The Green Forest tribune., 1912-09-06

which he regarded fraudulent and to order new one.
 This placed the control or the State government in the hands of carpet baggers and negroes. Resident white citizens were disfranchised. Adven- turers and recently liberated slaves controlled the government.
 ''The assessor, under this Republi- can law, appointed one regular judge and one alternate to serve if the reg ular judge failed to attend. Both the judge and the alternate were Repub- licans No other party could be rec ognized, because one judge held the election.
 "The assessor, as an election ot- ficer, was given all the power of the circuit court, and any person disturb ing him in the performance of his du- ties, or hindering any person in go- ing to or from the place of registra- tion was deemed guilty of a felony and punishable with Imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than two nor more than five years.
 Think of it! A county assessor with power to punish for contempt!
 "A political henchman empowered to send a citizen to the penitentiary for five years on the mere pretence that the citizen had annoyed him as an election officer!
 Section 26 of the Republican elec- ton law which I am discussing, pro- vided that no ballot should be 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 of the election without any possibility of detection.
 Worse than that! The election judge was authorized to send any dis orderly person to jail for 60 days, or to fine him $1O0.
 Thus, the men who had made Ark ansas, the white citizens who had fought in the Confederate army, were all disfranchised. Ignorant negroes, totally unfamiliar with political ques- given their freedom: political free booters, many of whom had fled from justice in other States, became the governing class. All sorts of shames and crimes were committed and went unpunished. Oppression prevailed throughout the State. Tor ture, robbery. arson, and assassina- tion more hideous than during the Civil War, were general.
 ''This oppressive election law con- tained humorous provision. Sec ton 31 required the judge, upon open, ing the polls, to open the ballot box in the presence of the people there assembled, turn it upside down, and then lock it and keep it locked until all the people had gone.
 False bottoms were frequently used. The ballots actually voted were distracted and others substituted. This Republican election law and it's administration became the subject of Congressional investigation. The chairman of the Investigating com mittee. himself Republican, report ed to Congress in part:
 "It is hardly necessary to add.
 after setting forth these facts, that in the State of Arkansas
 elections are but mere farces. 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 levee bonds, as well as positions in
 which official robbery may be perpetrated, are granted and
 awarded to political partisans until is 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 of the Republican party in Arkansas. When my opponent, MT. Roland, de- nounces election frauds under Demo- cratic election laws, I point him to i this record of shame and crime writ ten in the blood and tears of an op- pressed people, and challenge him to obliterate it or to mitigate it. "The only answer made by Repuo- | lican speakers is plea of the statute of limitation. It does not avail against political party giving no evidence of reform, offering no apology for it's oppression and failures. The same man that dominated the Republican party during reconstruction, controls it now. He selects MT. Remmell as chairman of the State Central Com mittee, MT. Roland as the npminee for governor, names the delegates to the national convention, writes the State platform and parcels out postoffices and marshalships with unquestioned authority.
 "The Republican party has record for unfair elections in national pol itics which I may discuss at another time. Arkansas is not ready yet to permit General Clayton or his hench- men to rewrite our election laws.''