Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-07-12
ANOTHER TRIUMPH FOR FRANK
Z. WALSH.
By George p. West OF the Committee
on Industrial Relations.

By George p. West OF the Committee
on Industrial Relations.
fraudulent and infamous prosti-
tuition OF the ballot" was resorted to
at the last election by the republican
organization of the Colorado coal fields
on behalf of John d. Rockefel1ers
Colorado Fuel & Iron company. This
is the latest charge brought against
the man who put over" Governor
George Carlson, Sheriff Jeh Farr, and
the other Law and Order" candidates
who succeeded in the last election
Who charges It?
Frank P. Walsh?
Guess again
The supreme court of The state of
Colorado!
In a decision that confirms all
Walsh said about the corrupt methods
of the Rockefeller company, the high
est court in the state orders Sheriff
jeff FAIR and all his coal company
crew to step down and out and turn
over their stolen offices to their demo
cratic opponents.
The same Infamous and fraudulent
prostitution of the ballot" that gave
Farr his bogus election also swelled
the plurality of Carlson, the coal COM
pany governor now in Office But be
cause the case at bar concerned only
the result in Huerfano county, Carl
son is left undisturbed.
The decision and opinion Just hand
ed down by the Colorado supreme
court constitutes an amazing expose
of high-handed intimidation, coercion
and corruption practised by the coal
company and the republican party.
The court finds that the coal company
was the republican party, and that
party's candidates merely the servile
tools used by the company to rfvet
the chains of Industrial tyranny on its
employees.
There can be-" says the court, re-
ferring to conditions proved to exist
in the Colorado coal fields, mo free,
open and fair election as contemplat-
ed by the constitution, where private
industrial corporations so throttle pub
lie opinion, deny the free exercise Of
choice by sovereign electors, dictate
and control all election officers, pro
hibit public discussion of public ques-
lions, and imperiaI1y command what
citizens may and what citizens may
not, peacefully and for lawful pur-
poses, enter upon election, or public
territory"
Every act of corruption described by
the supreme court was committed late
in the year 1914, after the date when
Rockefeller's agents had sworn that
political activity had ceased, and after
John d. Rockefeller had practically
assumed personal charge by sending
Mackenzie King to Colorado and had
formulated his much advertised Colo
RADIO plan.
They were committed, says the
court, long after all disorder had
leased, and when the federal troops
were in charge of the district.
To corroborate its findings, the su-
pfeme court quotes the admissions of
e H. Weitzel, highest field officer for
Rockefeller, who personally ordered
the democratic candidates kept out of
the eight closed precincts on the
ground that they were agitators,
The whole case is summed up by
the court as follows:
I'VE are unable to find a precedent
where like, or similar conditions, have
been considered as in this case, where
in private corporations have assumed
to deny the public character of an
election and to arbitrarily take charge
of and conduct the same as if it were
the sole private business Of the cor
poration.
These companies plainly connived
with certain county officials to secure
the creation of election precincts,
bounded so as to include their private
property only, and with lines marked
by their own fences, or guarded by
their own armed men, and within
which were only their own employees
They excluded the public from en-
trance to such election precincts,
| labeled the same as private property
and warned the public that entrance
/ thereon constituted trespass. They
denied the right of free public as
semblage within such election pre-
cincts. and likewise the right of free
I or open. discussion of public questions
! therein.
They denied the right to circulate
/ election literature or the distribution
! of the cards of candidates within such
tprecinCts They secured the selection
of their own employees exclusively as
/ Judges and clerks of election, and by
4 the location of precinct boundaries no
other than their employees could so
serve. They apparently made the reg
istratiOn lists from their pay rolls
/ They kept such lists in their private
/ places of business and in charge of
their employees.
lhey PROMPTED ALI public lnveSu-
cation within such election precincts
as TO the qualification of the persons
1 so registered as electors of the pre-
cinct
Through their employees acting as
election officials, they assisted numer-
Gus non-English speaking persons TO
| vote by marking their ballots for
/ them, in plain violation of the law
/ They provided other non-English
| speaking persons with a fraudulent
device by which such persons might
be enabled to vote the republican
ticket, without being able to read
either the name of the candidate or