The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-05-23


iished in some one county paper 20
days before the primary; but as |
fear this may be considered too ex-
pensive, the filing Of them with the
clerks of court and the county chair
men is sufficient, in my Judgment.
Tho voters, when they enroll,
should state the place of residence
giving the street and number of the
house, if they live in a town, or the
township when residing in the coun-
try. No club roll should be made up
or men from two townships or two
wards but each subdivision Of a coun-
ty or city should have one club and
no more. The residents of that
political subdivision could then deter
mine whether any fraud has been
practiced In the enrolment or not.
This regulation will compel me to 20
six miles to vote in the primary, al
though there is at present a voting
precinct within half a mile of my
home. But no Inconvenience can
be too great to prevent our taking
every precaution possible to prevent
fraud or the charge of it.
1.-THE promiscuous enrolment such
as we have always had, the free and
easy way in which we have conduct
ed our political affairs, will not do,
now that white men have grown so
suspicious and INSCRIPTIONS. The
honors and emoluments Of office are
so great that inevitably human sell
fishness and greed will cause men to
act the rascal.
"On the day of the election no man
not enrolled according to these rules
should be permitted to vote. Every
ballot when deposited in the box
should be stamped and the voters
name checked eff the club list, show
ing that he has voted once at that
precinct. Rubber stamps for this
purpose should be provided by the
county executive committee. The
stamping of the ballot will prevent
voting several tickets at once so fold
ed together that they will fall apart
after they have gone in the box or
be taken apart by the managers when
they go to count them. This way of
stuffing the ballot boxes was used
throughout the State when it was
necessary for US to cheat the ne
groes, as many of our older citizens
remember WELL Indeed. 1 say without
hesitation, that the lessons we learn
ed in '76, rs and 80, until the eight
box law was enacted, are returning
to pester us now. Dire necessity
forced us to use our brains to cir
cumvent ignorant negroes. We felt
the vital necessity then to our civil
ization to prevent ignorant semi-
barbarOus negroes from controlling
our affairs. 1t is Of equal Importance
now to prevent unscrupulous white
men from cheating their fellow citi-
zens and robbing them of their
rights.
II perhaps more than any other
one man am responsible for our pres
ent primary system. wrote the con-
stitution Of the Democratic party,
and I wrote most of the rules and
regulations governing the primary. l
therefore am an old hand at this bus
iness, and having been charged with
being responsible for present condi-
tiOns. my advice should have weight
in pointing out the remedy as l now
see it.
II always felt that white men
would be above cheating their own
brothers and that South CarOlinians
were too honorable and clean to at
tempt such a thing; but unhappy cx-
perience has shown the falsity OF my
confidence, and l am trying to make
rcparatiOn as best l can.
when the state convention meets
anticipate that pride and authorship
and egOtism will cause Il very pro-
tracted debate. Every man who has
a scheme-and who has not?-will
want his scheme to be adopted. ]
do not c. Tim that the suggestions /
make are perfect, but they are the
best / have been able to think Of at
this time, and l feel sure that if
adopted and carried out, they will i'm
prove conditions in the State so much
that it will be a very long time.
il ever. before we have further trOd-
ble with our primary.
1T is all-impOrtant that We should
not attempt too much or make the
regulations SO strict or labOriOus and
costly that it will tend to keep men
from complying with the conditions.
4 reasonable reform insuring purity
and honesty is all that can be accom-