Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 30 July 1925 — Page 2

THE POST-DEMOCRAT

THE POST-DEMOCRAT. A democratic weekly newspaper representing the Democrats of Muncie, Delaware County and the Eighth Congressional District. The only Democratic Newspaper in Delaware Co.

Entered as second class matter January 15, 1921, at the postoffice at Muncie, Indiana, unjder the Act of March 3 ,1879.

Price 10c a Copy—$3.00 a Year.

Office 733 North Elm Street. Telephone 2540 GEO. R. DALE, Owner and Publisher.

Muncie, Indiana, Thursday, July 30, 1925.

DEMOCRATIC CITY TICKET. FOR MAYOR—R. Milton Retherford. FOR CITY CLERK—Fred Kennedy. FOR CITY JUDGE—Ward Marshall. COUNCILMEN-AT-LARGE — Newton Campbell, Harry Brammer, Frank Lang and Chester Gilbert. FIRST WARD COUNCILMAN—Samuel Snell. SECOND WARD COUNCILMAN—William Rench. THIRD WARD COUNCILMAN—E. B. Winder. FOURTH WARD COUNCILMAN—Samuel Hite. FIFTH WARD COUNCILMAN Frank Russell SIXTH WARD COUNCILMAN—Leo Fell. SEVENTH WARD COUNCILMAN—James Leitch. EIGHTH WARD COUNCILMAN—Joe Dangler. NINTH WARD COUNCILMAN—Clifford B. Smith.

THURSDAY. JULY 30, 1925.

throwing a fit or who has just come out of one is hardly in a proper frame of mind to give his undivided attention to the evidence. But nevertheless, this fellow seems to be one of the small, but dependable group or eligibles whose faces are seen continually in the jury box. Time and again the local daily newspapers have politely mentioned delays in trials because of “the illness of a jurpr,” referring to this particular person. He is not a proper person to serve on a jury and besides it is disconcerting to the women who always serve with him. It’s hard to pay attention to a witness with the possibility always at hand of one of your fellow jurors flopping over and kicking his heels up in the air in an epileptic fit.

THE BRIDGE.

The Post-Democrat has frequently referred to the bridge across White river in the west part of the city, which an ill-advised board of county commissioners caused to be constructed before the road leading to it was es-

tablished.

RESURRECTING THE CORPSE. Talk about not knowing the war is over, we hand it to the remnant of the ku klux klan in Muncie for painful persistence, even after death. The corpse of the defunct organization actually had another shirt tail parade Monday night. Fifty or sixty gloomy figures in night gowns and pillow case bonnets marched solemnly up one street and down another and then dispersed. It was a sad and mournful sight to see this remnant of the valiant band of crusaders on their funeral march. It was something different from the parade of two years ago, when thousands marched, led by Court Asher and the chief of police, and hats were knocked off, right and left, as proof of the one hundred per cent. Americanism of those who marched. The silly little parade was 1 hooted and laughted at. People here had almost forgotten that such a thing as the klan had ever existed and slight interest was taken in the spectacle.

DEATH OF BRYAN.

William J. Bryan, man of infinite courage, profound religious convictions and unmatched oratorical powers,

~ I is dead, and in time his burial spot in Arlington cemetery j + „ rvp ormrrmmate-' will be crowned by a towering mounment erected by a peo-

The bridge was constructed a P 'pie who were divided as to his policies, but united

Vi 1 o rvV» 4- A * 1 #

ly sixty thousand dollars. A petition for the improvement of Nicholl Avenue was circulated but a liberally signed remonstrance presented by Dr. Botkin and others was sufficient to kill the construction project for the time being ,

at least.

Dr. Botkin is a public spirited citizen, and his remonstrance was circulated, more, we believe t a> a protest against the idiotic act of the commissioners in building the bridge without first making sure that it could be approached, than to set up a perpetual barrier against the improvement of the street. The bridge has been built, and as bridges go, it is one of the finest in this part of the state. It’s there, and since the act of the commissioners cannot be recalled, it seems now that we might just as well swallow the whole thing and connect it up with a street at both ends as soon as

possible.

It is stated that another petition is being circulated asking for the improvement of the avenue, under the three mile road law, from Jackson street to the Yorktown

Pike.

