Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 12 November 1925 — Page 1
THE POST - DEMOCRAT Volume 5—No. 41. MUNCIE, INDIANA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12,1925. Price 5 Cents a Copy—$2.00 a Year
TO BILLY Williams And His Machine
Having Squeezed The County Dry The Gangsters Will Take The City Hall On January 1
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION.
Notice is hereby ^iven that the ; undersigned has been appointed by j the judge of the Circuit Court of Delj aware County, State o + Indiana, ad- ! ministrator of the estate of Charles | M. Bullock, late of said County, dej ceased. | Said estate is supposed to be solv-
i ent.
HERBERT M. BULLOCK. Dated November 5, 1925. Attest: PERCY W; MANSFIELD, Clerk Delaware Circuit Court. WARD MARSHALL, Atty.
Delaware county is broke. She is not only | In the year 1915 the total expenditures in busted but by the first of the year will be “in the Delaware county for free gravel road repair hole” one hundred thousand dollars. I amounted to $27,000. The late George Saunders, When the republican “organization” came democrat, was road superintendent. Hays, Clark
into complete poer in the county, on the first day of January, 1919, after eight years of democratic management, there was a surplus ot two hundred thousand dollars in the treasury and the
county was out of debt.
Inside of four years this surplus was completely wiped out and every year thereaxter the county went further and further behind. Current bills were paid by anticipating the next year's tax receipts and the final smash came when the announcement was made this week that no more claims can be paid until alter the first of the year. j j n Claims aggregating fifty thousand dollars are now being held up because of the depleted treasury and it is estimated that the claims to be filed in the next month will bring the total deficit up to one hundred thousand dollars. Eight years of Billy Williams and his gang of blood suckers have bankrupted Delaware
countv notwithstanding the fact that the rate milked dry for the benefit of factional servelof taxation has constantly been increased until mgs and relatives of the commanding generals tnv navers are naving"more than double the of the army of political cockroaches that has inamounts with which they were assessed eight tested the administrative household of Dela-
vears ago i ware county.
Ard now having squeezed the last remain-j Looking backward, one is constrained to ing drop of juice out of the county orange, Billy wonder why the tax payers of Delaware county
and Sunderland, democrats, were the county commissioners. The amount named above constituted the aggregate of every expenditure for
labor and materials for road repair. Road repair now, under the management of
one of Billy Williams’s henchmen and a horde of assistants who hold their jobs by playing politics for their postmaster boss, is costing the county around two hundred thousand dollars a
year.
Sheriff Hoffman, illegally contracting with the county through a “dummy,” will probably receive this year through his felonious transactions with the county which he is supposed to serve as sheriff, more money for the sale of gravel than was required by George Saur lers in the year 1915 to pay the entire expense of road
repair in the county.
Every county department and institution controlled by underlings of the boss has been treated as a personal asset of the machine, to be
and his wrecking crew have the city of Muncie in their grip, through the folly of voters who refused to heed the solemn warnings given by this newspaper.g over the history of the county for the past eight years, the people of Muncie may well be pardoned for their skepticism concerning the promises of the republican ‘ organization” to give Muncie four years of efficient
and economical business management. Among those who control the situation and who will constitute the cabinet of “best minds
which will guide the Hampton ship of state, are Billy Williams, Harry Hoffman and Clearance
The first named, the boss of the pack of
political wolves that have looted the county
strong box, has seen to it that his own and his
relatives’ interests have been well taken care of
in the distribution of the public funds. Clarence Dearth, judge of the Delaware cir-
cuit court, has done his part. This able seaman of the pirate sloop “Stand Pat,” had his own salary increased eighteen hundred dollars a year, court expenses have mounted to unprecedented heights, new jobs were crated by him in the probation department for the purp<Jse of
placing his own wife and sister-in-law on the public payroll and another of his extravagances i non-partisan fight to prevent the disaster, but was the creation of the job of riding bailiff, an j they lost by an eyelash through a combination
have slept so serenely at the switch while the dark lantern crowd worked on their pocket-
books.
