroes. Resida.. citizens were disfra aachisea S-i's turers and recently liberated sIara su' controlled the government.
 The assessor, under this po.u,, can law, appointed one reeplar aoi' t.s and one alternate to serve if fbo ss ular judge failed to attend. Ro,b ,a judge and the alternate were RoanT licans. No other party could Ia n-D ognized, because one judge held th. election. 'H0
 The assessor, as an eleetio, ,. ficer, was given all the power of ~. circuit court, and any person dis,,.h ing him in the performance of hi. au ties, or hindering any person in go ing to or from the place of registr, ton was deemed guilty Of q fatorr and punishable with Imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than ,r,a nor more than five years. iHihh oi IL. county assessor with power to punish for contemn.,
 "A political henehman enDoWerod 10 send citizen to the peuitentiarv for five years on the mere pretenca that the citizen had annoyed him a. an election officer.
 Section 26 of the Republican elac. | tion law which I am discussing nro. vided that no ballot tshould he so marked that it might be known how any person voted
 This enabled the election judge to substitute new ballots for those voted and thus totally change the result q, the election without any possibility of detection.
 Worse than that, The election judge was authorized to send any dis. orderly person to jail for GO days or i 10 fine him $100.
 Thus, the men who had made Ark ansas, the white citizens who had l fought in the Confederate army. were all disfranchised Ignorant negroes, l totally unfamiliar with political cues. l tions. and but a few years before given their freedom; political free 1 booters, many of whom had fled l from justice In other States, became the governing class. All sorts of l shames and crimes were committed and went unpunished. Oppression prevailed throughout the State. Tor. ture, robbery, arson. and assassina l ton more hideous than during inc l Civil War, were general
 This oppressive election law con. tainod humorous provision. Sec. ton g required the judge, upon open l ing the polls. to open the ballot box in the presence of the people there assembled, turn fl upside down and i then lock it and keep it locked until all the people had gone.
 False bottoms were frequently used. The ballots actually voted were abstraeted and others substituted. This Republican election law and is administration became the subject Of Congressional investigation. The chairman of the Investigating com. mittee. himself a Republican, report. ed to Congress in part:
 Tt is hardly necessary to add,
 after setting forth these facts,
 that in the State of Arkansas elections are but mere farees-
 Under the constitution and laws the registrators can and do dis
 franchise just as many as they
 please. ALL THE GREAT OF.
 FICES ARE BOUGHT AND
 SOLD.
 "Railroad bonds and leyee
 bonds, as well as positions in
 which offic-ll robbery may be
 perpetrated. are granted and
 awarded to political partisans until il is the merest mockerY to say that reconstructed Arkansas
 has a republican form of govern
 ment
 This is the judgment of great and unbiased Republican on the record ol tho Republican party in Arkansas tf litii izA OlBOhCIllt hils iNHttAA.St nounces election frauds under Demo cratic election laws, point him 70 this record of shame and crime Wf''' ten in the bloo1 and tears of an op' pressed people, and challenge him 10 obliterate it or to mitigate it.
 The only answer made by Repa'' lican speakers is a plea of the staiu'e of limitation. It does not avail aga'us' a political party giving no evidence of reform. offering no apology for '' oppression and failures. The same man that dominated the Republican party during reconstruction. eohtr'i' it now. He selects Mir. RemmeH "' | chairman of the State Central com mittee, Mir Roland as the nominee ,'i governor. names the delegates 10 'h0 national convention. writes the Sta'0 platform and parcels out rostofi'''s and marshalships with unquesuo"eN authprifv