Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1890 — THE FORCE BILL [ARTICLE]

THE FORCE BILL

A Republican Heunre Destructive of tbe BlfhU of States and of the People. , / i f ■■ "'S' The Most Infamon* Measure Ever Devised For the Perpetuation of Power in the Hands of a Political Partj. It Creates OBeers For Life, and Clothes Them With Autocratic Power. It Creates a Returning Board Whose Decisions Are Superior to All Slate Authorities. It forces Upon the Country an Army of 175,000 Mercenaries as Odious as Pinkerton Thugs. Drawing Annually From tbe Treasury Hot Dess Than 8*8,000,000 to be Paid Out of the Toll of Farmers and Other Workingmen. Of This Army Indiana's Share Will No* ha Dess Than 10,000 Men at a Cost * of Abont 8600,000.

The force bill, brought forward by Congressman Lodge of Massachusetts, and passed by the hoose of representatives, is regarded by all honorable men as more infamous in its purposes than any act of treason to the constitution that tbe republican party has previously proposed. Chief Supervisors For Dlfe. The bill authorizes the appointment of chief supervisors by the U. S. circuit judges, who hold office for life, are amenable to no person, and are election directors in their respective districts. These chief supervisors appoint three supervisors for each election precinct, and they may increase the number of election officers at will without consulting congress and pay them from the public treasury without limit as to the aggregate amount. Indeed, thff voters of the United States, the treasury, and the army and navy are placed under the control of the ohief supervisors and supervisors while they are managing and controlling elections, and the chief supervisor may, after consultation with the U. S. district marshal, have as many deputy marshals appointed as may seem to be necessary, ana in the absence of deputy marshals the supervisors have the full power of deputy marshals and may arrest a voter if challenging him does not accomplish all that is absolutely necessary. Here we have a set of supervisors clothed with despotic power. They can arrest and imprison at will. They have at their back the parse and the sword, and are obsolutely a law unto themselves. Aids to the Chief Supervisor.

Sec. sos the force bill makes it obligatory upon the judge to appoint as many supervisors as the chief may desire, and while the chief may in his discretion present additional names to those who have formerly applied, the judge has no discretion, but is bound to appoint the number desired from the list furnished him by the chief, three supervisors at least to each Einct or polling-place, two from one poll party and one from the other, and give full authority to the two who are agreed to act independently of the other; that is to say, the two 1 republican supervisors may act and their action is made lawful if no democratic supervisor at all should be appointed, and if appointed and he should undertake to expose any rascality practiced by the other two or should fail to pull smoothly in harness with them the chief may remove him and suspend his pay in his discretion. This section arms the chief supervisor with a complete muzzling process. He can order any amount of cheating and rascality to be perpetrated at any polling-place within his jurisdiction, and if either one of the supervisors or the deputy marshal protests or attempts to exDose it, or refuses to bear witness that what the majority does is fair and honest, or that what the state inspectors or poll-clerks do is dishonest or fraudulent—m short, for doing or failing to do anything which the chief may desire or order—he may suspend or remove any officer within his jurisdiction, stop his pay, and cut off his rations. In short, this section is framed upon the idea that the chief supervisor, like the king, can do no wrong. Still More Extraordinary Power* Conferred Upon the Chief Supervisor*. Sec. 6of the force bill authorizes the chief supervisor to transfer his subordinate supervisors throughout a congressional district. The seventh section declares the chief and all of the inferior supervisors and deputy marshals to be officers of the United States the moment they are assigned to duty, which puts them within the protection of the Nagle case recently decided by the supreme'court, the effect of which is to exempt them from prosecution in the state courts for any crime thev may commit under color of their office, or while assuming to discharge the duties thereof. If one of them should kill or maltreat a citizen of the state he would not be amenable to the state law, but could only be tried in a U. 8. court, and before a partisan judge, whose creature he is. Sec. 8 invests the chief with the power, through his subordinates, to revise and supervise the registration of voters; to examine state ballot-boxes before elections begin; to keep a poll-list and to number the voters; to receive and count ballots re- _ jqsted. bv the sta .

