Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1892 — THE FORCE BILL [ARTICLE]

THE FORCE BILL

A. Republican Measure Which President Harrison is Committed to Revive. Republican Success Would Insure the Return of Tom Reed and the Success of the Force Bill. The Most Infamous Measure Devised to Perpetuate the Power of the Party of the Carnegies. An Army of Pinkerton Thugs to Bo Forced Upon the Country to Invade Homes and Take Possession of the Polls—Backed with Bayonets and an Unlimited Treasury Murder Might Be Committed by Davenport Heelers and No Stafe Court Could Bring Them to Justioe. For more than fifty years the invariable rule has been that the party which elects the president also controls the house of representatives elected the same year. Every time the Republicans have elected a president they have also elected a Republican house. Since 1872 the Republicans have elected only two houses—in 1880, when Garfield defeated Hancock, and in 1888 when Harrison was elected. In 1876 a Democratic house was elected, hut Hayes although inaugurated by the aid of returning boards was not elected by the people. This is generally admitted now. With this unbroken precedence it is reasonably safe to predict that the next pre»dent and the next house will be in accord, politically; that if the people ratify at the polls next November, the nominations made at Minneapolis by the office holders of the north and the negroes of the south, then every branch of the government will be under the control of the Republican party. Once restored to power, in all the departments, the Republican party will never again let go. It will entrench itself behind a “force bill” and no tidal wave of popular disapproval at the polls will ever he able to dislodge it. Under the reign of “force billism” the voice of the people will he nullified at the polls by the same army that vanquished Blaine at Minneapolis, the office holders and the negroes. “We must do onr own voting, our own counting and onr own certification,” said Tom Reed at a banquet given by the Pittsburg tariff robbers. Republican success would mean not only the retention of Benjamin Harrison in the White House for four more long years, but also the reinstatement of Tom Reed in the speaker’s chair to count quorums in many billion-dollar congresses to come.

The wild revolutionary scenes of the Fifty-first congress would be re-enacted in the Fifty-third congress. It is true there would be no more surplus to squander and no reason for Corporal Tanner to proclaim, “Gold help the surplus.” But Oklahoma, with her “bob tail” population, would be made one. of the states of the Union to maintain a Republican majority in the senate as was done in the Fifty-first congress when a few mining camps in Idaho and cattle ranches of Wyoming were manufactured into two sovereign states. The tarriff issue, the Republicans say, was settled when the McKinley bill became a law. So there would be no more “tinkering” with the tariff and relief from trusts and national taxation would be remote beyond generations. The Louisiana sugar growers and the Vermont sap boiler’s would continue to fatten upon the bounty paid them by the government at the expense of the com and wheat producers of Indiana and the other states of the west, Force Bill the Issue. The tariff having thus been settled to the satisfaction of the monopolists, there remains but one question for the Republicans to settle, and that is a national election law, which, through treachery of the Blaine element of the party, failed to pass the senate in the last congress for want of time. But with Blaine crushed and his followers out of the way, and with four years more of , executive power to starve out skulking Republican senators by the withdrawal of patronage, Benjamin Harrison and Tom Reed would surely drive the force bill through congress without opposition, and thus redeem the force bill pledge of the Minneapolis platform. The platform upon which Harrison stands today before the people, means simply, “The McKinley tariff to stand and the force bill to come.” The force bill which President Harrison recommended in his messages to congress and which Tom Reed bullied through the house two years ago is the only interpretation that can be placed on the plank of the Minneapolis platform relating to the election laws. A review of the monstrous measure brought forward by Congressman Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Davenport, of New York, in the last congress is therefore opportune. Chief Supervisor, for Life. The bill authorized the appointment of chief supervisors by the United States circuit judges who hold office for life,

are amenable to no person, and are election directors in the respective districts. There are ,|iow three United States judges in each circuit, all Repnb. licans, with the exception of five judges who are in the minority and would be powerless in their districts when the appointment of supervisors were made. Under the bill the chief supervisor appoints three supervisors for election precincts and he may increase the number oi election officers without consulting congress and pay them without limit, the appropriations for this purpose being made in a lnmp. The chief supervisor may have as many deputy marshals ap* pointed as he may deem necessary. The supervisors have full power of deputy marshals and may arrest a voter if challenging him does not accomplish all that is necessary. They can arrest and imprison at will. They have the United States treasury behind them and the army and navy are placed under the control of the chief supervisors, and bayonets may he used at the poll whenever the election officers decide to use military force. As will he seen by Section 5 of the force bill, the judges are obliged to appoint as many supervisors as the chief may desire. The chief has the power to remove or suspend any precinct supervisor or marshal. Of the three supervisors no more than two are to be appointed from the same political party. The other member may be taken from any party or from no party, but as the two Republicans constitute a quorum to act independently of the minority member, the latter is simply a cipher; beside, if he should undertake to expose any rascality practice by the other two, the chief would suspend him without cause. The. chief supervisor is given authority to transfer subordinate supervisors from one precinct to another throughout a congressional district. This would enable him to send thugs from large cities to peaceful country precincts to intimidate the voters. For instance an army of negroes from Indianapolis could be made to invade Hancock county and take possession of the polling places whenever an election was held at which a congressman was voted for. By a recent decision by the United States supreme court these supervisors and marshals would be exempt from prosecution in the state court for any crime they might commit under the color of office or while assuming the discharge of duties thereof. If one of the marshals or supervisors should kill a citizen an indictment by a state court would not reach murder. He could only he tried in a United States court and before the partisan judge that commissioned him. The Secrecy of the Ballot Removed. By Section 8 of the bill the chief and his subordinates are invested with the power 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 rejected by the state inspectors; to make statements and returns to the chief supervisor in whatever form, manner and to the extent the chief requires.

