Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 17 June 1926 — Page 2

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THE POST-DEMOCRAT A Democratic weekly newspaper representing the Democrats of Muncie, Delaware County and the Sth Congressional District. The only Democratic Newspaper In Delaware County.

Entered as second class matter January 15, 1921, at the Postofllce at Muncie, Indiana, under the Act of March 3, 1879. , PRICE 5 CENTS—$2.00 A YEAR. Office 306 East Jackson Street—Opposite Public Library. Phone 2540 GEORGE R. DALE, Owner and Publisher. Thursday, June 17, 1926. <

A Critical Moment The Post-Democrat wishes to reiterate that it is in perfect harmony with Judge Dearth’s fearless stand in exposing the utter rotteness of thee ity and county’s so-called law .enforcing departments, and we urge all selfrespecting citizens, regardless of political or factional affiliations to give the judge their earnest support and to discourage the propaganda being put out by those involved in this dreadful scandal, that he is doing it for “political purposes.” Possibly we did not make it clear enough last week, in quoting a telephone conversation between the Post-Democrat and a woman of the underworld, who refused to give her name, in which the latter said one Lottie Spiker “had it on” the judge, because of certain alleged transactions. We must most emphatically assert that we do not believe that the charge was true and again assert that the thing was hatched up by official conspirators and denizens of the underworld to dicredit the efforts of Judge Dearth to clean the dirty stable and once more give Muncie and Delaware county a clean bill of health. It is true that this newspaper has been engaged in a long controversy with Judge Dearth, but it must be recalled that never in 1 our bitterest moments did we charge the judge with accepting 1 bribes, nor did we ever attack his private life nor his standing as I a citizen. It would have required overwhelming and uncontradict- I able evidence before we would have accused him of acts such as B were charged by our anonymous informant. Oud differences with Judge Dearth as expressed from time to f time in this newspaper were wholly on matters of public policy. We | have never attacked his moral reputation, which we believe to un- I impeachable and have never accused him of a crime, and never I will unless he actually commits a crime. The evidence of which | is undeniable. We have charged and still charge that he was for a long time j: unreasonably prejudical in behalf of certain officers of his court j and other public officials holding various positions in the county g and city, who have since been proved unworthy of the confidence I bestowed upon them by the judge. On one memorable occasion, which remains indilibly graven 0 in the mind of the editor of this newspaper, Judge Dearth in open | court voiced his implicit confidence in the integrity and honor of Durward Sharp, at that time foreman of his grand jury, and Mayor I John Hampton, then one of his jury commission. We believe that Judge Dearth honestly trusted these men and believed that they were playing square with him and were not, as l this newspaper declared editorially, and in its verified answer to a I contempt charge, doing the very thing this newspaper was charged I with—namely, impeding, instead of promoting justice and the prop- I er administration of court matter. Judge Dearth has officially taken recognition of the utter absence of law and order in Muncie since John Hampton became mayor on the first day of January. It is true that the judge, in his scathing expose of wholesale, organized gambling, harlotry and bootiegging in Muncie and Delaware county did not personally arraign Mayor Hampton before the bar of justice and demand an instant show-down, but the things he said to Chief of Police Arthur Jones and Sheriff McAuley were n so clearly and forcibly expressed that there can be no doubt in the B mind of the public that the judge holds the mayor as being directly B responsible for the reign of outlawry here the first six months of the Hamptoif administration. The mayor, being the highest officer in the city, is directly charageable, by law, with the enforcement of the statutes penalizing prostitution, gambling and violations of the liquor law. In conclusion, we beg that citizens forget trivial differences in the past. Listen to no one who fears publicity will hurt Muncie. That is always the language of the crook. The people are entitled to know what is going on. Muncie is due for a session in sack cloth and ashes.

THE MYSTERY SOLVED. The mystery of the identity of the new police matron, recently added to the Muncie police force, has at last been solved. Two weeks ago the Press quoted Harry Retz, president of the board of safety, as saying that in the interest of the public it was better to keep the name of the appointee a secret. But the secret is now out, after five weeks. The new police matron is the wife of Retz, who recently lost his own job as manager of Waldner’s store and who balanced things up by appointing his own wife to a job on the police force. City people will some time become tired of being taxed for the privilege of paying unnecessary salaries to the wives and dependents of city officials. No wonder Retz wanted to keep it quiet!

ANOTHER SWEET PATOOTIE. The appointment of one Cliff Thornburg to a job on the police force one day this week adds little to the standard of the personnel of the department. Thornburg is the fellow who got drunk, shot up the interior of the Dunkirk jail and was soaked the limit by Judge Wheat,of the Jay county circuit court. He was formerly an employee of Harry Ploffman and earned his job on the police force by sitting on the jury that convicted the editor of the Post-Democrat on a gun-toting charge. The main requirement of applicants for police jobs in Muncie is to be able to show a diploma from some jail or penitentiary.

ANDY MELLON’S CODE. Andy Mellon comes to tile front and declares that it was necessary to spend two million on Pepper, in the Pennsylvania primary. Mellon and the rest of the money sharks thought they had the thing bought up, but fell shy a few million dollars, which would have been freely expended if big money had known it was necessary. Buying senatorships is a perfectly honorable profession, according to Andy Mellon. DANCE HALL JOHNNY. The Press artist has found a new name for Billy Williams—“Dance Hall Johnny.” In our wildest moment we never called Billy anything like that. And then that picture of Billy! It looked more like Gas House Whity than Dance Hall Johnny. Those who saw it are now ready to believe everything we ever said about Bill.

