voters had to pass?-A. Nothing unusual. It was the same as they had always had it, so far as I could see, for the convenience of the officers, and to have the men pass through the alley in one way while the crowd was to be kept back by this constable.

Q. Is there a post-office at Manchaug ?-A. There is.

Q. Your familiarity with the voters did not extend to Manchaug?— A. No, sir; they did not affect me at all, because they hardly ever come up there except on the days of town meetings.

Q. Having estimated how the voters of Manchaug would be likely to vote, and being at the polls, can you say whether they did vote or not? You explored, generally, the rest of the town.-A. I thought so from the result, and from what few men expressed their opinions, and that it was in conformity with the canvass I had made.

Q. Did they vote in an open ballot-box?-A. They did.

Q. Was there anything unusual about that?—A. No, sir.

Q. They voted just as they always had ?-A. They voted just as they always had. Oftentimes men would come along with a ballot folded up in this manner [indicating], when the selectmen would caution the men to put in their ballots with the face open. Where they would have an envelope, that was put in the box and nothing said about it.

Q. Senator McDonald asked you whether the Manchaug corporation force was not pretty well arrayed there that day. Was not the Butler force pretty well arrayed there that day ?-A. They had their positions, and there were a good many of them; in fact, I didn't consider that there was a great deal for me to do except to give votes to those who voted Democratic.

FREDERICK B. SMITH sworn and examined.

By Mr. PLATT:

Question. You are a resident of Sutton -Answer. Yes, sir.

Q. Have you held any office in the town of Sutton ?-A. I was on the board of selectmen for two years.

Q. When did your term of office expire?—A. In the spring of 1878. Q. You were there in 1876 and 1877 ?-A. Yes.

Q. Of course you were at the elections in 1876 and 1877 ?—A. Yes, sir.

Q. Also in 1878?-A. I was there a short time in 1878.

Q. How much opportunity have the selectmen to control the vote of the town?-A. Not any that I have ever discovered.

Q. It is their duty by law to take charge of the ballot-box ?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Have you ever known of any attempt by the selectmen, or any of them, to interfere with or control the voters in the exercise of their suffrage-A. No, sir.

Q. Were the arrangements for voting, the benches and the passageway, the same in 1878 that they were in 1877?-A. I think that a settee. occupied the place where before there was a rail. They used to climb up on this rail. Then the settee was put there.

Q. Was there any other difference?-A. That was all.

Q. Do you know what were the politics of the selectmen in 1878 ?A. Yes.

Q. What were their politics?-A. John McArthur, the chairman of the board, was a Republican; Deacon Marble was a Republican, or, I

should say, a Prohibitory-Republican; and John P. Stockwell was a Democrat.

Q. Were they identified with the corporation?-A. No, sir; the farmers there are not.

Q. Were they friendly to the corporation ?-A. Hardly.

Q. How long were you at the polls on that day?-A. I think an hour or three quarters of an hour.

Q. In the little controversy that there has been there about the taxation of this corporation, with whom are those two selectmen (Marble and Stockwell) classed, the opponents or the friends of the corporation-A. They would be classed with the opponents. The farmers, as a rule, are not in favor of the corporations.

Q. At what time were you at the polls?-A. About noon.

Q. While you were there, did you see any attempt, or know of any, open or covert, on the part of the employés of the Manchaug Manufacturing Corporation, to coerce or constrain their hands?-A. No, sir; I saw none whatever while I was there.

Q. Or any effort on their part to make their hands vote differently from the way in which they were disposed to vote?—A. I saw nothing of the kind. I was there only about an hour.

By Mr. McDONALD:

Q. The position of selectman is a very good place for seeing how the men vote?-A. If they vote openly, yes, sir.

Q. The selectman very generally can tell how each man votes as he comes up?-A. If the man votes his ticket right side up, the selectman could hardly avoid seeing that; if the man voted it wrong side up, or in an envelope, it would bother him.

Q. If the Butler, the Democratic, and the Republican tickets were of different kinds of paper, it would be very easy to tell.-A. Oh, yes; it is a very easy place from which to see.

Q. Did you see Mr. Chase there?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Where was he?-A. He was standing near the end of the railing when I saw him.

