Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1912 — REGISTER NOW OR LOSE YOUR VOTE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

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Reason Why Law Is Necsesary To Protect Legal Voter AND GET HONEST RESULTS. V . Is Aimed at Cities Rut to Be Constitutional Had to Cover the Entire State. If the election were held tomorrow there would be more than 300,000 dtlzcna of Indiana outcasts from the polls—disfranchised—unable to vote. Unless these 300,000 citizens with a right to vote if registered take the pain* to register on October 7, the vote In Indiana will be lighter than it haa been in years, and it will be Impossible to even conjecture the result of the election In November. An Investigation has revealed the fact that thousands have merely postponed registration with the full intention to take the step in October,

while many others are either going on the mistaken idea that they can and will vote without it. or they are opposed to registration law because of the slight inconvenience it causes and declare their Intention to deliberately put themselves outside the pale of citizenship. The point is made by some greyhaired citizens who have lived in the same community all their lives, are known to every man, woman and child in the locality, and have voted sor 1 thirty or forty years, that it is an utter absurdity to force them to register before permitting them to vote.

Without a complete understanding of the reasons that made the registration law a necessity the views of these men who are mostly excellent and substantial citizens would seem conclusive. These men, and all the voters of the state are entitled to know why the law was considered a necessity.

As far back as 1881 an amendment to the constitution was proposed, making it obligatory on the legislature to pass a registration law. Amendment* to the constitution cannot be made unless the people vote for it. This amendment was submitted to the beople at thq pollß and it passed by the enormous majority of 87,000 —a phenomenal majority for that time. This amendment did not say that the legislature could a registration law if it wished, but said that the legislature should pass such a law. At that time there was nothing like the necessity for a registration law that we have today. It was before the day of large cities, of great industrial development—before > great and powerful , corporations like the steel trust began to pour thousands of men who were not citizens into the state, and before the Republicans bei gan to practice the plan of importing thousands of non-residents from Kentucky for election day. Because the

necessity was not so pronounced, nothing was done. But times have changed. Out in the farming sections where !he most substantial part of our people reside, it is hard to understand why the registration law was passed. Here are some reasons:

in campaign after campaign an interesting thing to be observed ha* been the great negro excursions from Louisville that have poured thousands from Kentucky into the city six weeks and a month before the election. A poll taken sixty days before election was always light In certain Republican localities of the city of Indianapolis compared with the poll taken thirty Says before. This increase represented the Imported, illegal voter who had been brought in to kill the vote of a thoroughly qualified Democrat out in the country. At times this vote has been large enough to turn the tide. The registration law puts an end to this crime against the legal voter.

In every campaign for years the counties along the Ohio river have seen hundred* of imported negroes from across the river brought over to take temporary jobs on farms and in cities. These men voted, kilted the vote of a citizen of Indiana, then returned to Kentucky. This law prevents this crime against civic decenoy.

In Terre Haute a short time ago a large number of Italians working on a railroad, living In box cars, having no place of residence and no right to vote—men who were here today and there tomorrow—were taken into Terre Haute at four o’clock on the afternoon of election day, their naturalization papers were taken out, and they voted over the protest of citizens whose votes were killed by the disgraceful proceedings. This law will end this sort of thing. In the northern part of the state where 4hejitael trust has established plants, the most shameful travesty marked a recent election. The votes of farmers in Boone county, Clay county, in every agricultural county of the state counted for nothing, for they were killed by the illegal votes of people who were not citizens. No man has suffered more In Indlsna from this sort of thing than William Jennings Bryan. In all his campaigns the great trusts and corporations were against him, and in all his campaigns these combines brought Into Indiana thousands of illegal voters to offset the votes of the farm4. era and merchants, and workingmen who voted for the Commoner.

Thf* condition has been growing worse year after year. Something had to be done FOR THE PROTECTION OF CITIZENS WHO HAD A LEGAL RIGHT TO VOTE. The constitution of the state declared that such a law should be passed, and it was enacted.

The point is sometimes made by substantial citizens of cities and country that the law was not> needed in the farming counties and that it should not have been extended to these counties. It is true it was not needed there, but in a state election it was impossible, under the law, to pass a law applying only to certain communities. It had to be general to stand the test of the courts.

And it was thought that all good citizens would be willing to stand the slight inconvenience of registration in May or September or October to make sure that their votes were not lost on election day by beitig killed by some illegal and imported voter.

Every voter in Indiana who objects, to the inconvenience of the law should bear this in mind: The steel trust is against the law. The ward heelers of the cities are against the law. Both Crooked Business and Crooked Politics are against the law. And they are against it because it means that we can have an honest ballot in Indiana —that the vote of every workingman and farmer will count in the result and will not be offset by the vote of some imported crook.

However that may be, the law is on the books and must be obeyed if we are to vote. Every name not registered after the October registration, is blotted from the list of citizens. Remember this: The International Harvester trust will be greatly pleased

If thousands of Indiana farmers fail to qualify to vote on election day. The farmer who fails to register plays into tne hands of this vicious monopoly. And remember this: If you registered in May and have moved into another precinct since, and did not register at the September registration, you must register in October, and if you registered in September and have since removed to another precinct, you must register in October. The mere fact that you have removed from place in a precinct to another, which Is in the same precinct, does not make it necessary for you to register again. And remember this— REGISTER OR YOU CAN’T VOTE IN NOVEMBER,

RALSTON URGES DEMOCRATS TO REGISTER.