And why, in the name of sense, did not the banks and business interests in general, of the city of Muncie, perform their patriotic duty by sounding a warning and taking up arms against the invaders when they boldly trained their guns on the city of Muncie? Mayor-elect Hampton will soon make known the personnel of his cabinet. It may be assumed that no man will be selected for the major appointments who will refuse to do the bidding of the big boss from Selma. Billy does business right across the barrel head, so to speak. He has demonstrated that in the county. Now that he has added Muncie to his string of conquests there is little or no consolation in the thought that he might possibly have reformed and that the pre-election promises of his mouthpiece, John Hampton, will be carried
out.
The camp followers of the machine are now licking their chops and waiting at the door of the banquet hall. Their glorious performance in the county has merely whetted their appetite.
The hungry horde must be fed.
The people of Muncie made a wonderful
appointment alone which accounts for two thousand of the one hundred thousand’ dollar deficit
for the year.
Dearth also increased salaries of political favorites at the orphan’s home and the expense of that institution have enormously increased. Judge Murray, of the superior court, also added his mite to the cyclone of financial destruction, by having his own salary raised nine hundred
dollars a year.
The sheriff’s office has also been a Christ-
of three evils—stupidity, cupidity and treach-
ery.
The next big fight will be the spring primary next year. The machine is already making its plans to keep control of the county. The blue print is now being prepared by tfie chief architect in the little back room of the postoffice. The trouble is that the average citizen only plays politics on election day. He, or she votes, and then dozes calmly until the next election day. In many instances the voters do not even
mas tree which has shed ^requisites right and, take the trouble to go to the polls. Out of twenty left among the faithful, than whom there are j thousand registered voters in Muncie, only thirnone more faithful than die redoubtable Hoff- teen thousand took the trouble to vote in the re-
man himself, who is ever found on guard when cent municipal election, the easy money falls. i (Continued on Page Two.)
A Little Ancient History
United States Senator Arthur R. Robinson, who was given a reception here a few days ago at the home of City Attorney Arthur McKinley, might gather a few pointers by reading the following, which appeared in the Muncie Post in February, 1916, just prior to the “wet and dry” election: In a city the size of Muncie it is next to impossible to prevent the illegal sales of liquor during the sporadic “dry” spells, but even if it were, and the town would shut up so tight that it would be impossible even to buy a quart of Duffy’s whisky at the corner drug store, the biennial elections would be called just the same. Real enemie's of the liquor traffic have no patience with the piffling option laws of Indiana, which have merely aggregated strife without causing much decrease in the sale of booze. Real thinkers do not advocate the administration of the local option remedy, but are demanding that the axe be laid at the root of the question and that national prohibition laws be enacted. Stop and think a minute and decide whether or not, for instance, local dry Republicans are making any particular effort in behalf of real prohibition. There are three Republican candidates for the nomination for United States Senator in Indiana. Two of them, Jim Watson and Harry New, are wet, or at least they will not commit themselves on the prohibition question. The third man in the race, State Ssnator Arthur R. Robinson, of Indianapolis, is running on a straightout prohibition platform, and makes the pledge that if elected he will vote for a bill to prohibit the sale and manufacture of liquor. Robinson spoke in Muncie several nights ago and where were all the dry Republicans? Although Robinson’s views were well known and the meeting had been well advertised, Robinson spoke mainly to a large concourse of empty chairs in the Wysor Theatre. A ruling has been mr.do that the state convention mn|t nominate, candidates for Governor and United States Senator in case candidates for such office fail in the primary to receive a majority of all votes cast. This means that the Republican convention will nominate a candidate for Senator, for Robinson will receive enough votes in the primary to prevent the nomination of either Watson or New. With that fact staring them in the face, how much of an effort is being made, we ask, on the part of the dry Republic ms of Delaware County to see that Robinson candidates for state delegate be put on the ballot to be voted on March 1? ^ As a matter of fact, w r e believe that nothing of that sort has been done. On the other hand, if all reports are true, the Republican gang here is framing up a Watson delegation, and the principal men behind the movement in behalf of Slippery Jim are so-called drys, who hope to make considerable capital out of their anti-prohibit on views during the coming option campaign in Muncie. If these dry Republicans who expect to vote for “wet” Jim Watson, can explain why it is right to vote dry in a Muncie campaign and wet in a national election, we will be pleased to give them space for an explanation. The Post suggests that the voters here do some thinking for themselves when they arrive at the point of deciding the perplexing questions that will be up for solution in the near future. * Sfome individuals have been officious enough to dub The Post a “wet” newspaper. To these persons we address this query: “Has any one of the so-called “dry” Republican newspapers of Muncie or Delaware County pointed out to the unsuspecting rank and file of “dry” Republicans the scheme to deliver the Delaware County delegation to Jim Watson, who was shown up in the Mulhall investigation to be a supplicant for brewery support?
