Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-10-04
Report Of Committee.

| A. +. Lever 80. .lS,oo4
| Report Of Committee.
The following is the report Of the
committee that was submitted to the
state Democratic executive committee
yesterday:
The committee appointed by you to
investigate the primary election held
for the nomination of state officers on
August 27, and especially in relation
to the office Of governor, respectfully
| reports that upon entering upon the
work assigned, this committee realized
| that there were only three sources OF
| probable information, to wit:
/. The evidence furnished by the
contestants.
z. The information coming from
the public generally.
3. The evidence to be gotten from
the records Of the Democratic party.
From the first source we have re-
| ceived nothing.
The reasons for this are stated in
the letter which is filed herewith, and
were also stated orally by counsel for
the contestant, Judge Jones. No evil
dence was offered by him.
From the public we realized that we
could expect general charges and spe-
cific instances If the public should be
asked to cooperate and to send In af-
fidavits, provided there should be any
thing to report. To give the public
thorough opportunity to do so the
chairman called on the public gener-
ally to furnish information and gave
two weeks for this to be done, and a
good many responses were made, all
of which are hereby transmitted to
| this committee.
From the public records the most
.,olf fa1l ovid OF n
to get this the county chairmen
were called upon to furnish copies Of
club rolls and poll lists, and the news
papers were asked to publish the poll
lists that the public might have an op-
portunity to see who had voted and
report to this committee. To collect
these and check and arrange them so
as to show whether they were regular
| or irregular was a big undertaking,
but through two subcommittee 1t
was undertaken, and the result will be
stated below. See exhibit "a"
Some Refused. to Work.
Some Of the county chairmen refus-
| ed to do anything, some did not even
answer the inquiries and requests,
some represented that there was no
| fraud in their counties, and others sent
in copies of the poll lists and club
rolls. The newspapers when rendered
the poll lists generally published them,
and in some instances had the copies
made up and published them, for which
this committee especially tenders them
its thanks.
After devoting two weeks to getting
the club rolls and poll lists and endeav-
oring to check up and arrange them
and in waiting for the public to report
all cases of wrongdoing the committee
met at Spartanburg on the Gath of
September to take evidence as to con-
ditions revealed by the thorough work
| done there by a subcommittee of the
| county executive committee appointed
in pursuance of the request of this
state committee and resolution then
passed and continued up to the meet
ing held.
Some That Worked.
We wish to commend the sub COM
mittees of Spartanburg, Greenville,
| Greenwood and Anderson counties for
the thorough and painstaking work
which they did in this cause and to
say that they showed a determination
to get at the facts whether they sus-
tanned or refuted the political views of
the members. Their reports and tran
scripts of the records are herewith sub
| mitted.
/ The committee went from Spartan
burg to Greenville and from Greenville
| to Anderson and took such evidence as
was available, but it desires to call at
tention to the difficulties of its work
1t had no power to swear witnesses or
to require them to attend or testify; 1t
had no power to require county COM
mittees to send up copies Of records
and county and club officers refused
in many instances to do so; 1t could
detect wrongdoing only from the rec
ords, as it was not possible to investi'
gate forty-four (44) counties and in
terview the voters or any number oi
them to ascertain if there were ru-
mors, nor could it require the rumors
to be verified by the oath of parties
supposed to know the facts. 1t coulc
only diligently consult the records
which would not be likely to be in con-
dition to reveal the wrong, and call or
the public to furnish the evidence, the
contestant having announced that ne
had none to furnish.
Increase in Vote.
The first circumstance to arouse sus-
picion was the enormous increase in tht
vote over the vote of former years. APP
plying the rule that there is one vote
to five inhabitants to the census of 1917
it appeared that in 1910 there were
only about one hundred and forty
thousand 14O,OOO) white voters in the
state, and as little in excess of tha
number voted and it was well knowr
that many voters failed to vote the
public naturally concluded that there
had been a system of fraudulent vot'
ing generally adopted which would vi
tiate the whole election, and this sus'
picion seemed well founded.
The chairman took up the matter