The Springdale news., 1914-04-10

St. Francis basin to the levee dis trict for the purpose of aiding in the construction Of the levees. In 1897 he likewise opposed the passage of a bill authorizing the St. Francis Levee District to issue $500,000 in bonds to aid in the early construe tion of the levees, as he likewise opposed the passage of a similar bill in 1S99 Al the same session he op posed the passage of a law which ex- empted the public lands donated to the several levee districts from tax ation until the same had been sold by reer as a member of the legislature was generally unfriendly to legisla tion which had for it's purpose levee construction along the Mississippi river. As consequence of the dom- inance of the levee interest," in Poin- sett county, the settled conviction of the electorate was in favor of my nomination
 Was Surprised.
 It was therefore great surprise to me, as it was to my friends in that county, when the official returns disclosed the fact that 1 had received only 1,52l votes, whereas the opposi ton candidate had received the very large vote Of 450 This is larger proportional vote than the opposition candidate received in any of the counties forming the St Francis ba- sin This difference in the record Of Judge kirky and myself on the levee question should not. however, weigh against facts. No matter now it was thought the people of that county should vote, the question to be set tied is how they actually did vote.
 The regularly certified returns and tally sheets from the several townships in the county show that the vote was cast as certified to the State Central Committee. People in whom 1 have confidence say that
 
 the voters did on the 25th of March. l have no more reason for question ing the vote there than 1 have for questioning the vote in any other county in the state. Acting on the information thus far received from sources that l deem reliable, say without hesitation that the official return as made and lodged with the '''v of the .EI'sp"5ratie State Central Committee correctly shows the result of the primary election in the matter of the senatorship.
 Poll Taxes and Votes.
 Tt is said that the vote a s certi- fled shows the aggregate number cast to be in excess of the poll tax pay ments in the year 1913. This circum stance is susceptible of many explan- ations that are consistent with the law and an honest election. In the first place, the rules and regula tions under which the primary cleo ton was held permit a citizen to vote who has paid the poll tax assess ed against him at the time of col lecting taxes next preceding the cleo ton, or when he has become sub ject to the poll tax since the col lection for that year Since the pur- pose in holding primary election is to select a group of party candi- dates to be voted for at the Septem- bar election, it is therefore obvious ly proper that the voters to be con- suited in making such nominations are those who will be qualified to vote at the general election in Sep tember. It is an absurdity to limit the right to vote in making such nominations to persons whose right to exercise the electoral franchise will expire on tn first Saturday be- fore the first Monday in July, as