Q. Near the clerk who was checking the list ?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Did you see Mr. Knox giving out tickets about the door, or see him there at all?-A. I don't think that I saw Mr. Knox.

By Mr. BLAIR:

Q. Do you know anything about a secret society among the opponents of that corporation on this issue of the taxation of the property of the corporation?-A. I have been told that there was such a society; I know nothing of my own knowledge about it.

By Mr. McDONALD:

Q. The farmers wanted the corporation to pay a tax on its property according to the value of it; was not that the contention ?-A. The contention was started by three or four men there who are almost always soreheaded about something. I think that a majority of the farmers there think that the property was fairly assessed.

Q. You say that these two selectmen were put down as members of a farmer's party against the corporation?—A. I did not say so.

Q: Senator Platt asked you that question, and I understood you to assent to it.-A. Not in those words. I answered that they were farmers; and he then asked whether they were friends of that corporation, and I replied "hardly."

Q. Then he asked if they did not belong to the farmer's party as against

the corporation?-A. I don't remember that question. The principal mover in the movement for an increase of taxation is a man named Jess. Waddell. He is the principal mover among those who want an increase of the tax on the Manchaug property.

Q. They claim that the corporation property ought to be assessed at its proper value?-A. They ought to put in better assessors, then.

Q. Do they not claim that the assessment is made by an agent of the corporation ?-A. Yes, but I never heard that it was.

Q. It is established that the assessment is made by an agent of the corporation ?--A. He is not the only one.

Q. Is he not a man of a good deal of force of character?-A. You have had him on the stand to-day.

Q. That is what I think about him. I ask you whether my judgment about him is right?-A. I should not spit in his face if I met him.

Q. He is a man of a good deal of force of character, of will power. Some witness called him the brains of the corporation. What do you say.-A. He don't draw the biggest salary, and I thought that the brains commanded that.

Q. What do you say about that?-A. Well, the members of the corporation are all friends of mine. It would hardly be fair for me to draw a comparison between them.

Q. You are friendly with the corporation ?-A. Oh, I am friendly with everybody.

EDGAR H. STEVENS Sworn and examined.

By Mr. BLAIR:

Question. Where do you reside ?-Answer. I have resided in the town of Sutton eight years, and lived at Manchaug Village six years.

Q. Where are you employed?-A. I work in the cotton mill for the Manchaug Company.

Q. How long have you worked for them ?-A. Six years.

Q. What are your political sentiments?-A. I have always voted the Democratic ticket with the exception of last fall, when I voted for Ben. Butler.

Q. Did you know at the time anything of the attempt about which Mr. Eli Thayer has testified, to secure the hall of the company for a political meeting in behalf of Butler? If you did, state what you know in regard to that.-A. That was in the fall of the Presidential election. Q. What occurred then ?—A. I was at a meeting of the Tilden club (of which I was vice-president) in the town of Sutton. They brought the question up in regard to the hall; that is, they wanted to secure the hall. I opposed it because I felt this, that we should get refused. I knew that, because I felt that if the application was made on the other side it would be refused. It is a private hall owned by the Manchaug Company. The party said "This will be a good point for us to make; that is, we will ask for the ball and we will get refused of course." They knew that they would be refused at the time.

Q. It was done as a matter of policy, to make a little capital ?—A. Yes, sir.

Q. And you opposed its being done, because it was a mere sham ?—A. I did.

Q. If you had owned that hall, under the circumstances, would you have let it to political parties?-A. No, sir; I would not.

Q. You have worked for this company some six years, I understand you?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. What statement do you make as to your having been free in your political action, or otherwise, during the time you have worked for the company?--A. I have always been free.

Q. What have you done as a Democrat?-A. I have taken quite an active part as a Democrat, that is, during the Presidential campaign, and also last fall.

Q. Have you ever been a delegate to conventions, or the like?—A. Yes, sir; I was chosen delegate to the convention at Worcester. Q. Did you attend?-A. I did.

Q. Do you know of other men in that company who attended Democratic conventions?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Was there ever any interference with you or others in regard to your attending conventions, or giving your time to political affairs ?— A. Never.