SUPREME COURT REVERSES MANY CASES APPEALED FROM DELAWARE COUNTY
There is scarcely a week now that some case appealed from Judge Dearth’s court is not reversed in the supreme court. There are more cases appealed from Delaware county than from any other county in the state and there are likewise more reversals. A week or so ago the Amelia Lindley liquor case was reversed and this week that of Nora Barlow. In both cases the attorney general confessed error upon the part of the trial court, instead of arguing for the state. Amelia Lindley was one of the victims of the evidence of the notorious Sherman G. Parton, a slimy cuss brought here from Richmond by Sheriff Hoffman, who paid him $25 a week to secure evidence against alleged liquor law violators. Upon his unsupported evidence ixteen persons were indicted and nine of them were convicted. The last seven escaped when Parton looked them over in court and declared that he didn’t recognize any of them. It was proved by the defense that Parton himself had done time for violations of the liquor law and the at-
torney general mentioned the fact in confessing error. The error consisted in the refusal of Judge Dearth to instruct the jury to take into consideration the appearance, demeanor and credibility of Hoffman’s trained witness.
It will be recalled that the Post-
Democrat, commenting at the time on TTr .„ . ^ , the extraordinary trials, professed as- i Wllb “ r - Eladly ate up Pabsyarn and
Bunch ? And who has forgotten the freakish antics of the knockabout twins, w nour Kyman and Pat Masterson ? Wilbur brougnt Pat here to swear tnac the democratic city administration had hired Pat to blow up Wilbur’s
Uome.
a grand jury, presided over by
tonishment that any sane juror should believe such a palpably unbelievable person as the delectable Parton. He contradicted himself time and again on the witness stand and did not even possess the attributes of being an adriot liar. He was clumsy, crude and apparently untruthful and unreliable. His crowning performance
indictments were returned. Later Pat made an affidavit that he had been spoofing the grand jury and that he was paid by Kyman to tell his wild yarn to the gullible grand jurors. Pat has since been sent to prison for perjury and Patterson disappeared under indictment for embezzlement. It seems that any sort of a low
was his failure to recognize a job lot down ’ lyin£ criminal may come to of the defendants from whom he had M “ nc,c and flnd .P ublie "' h >>
bought liquor, according to his testimony before the grand jury, and the prompt dismissal of the indictments
against them.
From time to time Muncie enter-
will co-operate with them and protect them in their perjury and infamy.
Pueblo, Colorado, Nov. 12.—The love of a Ute Indian for his bride,
tains freaks of the Parton stripe who ^ which caused him to bury his make trouble and then depart. Who, I 17-day-old baby alive in the grave for instance, can forget Tommy P.! of its mother, beliveing it would Patterson, who lit here ten years ago, j bring her back to life, will bring backed by a wonderful organization' Platt Nae face to face with the known as the Civic League and pro- white man’s law here tomorrow in a ceeded to “impeach” Mayor Roll Federal Court trial for murder.