The Inquisition Revived. In a city of 20,000 inhabitants and upward the chief may require any of the supervisors and deputy marshals to make a house and house canvass which may begin live weeks before and be continued cm to the day of election; inquiring into the eligibility of voters; whether they had ever been legally naturalized, etc. As this provision does not require that this canvass shall be made by men of different political views it was intended for the purpose of placing Republican ward workers on the government pay roll to do partisan work and otherwise terrorize people. The force bill does not limit the number of supervisors and marshals to do this work, and in Indiana, in the cities of Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Terre Haute, New Albany and South Bend, thousands of ward-heelers would be employed to invade the homes of honest people. In their domiciliary capacity these modem inquisitors are given absolute power, by the force bill, to search the homes of citizens for the location of supposed illegal voters. There is no provision in the bill limiting the jurisdiction of these canvassers to their own precinct or city. There is nothing in it to prevent the supervisor from sending 500 Indianapolis negroes to made a house and house canvass in the city of Fort Wayne with power to arrest any man or woman refusing them access to any part of the house, or for declining to answer any question propounded.

The Infamons Returning Board. The bill provides for the appointment in each state, by the judge of the United States circuit, of a returning hoard or board of canvassers who receive the returns from the precincts in the various counties and hear evidence, if they think proper. Here is where the Republicans would have a chance to do their “own counting and certification,” as Tom Reed would say. For thin board declares and certifies who is elected to congress and the individual so certified shall be placed, by the clerk of ; the house, on the roll of members elected and thus authorized to participate in the organization of the next house. A severe penalty is placed on the clerk of I the house for failing to so place oa the j roll the'persons certified to by the re- ! turning boards. The board of canvassers has autocratic power far beyond the power of the . Czar of Ri.ssia. It has the power to make the boose of representatives of the

United States, the greatest legislative hotly in the world, whatever it please to make it. Under the force bill it can certify any candidate as duly elected a member of congress, no matter if he received only 5,000 votes while his opponent receives 20,000, for the hoard has the right to throw ont votes, and from its action there is no appeal. The candidate so. counted ont could contest the election of the house after it had been organized by the members counted in by the returning boards. But no sane man would attempt such a contest before a body made up, largely, of men not elected by the people. State Authority Wiped Out. Under the existing system which has prevailed from Washington to the present time, certificates of the election to Congress are issued by the governor. The state returning board can not go behind the returns. In Indiana, the election boards chosen by the people return the number of votes cast for each candidate to the county board, which board is composed of all the inspectors of the county. The vota of each precinct is tabulated as reported and certified to the county clerk. The latter certifies to the secretary of the state the number of votes received in the county by each candidate for congress. • The vote of the congressional district is vibulated in the secretary of state’s office, by counties. The secretary certifies to thv governor the result and a commission is issued, by the governor, to the candidate having received the highest number of votes upon the face of the returns. There is no going behind the returns, and the man who bears the commission of the govemer is placed on the roster of the house by the clerk thereof. It will be seen that under the existing Bystem all election officers from the precinct to the governor are the creature of the people. But all this is to be wiped ont of existence, with a force bill, if the Republicans carry the next election, and the entire election machinery of the country will be placed in the hands of life long self-perpetuating federal office holders. There is another provision in the bill which beats Knownothingism. It requires the supervisors when instructed by the chief to compile a list of all foreign bom persons who have been naturalized with the date thereof, their place of nativity and present naturalization papers; and they are to examine and note the original affidavits and applications presented to the court and file the same with the chief supervisor for preservation. It virtually establishes political espionage over all of our naturalized American citizens, most of whom have been in this country for twenty or thirty years.

Cost of the Force Kill Array. If this bill should ever become a law it would create an army of election officers of about 275,000 at a cost to the country, for every congressional election of not less than $28,000,000, To carry on an election in Indiana under this system would require at least 18,000 subordinate supervisors. If these supervisors were on duty twelve days, which the law permits, at sls a day, which the law fixes as their per diem, it would cost for one election in the state the enormous sum of $1,080,000. To this army of Republican heelers another army of deputy marshals to be added at a cost of $5 a day, swelling the total expense indefinitely. There is one man in this country who bears the same relation to politics that Pinkerton bears toward organized labor—and that man is the notorious John Davenport, of New York. For years this notorious political thug has been employed by the Republicans of New York to intimidate naturalized American voters of atm York city. Fortified with a computation of chief election supervisor, tH» sum has caused the arrest of thousands of honest citizens, and detained them in prison on election day, with no other object in view than to prevent them from exercising their rights, as American citizens, at the polls. The records show that not one out of a thousand of the men arrested by Davenport has ever been tried, and not one out of 50,000 of the arrests made convicted, for attempting to vote illegally. For this service, covering a period of more than a generation. Davenport has received from the treasury Over st,ootr.O<M). Yet this is the man that the Republicans employed two years ago to frame the force bill, which still threatens the country. By reference to the files of the newspapers of 18%, the Associated Press reports from Washington will show that John Davenjiort consulted President Harrison, in relation to the provisions of the force bill, and that during its discussion in the house. Davenport occupied the speaker’s private room at the Capitol, where Republican members were steered before him and couched preparatory to the debates on the floor of the house. After the bill passed the house, Davenport moved over to the senate side, and from Senator Hoar’s committee room, conducted the force bill fight in the senate. Had the force bill sncceeded in going through the senate, then, John Davenport would in a few weeks be in charge of an army of 500,000 political thugs invading private homes, preparatory to turning the country over to the Republics us. And if the Republicans succeed this fall the Davenport gang will surely make its appearance in every precinct of the country in the election of 1892. _