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Official Publication of the National Nonpartisan League in the State of Montana THE MONTANA NONPARTISAN VOLUME GREBAT FALLS, MONTANA, SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1919 NUMBER 13 Wholesale Election Frauds if Butte Copper Crowd Surpasses All K fords FIGHTING WITH BACKS TO WALL OLD GANG DEFY PEOPLE .IANDATE Count Cutts In at City Hall Canvass, After People Have Given Majority to W. F. Dunn WHOLESALE FRAUD CHARGED IN BUTTE ELECTION. W. F. DUNN COUNTED OUT AT CITY HALL, IN SPITE OF JUDGES GIVING HIM MAJORITY. BALLOT BOX STUFFING, RE PEATING, SUBSTITUTING, AMONGST CHARGES AGAINST COPPER CROWD. BRUTAL EX PUISION OF WATCHERS FROM BOOTHS BY COMPANY GUN - MEN, VERY SEVERE IN JURIES INFLICTED ON INNOCENT BYSTANDERS. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S ASSISTANT RE FUSED HELP IN INVESTIGATION. CLERK WILL NOT GIVE UP BOOKS FOR EXAMINATION. DUNN SUPPORTERS ENTER CONTEST AGAINST NOMINATION OF CUTTS, COMPANY CANDI DATE. BALLOT, SAFE-GUARD OF DEMOCRACY AGAIN PROSTITUTED BY COPPER CROWD. DECENT CITIZENS OF BUTTE DISGUSTED AND FLOCKING TO DUNN STANDARD. What has all the earmarks of one of the worst samples of poli-I tical thievery and corruption, even the City of Butte has known, surrounds the fight for the mayor's chair "on the hill." Hundreds of witnesses and dozens of affidavits declare that the nomination on. the Democratic ticket was stolen from W. F. Dunn by means more' open and flagrant, than have ever been before employed in the great camp. The city is seething with rage and dismay and knots of people gather here and there eagerly discussing what is to be done next. Men I and women of all walks of life jostle each other in an effort to sign the petitions which will be instrumental in nominating Dunn once again on the Independent ticket. Satin and gingham, broadcloth and overalls are seen side by side, demanding that justice be done upon the perpetrators of this crime, for the copper metropolis is stirred to its very depths and the long rankling indignation against gangster control of the political machinery of the city has burst out in a vol cano of passionate indignation. The clerk at the telephone desk in the Dunn headquarters wears a weary but happy smile for every minm ute of the day is put in,answering demands to know what assistance can be given in the coming struggle. The grimness of the citizens is terribly significant of what lies under the apparent calm, men and women are asking each other, what next? If peaceful watchers exercising their constitutional rights to follow the counting of ballots are to be assaulted by gunmen and bat tered with the butts of revolvers while the electioneering experts of the Copper Company steal the vote, at the general election, as they have done in the primary, what is to be the answer of the people? What recourse' have these long-suffei'ing'people of Butte, if this red handed tyranny is to go unchecked. The set jaws and stern looks of the people seem to indicate that it will be a serious matter indeed, if their will, expressed in the ballot box be again overridden. They tighten their belts and glance significantly at the menacing bulge of the wastline or armpit which indicate a holster, carrying a deadly shooting iron. Such is Butte today, angry and unafraid; terribly de termined that if W. F. Dunn and those who are on the ticket with him are again counted out, what follows will rest upon the shoulders of the corrupt, callous and utterly unscrupulous copper crowd. There is danger in the great, sprawling, huddle of smoke-stained cabins and gloomy skyscrapers flung in such unlovely disorder together in the fractured rocks, by Silver Bow. Terrible danger. Always, people have looked up on "the Hill" as a place where anything could happen, and it has become a byword throughout the northwest states for all that is worse in corruption and violence, whether it be a robbery, a murder, the forceable suppression of a great strike, or a scandulous ex hibition of political jobbery, it has been dismissed by the people of the state with the wearied re mark that "Oh, well that is just like Butte." From the beginning of its ca reer the camp has been notorious, and a stench in the nostrils of de cent people. Its swarming streets, full of pale-faced haggard miners, its foul dens of vice, its hoards of pestiferous gunmen and. stool-pigeons, its union troubles and its heroic union leaders, its brutal cold-blooded domineering executives, its miserable eabins and wretched shacks and above' all, glooming like a watchful vul ture, the Hennessy building and the corps of medicine mixers who plot the next move in the game of copper control, have become fixed in the annals of state history, in an indelible manner. Today it has reached the high-water mark for infamous election thefts. W. F. Dunn, union leader, member of the leg islature and associate editor of the Butte Daily Bulletin, appears to have been jobbed out of the Democratic nomination for may or, as deliberately and as defiant ly, as ever such practices were carried out. Dunn had a large majority, an overwhelming ma jority, lie was the choice of the people of Butte at least, so the re turns showed on nomination night, yet the agents of the A. C. M. rendered desperate by such a signal defeat, deliberately sup pressed the record