Without withdrawing from our position of criticism of the harum scarum, leave-it-to-God attitude of the commissioners, who shut both eyes and jumped without looking where they were going to light, we feel that we have kidded enough now about that blessed bridge. We’ll admit that it would be pleasant to keep that beautiful concrete {bridge just as it is, a sort of a sore toe, so to speak, to point to perpetually as a useless ornament bought by Truitt, Jackson and McCreery, but since the bridge is there it really ought to be used. We trust that there will be no serious protest made against the improvement of the road which will make approach to it possible. The Post-Democrat feels sort of responsible for making that bridge ridiculous in the eyes of the people, but we don’t want to carry the joke to the extent of helping to render the bridge forever useless because of its inaccessibility. In spite of some rumors here to the contrary, we have | a heart, and after all the bridge and the road combined will eventually constitute a useful thoroughfare. We’re for Dr. Botkin, tooth and toenail, and we’ll still be for him if he leads another successful remonstrance fight against the proposed road construction, but t we rather hope he will devote his time and expend his tremendous energies in what we conceive to be his patriotic duty to strike at the root of the evil and help clean up a political situation here which has become intolerable. Nothing should be done, we believe, to muddy the political waters in the coming city campaign. We don’t want [to see the voters distracted by side issues which might cause confusion and distrust. It’s a straight fight between the people and an unscrupulous political machine. Let’s get the government of the city and county back into the hands of the people, and put men in office who look before they leap and play no favorites.

JUROR THREW A FIT. One of the perpetual jurors drawn by John Hampton has a habit of throwing fits while doing jury service. He threw a couple this week and delayed the criminal case that was being considered. This fellow has been continually drawn on juries and when his name does not appear on the regular panel Sheriff Hoffman can be relied upon to pjck him up to fill a vacancy. It seems strange that this epileptic and members of his family should be drawn so many times for jury service [while the county is full of people who never had a fit in Sheir lives, and have never been called to sit on a jury. The frequent delays in trials, while waiting for this juror to recover from epileptic convulsions costs Delaware county real money, and besides, the average citizen is inclined to believe that a man who is just on the verge of

— — ~uul uiiiLtjQ as to

his right in American history as a mighty statesman and a leader of men. A leader in democratic politics for thirty years, Bryan must be regarded, insofar as material results are concerned, as the most collosal political failure the world has ever seen. But he fought for his convictions and was triumphant in failure. His voice was that of a John the Baptist in the wilderness of materialism of modern times. Bryan may not have gained the whole world, but who dares to say that he lost his own soul! J

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.

No Democrat since Andrew Jackson has had such a strong hold in his party as had William Jennings Bryant, or such a continuous hold. But it cannot be said that his partisan influence was constructive, or of a victorious nature. Three times Mr. Bryan led his party to defeat as its candidate for President, and once he aided it to victory—when he threw his support to the nomination of Wilson at the Baltimore convention in 1912. No man—statesman, politician or other—has been more prominent in the United States during the last thirty years than Mr. Bryan. He was, in fact, well known —that is, known of—all over the civilized world. This is all the more remarkable because such prominence did not come from the holding of public office or large achievements in professional lines. It may be doubted if his one term in congress and the part of a term he served as secretary of state added especially to his celebrity, which germinated in political oratory, and grew thriftily frm repeated defeat. His power lay in his oratory. His wonderful voice, his magnetic and ap pealing personality, his manifest earnestness, his humor—for he was. a good story teller—and his good nature were his chief weapons, and powerful they were. Probably no American since Henry Clay has had such an army of devoted followers. In many a household the death of this man will be mourned as a personal bereave-

ment.

Since Mr. Bryan, at the Chicago Democratic convention in 1896, made his historic cross-of-gold and crown-of-thorns speech, which resulted in his nomination for the presidency, he may be said to have been the idol of thousands of Democrats. They believed in him as a man and as a leader. On the other hand there were Demo- i crats who could not accept his leadership. Palmer and ! Buckner were nominated by the gold Democrats to oppose him in 1896, though many who opposed him then voted for him in 1900 and again in 1908. When he was named as secretary of state by President Wilson in 1913 there were not lacking those who declared that it was purely political appointment designed to harmonize the antagonistic wings of the party. Whether it was or not, subsequent developements showed that it was Mr. Wilson’s purpose to be largely his own secretary of state. While in that office Mr. Bryan negotiated a series of arbitration treaties that are greatly to his credit, but as the war came on, it was evident that differences of opinion were arising between him and President Wilson, and though his resignation was sudden it was not unexpected enough to cause any great shock either to the party or to the country. Though he served in the Spanish war, Mr. Bryan abhorred war, and his position as secretary, under the circumstances, was extremely trying. Probably no more popular orator ever made the circuit of the country’s Chautauquas; certainly none held his popularity longer. Up to the very last he was listened to by eager crowds. It was through such activities as these that Mr. Bryan gained his fortune—if he was as materially well off as he was commonly believed to be. He did not merely address himself to politics and economics, but devoted much time to the discussion of

