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APEHi 28, 1905
The Commoner.
15
ary, one wad his Republican predeceB
sojLln office, and only one was a demo
cratic voter; while in 1901 none of
his appointments was confirmed.
This condition of the law makes the
senate moVe than ever the seat of
power, and renders the governor a
mere figurehead, subject to the whim,
so far as his appointments are con
cerned, of the twenty senators elected
by one-twelfth of the population.
While the governor is theoretically
supposed to enforce the laws, he is
by this vicious supremacy of the sen
ate deprived of any power to do so.
During Governor Garvin's first year
this was illustrated by the action of
the commissioner of industrial statis
tics, who defied the governor's au
thority and was sustained by the legis
lature, which changed the law for this
purpose; by the case of the factory
inspectors, who, when complaints were
made of the non-enforcement of fac
tory laws, were out of reach of disci
pline by the governor, as he could
not remove them and by the exist
ence of notorious .gambling places in
several of the towns, which, as the
governor had no control over the
sheriffs, he was powerless to suppress.
By means of the conditions thus
briefly outlined the republican ma
chine in Rhode Island has been able
to control the state thoroughly for
many years. The boss has always
been able to dominate the twenty
small towns, either by money, "in
fluence" the giving of office or the
conferring of favors. Intrenched as he
Is, the task of dislodging him and his
machine is almost hopeless. He has,
meanwhile, proceeded to still further
strengthen his position in the past
few years by practically' abolishing
local self-government in the princi
pal cities. This has been accomplish
ed by the creation of police commis
sions, independent of local authority,
and owing their appointment nomi
nally to the governor, but actually to
the senate. Such commissions are
now in existence in the cities of Provi
dence and Newport and the town of
Tiverton, and probably more will be
created at the next session of the
legislature.
Another usurpation of local self
government in the, interest of the
dominant machine was the creation
of a board of canvassers' and registra
tion in the city of Providence by an
act of the state legislature some years
ago. This board is now to all intents
and purposes a part of the republican
machine, and was openly used during
the campaign as an agency to control
.. the voters, and at the last election
to help carry the day for the republk
can candidates. In the city of Proyi-
4 dence the police commission was like
wise used to aid the republican ma
chine by forcing Into office at demo
cratic caucuses, through its patrol
men, wardens and clerics who were
not tho choice of that party, but the
choice of the board of canvassers.
In 1901 the general assembly cre
ated a state returning board to count
"officially the ballots cast for state
officers, members of Congress and
presidential electors. This board as
now constituted is composed of four
republicans and one so-called demo
crat, who was elected by the senate
to the position in opposition to the
protests of leading democrats, Gover
nor Garvin having named another
man. The chairman of the board is
the chairman of the republican state
central committee and was the active
manager of" th'e recent campaign.
From its finding there is no appeal,
and consequently the board has the
power to count out any candidate
without being called in question offi
cially. "With all power in its hands
the republican machine can by means
of this board insure a victory for Itself
: in case of emergency should other de
vices earlier in the game fail to pro
duce the desired result
The count by the returning board of
the vote for congressman" In the First
Rhode Island district began Novem
ber 9 and ended November 29. Tho
total vote cast, as shown by this
count, was 39,255, of which Daniel L.
D. Granger, the democratic nominee,
had 15,583; Judge John H. Stiness,
the republican nominee, had 15,450;
Rev. George A. Conibear, the prohibi
tion nominee, bad 4G9, while there
were 4,158 blank ballots and 3,595 de
fective ballots. It is the settled be
lief of many people in tho state that
the board started in on a deliberate
attempt to count out Mr. Granger,
whose plurality by the warden's count
was said by tho newspapers on tho
morning after election to be 183, but
was later iouna Dy corrected returns
to be 270, and that this count-out was
only prevented by an aroused public
opinion, many citizens of all parties
expressing themselves vigorously
against such tactics. The method
pursued by the board was to throw
out "defective" ballots, and through
means of tallies kept by watchers of
the count in the interest of Mr. Gran
ger it was ascertained that doubtful
votes were being accepted for the re
publican candidate while exactly simi
lar, or not so doubtful, ones were be
ing rejected for the democratic can
didate. The scandal growing out of
such a barefaced attempt to count out
Mr.s Granger was evidently feared for
its future political effect, and a halt
was called as it is evident from tho
fact that the last part of the count
was a hurried one, with no attempt to
find "defectives."
This condition of affairs hero depict
ed as existing in Rhode Island has
been used to further certain well un
derstood ends. First, according to
3oss Brayton, to keep the republican
officeholders in the enjoyment of their
jobs. That is the acknowledged rea
son given by him to exnlain whv he
had the law passed taking away tho
governor's power of appointment. He
did not propose to have a democratic
governor drop a single republican out
of his position.
The second and main object which
these conditions have been used to ac
complish has been the securing of
franchises for the public service cor
porations. While General Brayton
has been tho resident boss of the
republican machine, Senator Aldrich
has been the real power the source
of supplies and to him consequently
has the benefit accrued in the shape
of the United States senatorship and
the street railway franchises. He or
ganized in 1893 the street railway syn
dicate, which acquired possession of
all the local street railway lines,
equipped them with electricity and
increased their capitalization from two
and a half millions to forty million,
while only increasing their length
three-fold. At the behest of the sen
ator, without doubt, but through the
boss and the machine, the rotten
borough legislature passed exclusive
franchises and special laws of the na
ture of contracts which, according to
their terms, can not be repealed, ex
cept by consent of the street rail
road company. Intrenched by spe
cial privilege in'this manner the rail
road syndicate has made millions of
dollars in profits and by stock issues
after the methods of "high finance,"
out of which the promoters, Senator
Aldrich among the number, have be
come millionaires.
Rhode Island voted for Senator Al
drich and the republican machine zX
the late election, but only because
many of the people were deceived,
some scared and not a few bought.
At the same time Governor Garvin
polled a great vote, probably enough
to elect him if they had been fairly
counted at the polling places, and"
certainly enough to have elected' him
in any other than a presidential year.
These facts give assurance that de
spite the un-American conditions ex
isting in the state the people are at
last awake and are prepared togive
battle for decent government and
against present political debasement.
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