and in the council chamber surrounded by a crowd of armed guards who hadl difficulty in holding the indig nant multitude at bay, coldly 'counted the company candidate, one Cutts, in. Some History. The present city elections are the first in which the working people have participated since the defeat of Duncan, some years ago, for they seemed to have lost heart after that and either ignored the business altogether or voted for the "best man" amongst those who were running. Lately however, after the suc cess which attended the big strike, coupled with the utter scandal of city mal-adnlinistration, the ne cessity for political activity again made itself felt and the spirit of . interest in municipal affairs was aroused. The working people who I make up the vast majority of the population began to feel around for some method of expressing themselves at the ballot box and they soon organized a Nonparti san Club which was to be a ne cules around which political ac tivities should center. Nonpartisan Club. Some time before the last state election the club was founded, the membership of which embrac ed all those who were sick and tired of the misrule of the cop per crowd and ready to enter the lists against them. Founded by a few able men, the club soon gath ered force and became so power ful that three of its candidates were returned to the state legisla ture, amongst whom W. F. Dunn was the most commanding figure. Dunn's Work. Alarmed by the political activi ties of Butte citizens, the copper crowd sought to discredit or de stroy the leadership. The kept 6 press was ordered to turn its guns on Dunn and his companions and to spare no pains to destroy them politically if possible. Dunn was I hissed in the legislative chamber, was lied about in the newspapers I and he was represented as a mon strous enemy of the common wealth and a man of astounding ferocity, whose sole aim was to overturn the government and re duce the national structure to chaos. The Kept Press. The Butte Miner and the Hel ena Independent were particular ly vindicative, never missing a chance to distort the activities of Dunn and to paint him in a false light to the people of this state. Dunn as one of the editors of the Butte Bulletin questioned the au thority of the state council of de fense when an effort was being made, by interested parties to sup press the union paper, for this he was brought to trial for sedition, and during the whole of the pres- t ent campaign, every associated press dispatch, every newspaper item, and every editorial, sent out against him, stated, that- he was " convicted of sedition," despite the fact that the case is still pend ing in the supreme court, and per haps it may be said that no man in the state of Montana has been so persistently persecuted for his political opinions and for his au dacity in challenging the politi cal control of copper, than W. F. Dunn, and the end is not yet. The Net Result. The logical result of this per secution was that the demand rose louded and louder for Dunn as mayor of Butte and as the city elections were fast approaching, the 'Nonpartisan Club organized its forces and placed on nomina tion the name of W. F. Dunn for mayor, . J. McCarthy for city. treasarer and Mike Allen for mag istrate and a full ticket of alder men. Opposition Tactics. It soon became apparent that the Dunn forces would sweep the field, and the position of the cop per crowd became desperate. All attempts to discredit Dunn andl his associates ecoiled upon their own heads, did they mention his conviction on a sedition charge; people sneered, did the claim he was disloyal; folks laughed, did they yell about the short time he had been in the city, the citizens of Butte winked; it was all "com pany talk anyway" and the cop per press is so well known that people expect to reserve all it says and so arrive at the truth in any case. The Unions. So powerful is the union move ment in Butte that the copper crowd had perforce to search the ranks of labor for a candidate against Dunn and they found two only who won favor in their eyes. One had been a union man at some remote date and is now wearing the uniform of the U. S. army, having served in the Spruce di vision for some time. The other, an engineer at the mines was also persuaded to try his luck in split ting the union vote, in the interest of copper. The union were not fooled how ever, and voted to a man to en dorse Dunn, in fact they were the great factor in his nomination for mayor. A manifestation of solid organization which the Helena In dependent reviled so bitterly. Election Day. The day of nomination saw all E..llllmtlllllllllllllllllllllIllllllllllllllllllll PRECINCT 4-B. - The returns were purpose ly held back in Precinct 4-B, po that the Cutts forces could know how many votes they E h ad to steal in that precinct. S E Tom Chope, A. C. M. "labor S - commissioner," lives one = block from the polling place. J Besides Chope, Precinct E f B was infested during the unt with Roy Alley, John - - Berkin, Bill Oates, Harry E Gallwey, Ed Morrissey, chief df detectives; and numbers i of other A. C. M. gunmen. , Two rustling card office Seinployes-Hugh Ford and SHBen Leonard-acted as elec- . t' on officials in this precinct. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIll i sides highily organized although the Dunn forces were not allowed any judges and as towards the end of the day after a good deal of heart rending work on both sides, the count began. It soon became apparent that jobbery was in the air. A correspondent to the Butte Bulletin describes wheat happened at one booth and it i; said, this description covers mo ,otf the rest and is moderate in .t 'ilab ology. He says in part: At 2 o'clock in the morning ing the fun began. Every thing was in peace and quiet ness when the gunmen; detec tives and the A. C .M. officials began to arrive on the scene. They came in 10 different ma chines from all directions. In 10 minutes the following men, well known to all arrived: Harry Galwey, Jack Roach, Tom Chope, Roy Alley, John Riley (the fixer of the First ward), John Berkin, gunman; Taylor, of Taylor collection agency, who is of the type of succor gunman; Jim Ford gunman; Gillis, gunman, the man who killed a man in cold blood a few months ago. Of course, Ray Rhule was suck ing around - Somebody should slap him on the wrist and send home to his babies. There was that poor, starving attorney, Dan Mallory, trying to give a hand. Following up the rear was Emery Rheim, the clerk of the school board, COPPER DEMOCRACY How It Does Its Foul Work W. F. DUNN WM. CUTTS JUDGES' OFFICIAL 4-b 495 494 RETURNS CANVASS 495 494 3-b 278 275 5-b 108 109 6-b 311 285 6-b 494 492 7-a 374 371 7-a 368 328 8-b 310 259 8-a 225 320 8-b 396 448 Dunn's Loss . . 83 Cutts' Gain... 138 Dunn's Majority on Judges' Returns to City Hall . 113 Cutts' Fixed" Majority 108 Absve is a good sample of election fraud as practised in the stronghold of reaction and violence-Butte ever ready to give a hand and butting in when he is sup posed not to mingle in poli tics. Pat Sidley, the boss of fice man for the A. C. M. com. pany. Then there was the boss gunman for the A. C. M. com pany, together with about six other gunmen. Where did all these fellows come from in so short a time? All arrived in 10 minutes. Wasn't it prearranged? Why did such men as Galwey, Chope and Roche stoop so low as to mingle in such proceed ings as followed their arrival there. You all know Morrissey four-flushing, "eat-'em up Ed" Morrsisey, the man that always does the dirty work for all the plays that are made by the rotten city hall gang and the A. C. M. crowd. Well, he arrived, looking like an in sane man. As I said before, everything was peace and quietness. He rushed his way through the crowd just like a wild bull and then came back about half way through the crowd and accosted a man who was not saying a word, just an onlooker, with the question, asked in a terrible voice: l'What-are you doing here?" The man was polite with his answer, that he was only an onlooker. For his politeness 'he got a crack in the mouth and a gun shoved into his stomach and ordered to beat it. When he got out side he got a crack from a gun on the head. Back came Morrissey for another. It didnt' make any difference who. If you were not dressed as a west-sider you were lia ble to be picked out. Morris sey shoved his gun into the stomach of at least six men and beat them up after he got them outside. I suppose any one man in that crowd could lick Morrissey, but they couldn't afford to go up against the gun. Morrissey was backed up each time by the A. C. M. gunmen. As an onlooker said: "This crowd is thirsting for blood and to kill," and it surely looked it. There is no question but that the judges and clerks at this particular precinct stall. ed when counting the votes. They must have had orders to count slowly, as it is natural to count fast and finish the job--not only to get through with the work, but satisfy their own minds as to the re sults of the election. The pre cinct just north of them, with about the same number of votes, had finished the counting at 11 o'clock. This pecinct 4-B, finished at about 3 o'clock. At about 1 o'clock a crowd gathered at 4-B. Perhaps 10 of the 75 present were Dunn men. Those pesent were from every walk of life-engineers, truck drivers, wholesale men -I mention these because I knew nearly all the people present. The Dunn support ers only asked how the count was coming out and mingled with the crowd. There was fully six Cutts men present to each one of the Dunn crowd. Everybody present seemed to be of one mind. That the count evidently was going along very slowly. Every body was nervous because they seemed to realise that the slow counting.was being done soaau to give' time '6i thea ut crowd to figure just how many votes they would have to steal in order to win. Enter Attorney General's Dept. The Attorney General's depart ment represented by Mr. Ford himself was on the ground dur ing the polling and as soon as charges of fraud were filed pro eeeded to make an investigation. The coppel crowd however, are dead to all law and the assistant attorney general, Mr. Choate de tailed to conduct the probe was refused access to the polling books and records by the city clerlk on the excuse that an order fr6m the court was necessary. The Returns. The issue was never for a mo ment in doubt, and in spite of the horrible brutality described above the judges' returns to the city hall as the polls closed, give Dunn a majority of 113. So certain was this, that the well informed Great Falls Tribune, a Denocra tic paper of some standing in the state, declared in staring head (Continued on Page Two)