religious affairs. He was a persistent student of the Bible, in which, as he said at Dayton recently, he believed literally; and part of his time was devoted to the preparation of a Sunday school lesson which was published weekly in many newspapers. His last public appearance, nationally speaking, was at the Scopes trial at Dayton, Tenn., where he opposed the evolutionists, and vigorously stood for the literal interpretation of the Scriptures in his characteristic way. It can hardly be said that the passing of Mr. Bryan will leave a vacancy in the higher ranks of the Democratic party. There is no one that can take the place he occupied. At Madison Square Garden two years ago he said that it was probably the last Democratic national convention that he would attend. Perhaps even then he foresaw that he had not many years remaining. Whether or not that was so, he knew that younger Democrats were coming up in the party, that many of his former supporters had passed on and that many of those remaining felt that it was time for new Democratic leaders. In his great campaign of 1896 for free silver at a fixed ratio Mr. Bryan showed only slight knowledge of the science of finance. Nevertheless, he made a wonderful fight, one that won the admiration even of his opponents. The time was ripe for his crusade, which was a war, not so much in behalf of the free silver theory, as against what was then known as “plutocracy.” As Mr. Bryan was responsible for a good deal of the miseducation of the people on the money question, it should be said to his credit that he rendered valiant service in behalf of the federal reserve statute, which perhaps could not have been got through congress without his help. The most successful of the policies advocated by Mr. Bryant was prohibition, which he had the satisfaction of seeing nationally adopted as an amendment to the federal Constitution. Despite the fact that Mr. Bryan was a man of no extraordinary learning, he exerted an influence such as few men have wielded. The world will note that a remarkable man has passed. He cut a large figure in the nation’s life. His influence was thrown on the side of what he believed to be right, and often on the side of what was right. He was one of the few men whom defeat and failure could not weaken—indeed he seemed to thrive on them. He was a master of crowd psychology. As a crusader and orator no one can doubt or question his greatness, and multitudes will remember him not only as the great Commoner of his times but as defender of the faith of their fathers.—Indianapolis News.

BRYAN APPRAISED EVOLUTION CONTEST AS GREATEST FIGHT William Jennings Bryan regarded the contest of issues growing out of the “Scopes trial’’ as the greatest fight of a career “not without fights,” he said shortly after the trial. Mr. Bryan told an Associated Press representative at Dayton, last week, that he expected to make many addresses, for which he would not permit admission to be charged, stressing the issues as he construed them, after the first court test of the Tennessee statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution theories. From the opening of the trial, he was especially in earnest, insisting throughout that a battle was being waged against revealed religion and Christianity. Last Wednesday he showed the Associated Press a sheaf of telegrams from individuals and organizations in many sections of the United States, applauding his position in the Scopes case. Then it was that he declared he expected to speak “soon and often for Christianity.”

ion instituted against a sheriff who s so firmly entrenched politically t_A he can openly violate the criminal laws of the state.

(

W.J. BRYAN DIED

ATTORNCTGENERAL

(Continued from Page One)

‘‘The principal difficulty in county road work has been in inspection. The secret of good road building, assuming that the specifications are at [least adequate, is good inspectors on

the scene of construction.” A Political Dependent.

Wiley West, the inspector on the Dragoo road, is practically dependent upon the Billy Williams machine for his livelihood. During political campaigns he is kept on the pay roll as a poll taker and headquarters at-

tache, and between times he draws | and a half on a $3,600 a year salary

pay as deputy township assessor and small jobs of a similar nature. He is in no way especially fitted for inspect-

ing public work.

He is a private in the ranks of the Billy Williams organization and the mere fact that the commissioners chose him as the man to see that his political coihmanding officer, County Chairman Harry Hoffman, completes the contract according to specifications, gives rise to the well grounded suspicion that he will do the inspecting just as Hoffman desires him to

do it.

Suits the Commissioners. / The commissioners and the county { road superintendent, Owen Helvie, protested against Dr. Botkin’s demand for state inspection. Wiley West suits them all right and they feel that they have won a great victory in securing an opinion from the attorney general that he is to be kept on the job until it is finished. During the two years and a half that Harry Hoffman has served as

sheriff of Delaware county he has grown rich from the perquisites of his office and his unlawful profits from road contracts and the sale of

gravel to the county.

As an evidence of his opulence he recently purchased a business block on the south side of Jackson street,: between Walnut and High, paying $22,000 for it, which is going some for a man who went into office two years and a half ago in moderate cir-

cumstances.

