petitions
secured by A. O. Barclay 68 were in the same handwriting.... The
name of one Omaha business man who had died three months previous
to the circulation of the petition was found; another who was
killed two months before, and another who had been dead for three
years. Witness after witness testified that his name on it was
forged.

Several other circulators forged so many names we asked that all
their work be thrown out. The hearing developed that forty
ex-saloon keepers and bartenders had these petitions on the bars
in their soft drink places; 831 names were secured by Dick
Kennedy, a negro who could neither read nor write. He appeared in
court in jail clothes, being under indictment for peddling
"dope," and was unable to identify the petitions certified by
him. Ten boys, ranging in age from 8 to 15, were circulators.
Several men who could not read or write testified that they
supposed their names were being taken for a census. Many thought
the petition was to "bring back beer." One man was told it was to
pave an alley. At one hearing interpreters had to be used for all
but two men. The treasurer of the Anti-Suffrage Association, Mrs.
C. C. George, whose name appears as witness to the signatures of
81 certificates on the back of Barclay's petitions, testified
that she did not remember him. On the back of each petition is a
certificate in which the circulator certifies that each man
signed in his presence and the signature must have two witnesses.
The soft drink men and others testified that although the name of
Mrs. George appeared as witness to their signatures they had
never seen her. She testified that the petitions went through the
hands of her association.

The following question was asked of another "anti," wife of a
rector: "Had you known that co-workers with you were Dick
Kennedy, an illiterate negro; Abie Sirian; Gus Tylee, employee of
Tom Dennison and a detective of doubtful reputation; 40 soft
drink men; Jess Ross, colored porter for Dennison; Jack
Broomfield, a colored sporting man and for twenty years keeper of
the most notorious dive in Omaha, and many others of this
character, would you have worked with them and accepted the kind
of petition they would secure?" She replied: "It would have made
no difference