Q. How many voters of all parties work for this corporation ?—A. I think about a hundred.

Q. How many Democrats?-A. I think about fifty, who voted for Butler last fall.

Q. Any who voted for Abbott ?-A. I think there were a few.

Q. You think, then, that the voters there comprise about one-half of each party there, and that Republicans and Democrats are about equal in number?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Were you in any particular department of the works, so that you had occasion to know how any certain department or number of the help stood politically-A. I have charge of the weaving department in two mills, having about 750 looms; I have under me about 175 hands, among whom there are probably about 21 voters.

Q. What do you say in regard to the political sentiments and action of those voters under you?-A. I think that out of the 21 there were some 18 who voted for Butler.

Q. For whom did the others vote?-A. For Talbot.

Q. You succeeded in getting a nearly unauimous vote of those under you for Butler, did you ?—A. I never had anything to say.

Q. Didn't you bull-doze them any ?-A. No, sir; that is not my dis position.

Q. They were perfectly free to vote for Talbot for aught that you did? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Was any more effort made to control votes for Talbot than you made to control votes for Butler ?-A. I never saw any.

Q. Do you know of any discharge for political action, or threats to discharge on that account?-A. I never did.

Q. Or intimations that in any way it would be better or worse for them if they did this or that in political action?-A. Never.

Q. From your situation, you must have known of this if it had oc curred, must you not?-A. I should have been pretty apt to know of it. Q. A quantity of testimony has been given here specially directed to Mr. McArthur and Mr. Chase; what is the deportment of those two men toward their operatives in political matters?-A. I never knew of an instance where they tried to influence them, or tried to change them in any manner whatever.

Q. Or at the polls? Did you ever see any efforts to intimidate them there?—A. 1 never saw anything of the kind.

Q. Do you know this Mr. Terrence Kennedy, who has testified here? -A. Yes, sir.

Q. You know of his removal from his tenement? -A. I do. Q. Was there, so far as you know or ever heard, any political cause connected with it?-A. Not at all.

Q. What was the cause, as you understood it at the time?—A. I suppose it was because they wanted it for a larger family; that is, he had only one in the mill.

Q. How was it as to the factory having plenty of tenements to accommodate their help in the mill?-A. Sometimes they are short. Q. How was it at that time?-A. They were short at the time.

Q. What is your title in the mill?-A. Overseer of the weaving de partment.

Q. What are the political sentiments of the overseers? How many are there, and how are they politically divided?-A. There are ten overseers. I think that one-half of them are Democrats and one-half Republicans.

Q. Did you ever see Mr. McArthur examine the ballots of the operatives at any time?-A. No, sir.

Q. Or Mr. Chase?-A. No, sir.

Q. Were you present at the Presidential election of 1876 ?—A. I was. Q. Do you recollect that at the close of the meeting of that day, Mr. Kennedy moved a vote of thanks?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. What was it for?—A. For the efficient manner in which our select. men had served us the last year.

Q. Had it any special reference to the manner in which they had conducted the election ?-A. It had to Mr. McArthur.

Q. Did that vote pass?-A. I think it did.

Q. Was there any strong opposition to it ?-A. I did not see much of

any.

Q. It passed unanimously, I suppose ?-A. Yes.

Q. How did the election of 1878 compare with that of 1876—you being present at both-as to order, quiet, and freedom of action on the part of the voters ?—A. I didn't see anything whatever why it was not conducted just as quietly in 1878 as it was in 1876.

Q Do you know of Republican ballots being sent to the mill for distribution among the operatives, prior to the elections?-A. No, sir. QIt was not so?--A. It was not se.

Q. Were the ballots of either party distributed through the mill?— A. No, sir.

Q. About the riding to the polls, was there any discrimination between Republicans and Democrats in that?-A. No, sir.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. Where did you get your ticket?-A. At the polls.

Q. From whom?-A. From the man who was distributing them.

Q. A Democrat?-A. I don't know whether you can call him a Democrat or not.

Q. From the Butler man. You voted for Butler?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. How did these five overseers who were all Democrats vote?-A. I think that two of them voted for Abbott.

Q. Then there were three Butler overseers, two Abbott overseers, and five Talbot overseers ?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. You say that you thought the hall would be refused; then the matter of asking for it was a sham?-A. Yes, sir; I took it in this light, that the men who owned the hall, being the company, if they had been Democrats would have refused the hall. That was the light that I took it in.