1,000 votes while his opponent received 10,000 votes, and the clerk of the house of representatives is compelled under heavy penalty to place the name so certified on his list of congressmen. Only one remedy is open to the legally elected member and that is the right to conteet tbe election, but it is fair to presume that he would have to wait until "Hope deferred made the heart sick” before be would be allowed a seat in a house of representatives chosen under this-bilL Here is something infinitely worse than the Louisiana returning board. Under the old regime, the vilest wretches who concocted frauds observed some show of secrecy, but under the republican force bill, devised to secure tbe same ends, the contrivers of that abomination throw off all disgrace, and with brazen audacity, create a returning board to perpetrate frauds and rob the people of their rights. Knowaattilngiam Revived. The twelfth subdivision of see. 8 beats knownotbingism in its palmiest days. It requires the supervisors, when instructed by their chief, to make a complete list of ail foreign-born persons who have been naturalized, with tbe date thereof, their place of nativity and present residence, and the name and residence of the witnesses used to obtain naturalization papers; and they are to examine and note the original affidavits and application presented to the court, all of which shall be filed in the office of the chief supervisor and there preserved. It establishes political espionage over all of our naturalized American citizens with a view to controlling their votes for tbe republican party.

Coanting In Republican*. Sec. 15 authorizes the chief supervisor to notify the judge of the U. S. circuit court in September that he has business for the court to transact; and thereupon the judge shall open his court the Ist of October, and shall appoint a board of three canvassers, not more than two of whom shall belong to the same political party, who shall hold their office for "so long as faithful and capable." They shall have a seal and the power of appointing a c. ork who shall receive sl2 per day, and each of them shall receive a salary of sl6 a day for each day actually employed in the work of "canvassing the statements and certificates of ballots cast at any election, general or special, for a representative or delegate in congress, and and a further Bum of $5 per day for their personal expenses." The board is required to convene on the 15th day of November of each even year, and shall convene at such place in the state as is most convenient to them where a circuit court of the United Btates is held, and arfe to have power to finally canvass and tabulate the statements of the votes in each congressional district of the state according to the returns made to the chief supervisors; they may call before them and examine any of the supervisors who acted at the election anywhere In the district as to the correctness,,oi the returns made by them. The majority of the hoard is authorized to act, which is equivalent to saying that the republican members of the board may decide any matter to suit themselves, and the democratic member can do nothing more than to protest. When they arrive at a decision their finding is to be made S' lie in triplicate certificates, one to be with the chief supervisor, one to be sent to the person elected, and one to be sent to the clerk of the house of representatives, nnless they find that no one was elected; and then the certificate is sent to the governor of the state. The Clerk of the House of Representative* Must Obey the Voting Board.

Sec. 16 makeß it the duty of the clerk of the house of representatives to put on the roll of members-elect the name of the person certified by the board of canvassers to have been elected. And for failure to comply with this requirement they make the clerk punishable by a fine of not less than SI,OOO nor more than $5,000, and imprisonment for not more than five years, one or both, and to be forever disqualified from holding office under the United States. The Authority ot the State Wiped Out. A certificate of election from the governor of a state is set at naught and made worthless. Never before in the whole history of congressional legislation were the great seal of a sovereign state and the certificate to which it is attached treated as mere waste paper. The certification of two partisan members of a canvassing board, appointed by a federal judge, is to be received as gospel truth, while the certification of a governor, who speaks for a sovereign state, is to be treated as waste paper and utterly disregarded. Are the American people prepared to submit to such degradation? The force Bill Army and It* Cost to the Country. It is estimated that the republican force bill, should it becomes law, will create an army of mercenaries of about 275,000, and that they will cost the country for every congressional election not less than $28,000,000. 4 ' Indiana’s Share la the Republican Infaulty. Hon. John H, O’Neall, the representative in congress of the Second Indiana district, in a speech delivered in congress June 30, demonstrated that Indiana has at least 18,000 subordinate supervisors for her 3,000 voting precincts. If these supervisors are tin duty twelve days, which the law permits, at sls a day,which the law fixes as their per diem, it will cost the country for one election the enormous sum of $1,080,000. To this army of republican heelers another army of deputy marshals may be added, at a cost of $5 a day, which would swell the grand total indefinitely. “As a climax to all this,” says Mr O’Neall, the state returning board with' sl6’ per day each and $5 each extra for expenses. This returning board is to consist of three persons, “not more than two of whom shall belong to the same political ]h«W*-' v -V4,s. -

he may do, however wrong it If however directly against the law be. There is no power to bring* before a court and question the ■ of bis act. The moment you do ■ man who does it is brought tfl same court, because he complafl lustice and illegality in the superb >e is put in prison by ths jail chooses the jury ? The supervise! marshal; and the man who does tl goes free. A man cannot step il terfere, or he may be "subject tol This supervisor or the marshall without responsibility, may goto! may make a house-to-house ini may see to the registering, gol election-room, count the ballots, I ballots, and having done that mafl to the clerk of this house tbe congl vote. 9 The foregoing discloses the essl equalities of the republican force I paralleled ih its designs to sweep I rights of states and of individual!