A Financial Wizard. There are a few public officials who could have enough in two years

to buy a $22,000 business block by the end of his first two year term, but Hoffman has accomplished this ap-

parently impossible feat.

The people of Delaware county are indebted to Dr. Botkin for the effort he made, at least, to get through the thick hide of the county commissioners. It has set the people to thinking and public sentiment will demand

a showdown, sooner or later.

Nothing is expected, of course, of Prosecutor Ogle, who takes orders from the machine, but it is rumored that an appeal will be made to Governor Jackson and the attorney general to make a thorough investiga-

tion.

When the sheriff of Delaware county openly defies the laws of the state and is upheld and protected in it by the prosecuting attorney, then it is high time for the highest authority in the state to take a hand. Prosecutor Ogle and Sheriff Hoffman both should have been removed rfom office long ago and a criminal

(Continued from Page One.) He had planned to leave Tuesday morning for Knoxville. Town Is Shocked The town was shocked by the tragedy and five minutes after doctor’s examination revealed that Mr. Bryan was dead, the streets near the home were thronged with people. Mrs. Bryan is said to be entirely composed and is bearing up wonderfully under the terrible blow. She expressed the desire that her husband be buried in the Arlington cemetery and feels it may be arranged in that he holds the title of colonel. She also said she had' heard her husband express a desire to be buried there. No arrangements -will be made, however, : • W. J. Bryan, Jr., is located and communicated with.

Daughter Gets Word Mt. Vernon, O. July 27.—Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, daughter of William Jennings Bryan, received the first news of the death of her' father from the Associated Press correspondent here, when she arrived last night to fill a Redpath Chautauqua engagement. Mrs. Owen spoke in Columbus in the afternoon but left that city before the news was received.

Sister Is Notified Lincoln, Neb., July 27.—Mrs, Francis M. Baird, eldest sister of William Jennings Bryan received word of her brother’s death at her home at Collegeview, a suburb, near here. Mrs. Baird is 67 years old, two years older than William Jennings Bryan.

Brookhart’s Rival Jumps Into Lead

Glorious News! We have heard some very good news lately, but nothing which compares with the announcement that corn on the cob is to be ready for the market in ten days. People talk about fortunes in Florida, ready for the investor, people there waiting at the train with suit cases filled with money to distribute. They talk about California and the great and everlasting sunshine. They rave about the opportunities for wealth in Canada and particularly just acress the border. They speak about South America and the opportunities there for business and pleasure. We hear eloquent stories about the wonders of European traveling and of the remarkable experiences and pleasures which await the traveler. People insist on getting our best ear and inveigling us with miracle tales of great lands that are far away. We are importuned to feast on the delicacies of the hotels in the great cities, hear about dishes which are rich and rare. Our days are hardly long enough to listen to it all. But now that the Indiana corn on the cob is just about ready for the market all of this interests us not at all. There may be cause for believing our tastes are simple and that they are characteristic of Main street. We may be rural and provincial. Be that as it may. One thing we know. Indiana corn is about due. For that fact and for the pleasure that it brings criticism even of the most severe kinds, coals heaped upon our heads, mean nothing. For we feel as a king in a land of plenty, our pessimism is completely crushed by notes of great joy. Our hearts are filled with tones of contentment, our whole being is at peace with the world. The songs of the birds sound sweeter, the babbling brook near our home babbles clearer and softer. The world is a fine place after all.

Washington, July 30.—Dan F. Steck, contesting Senator Smith W, Brookhart’s seat, took the lead yesterday in the recount of ballots

cast in the Iowa election.

With the vote of thirteen counties completed, Steck was shown I not only to have wiped out the lead ‘ Brookhart held in the first stage of the recount, but to have gained for himself a margin of approximately

290 votes.

Steck’s representatives at the recount asserted that if the present ratio of gains were maintained throughout the seventy-seven counties Steck would finish with a majority of about 1,700 votes, or more than the majority credited to Brook hart on the official returns.

South Dakota Sells Gasoline

Pierre, S. D., July 30.—Reduction of 1 cent in the price of gasoline at two points in South Dakota, was announced yesterday, by the Standard Oil Company (Indiana), while state officials made known their determination to “wage a finish war” against what they believe are unjustly high prices. The state highway department will sell the motor fuel for at least 4 cents less than the prices charged by private firms. At Aberdeen and Watertown the Standard cut their rate 1 cent, to 24 cents a gallon, the same as charged by "independent” filling stations.

Esperanto, one of the berft known of the international languages, is taught in the public schools of some European cities.