Democratic Platforms The democratic party has been the organization th$t for the right of the indivjdi^I, and the special groups and crowds organized to limit the

THE POST-DEMOCRAT

right of the individual, and turn to their own selfish benefit. The great principle of the democratic party, has been—that the least government is the best government —and in carrying out this principle of least government, have adopted in the past, planks in their platform, denouncing laws designed to regulate and invade our habits, customs, morals, appetites and religion—as such laws are the full extreme of excessive and most government, and contrary to all principles of the democratic party. The following are excerpts from the platforms adopted by the democrats of Indiana: Platform of 1870: “That any attempt to regulate the moral ideas, appetites, or innocent amusements of th people by legislation is unwise and despotic.” Platform of 1882: “The Democratic Party is now, as it has always been, opposed to all sumptuary legislation.” Platform of 1886: “Resolved:—That the Democratic party of Indiana is now, as it has always been, opposed in principle to all sumptuary laws and prohibitory legislation.” Platform of 1888: “It is provided by the constitution of this State that the liberty of the people should be protected, and that their private property should not be taken without just compensation, and we are opposed to any change in the co/istitution tending to weaken these safeguards, or to any legislation which asserts the power to take or destroy the private property of any portion of the people of this State, without compensation, or which unjustly interfers with their personal liberty as to what they shall eat or drink or as to the kind of clothing they shall wear, believing that the government should be administered in that way best calculated to confer the greatest good upon the greatest number without sacrificing the rights of persons or property, and leaving the innocent creeds, habits, customs and business of the people unfettered by sumptuary laws, class legislation or extortionate monopolies.” “While standing faithfully by the rights of property and personal liberty guaranteed to the people by the constitution, we distinctly declare that we are i^ favor of sobriety and temperance, and all proper means for the promotion of these virtues, but we believe that a well regulated license system, and reasonable and just laws upon that subject, faithfully enforced, would be better than extreme measures which, being subversive of personal liberty and in conflict with public sentiment, would never be effectively executed, thus bringing law into disrepute, and tending to make sneaks and hypocrites* of our people.” Platform of 1892: “We believe that in a-free country the curtailment of the absolute rights of the individual should only be such as is essential to the peace and good order of the community, and we regard all legislation looking to the infringement of liberty of person or conscience, not absolutely necessary to the maintenance of public ortfer, as vicious in principle and demoralizing in practice.” Platform of 1896: “The Democratic party is the faithful and consistent adherent of that great principle of popular government known as personal liberty of the citizen, and oppose intolerance of whatever character, and especially oppose any attempt to control the habits of the people where such habits are consistent with the public order and general welfare.”

Lmil 1 1 iFUMiUllRpi! When war is declared, loyal and patrotic citizens shoulder a gun and march to the front, or support the soldier in the field by unselfishly contributing their time and money towards victory. Victory is the great and only question during war, and among the loyal and patriotic citizens, questions of petty politics, election to office, changing constitutions, centraliziation of government, more power and authority, law enforcement, and graft, stealing and corruption, are thoughts unknown to the patriotic class. But since the days of Adam, small and vicious groups of selfish and unpatriotic people, who have formed a small part of every Nation upon earth, seize the opportune moment of war, and during the destruction and confusion, lift themselves by their own boot straps, and this scum and unfit part of society now floats to the surface, and assume the powers of Government, while their soldiers are fighting the enemy, and the loyal citizens at home are furnishing the munitions to keep the army in the field. This scum of society, always sailing under the Banner of Pure White Wings, composed of half-baked reformers, conscientious objectors, religious fanatics, profiteers, crooked politicians, grafters, thieves and persons possessed with a mania of sticking their noses in other peoples affairs, now assume the role of complete authority, and under the power of the badge of office which they now possess, inaugurate a complete and new system of government, for the purpose of either exercising power and authority, graft and stealing by government aid, or forcing their pin headed ideas down the throats of other people. During this period when the scum of society, is in authority, peoples are whipped up and kept divided, by countless new regulations, laws, restrictions and orders, and the habits, customs, morals and religious views of the people hampered by drastic laws with teeth in them. These new innovations entail multitudes of new officers to enforce the laws, and become sufficiently numerous to keep the Scum in power and office. Under this scum system of Governjnent, written constitutions are changed, ignored or destroyed, the rights of peoples invaded, and all the untried, unworkable and unknown systems are introduced ,to keep this scum chained to the taxpayers pocket book. During the late world war, this same scum slipped into government, and immediately began junking all our tried systems of governing, and in order to chain the American people to this system, adopted Prohibition the VolsteatJ }$w, fully knowing that the regulation of habits by laws, merely legalized a complete system of

THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1926.

graft, corruption and misgovernment, which they so

fully enjoy and delight in.

Stable and orderly government breaks down, under the reign of the reformer and fanatic. The United States is now suffering from the prohibition fanatic, Russia is under the Bolshevik and Italy is under the Black Shirt; here in the U. S. the hue and cry is liquor; in Russia the hunt is on to burn the Bible; in Italy their hobby is suppress the press and to hunt down and destroy the Masonic Lodge. Their methods and purposes are the same, each are cashing in upon the hatreds and prejudices of the peoples which are kept whipped up to white heat.

That smuggling, hi-jacking, bootlegging, rum-run-ning and adulterating, ushering in a crime wave, and bringing forth graft and corruption upon the part of government officials, can be traced to something besides liquor, is a matter of history. The same conditions we now have under prohibition were suffered by the nation of France, with the common article table salt as the object in controversy. France enacted a tax upon salt, called GABELLE. The law required that each family buy seven pounds of salt per year for each member thereof, each state and province of France was classified as to the rate of tax on salt. This salt tax varied so greatly, that in some States of France, salt cost sixty times as much as in other states; a salt officer was created, called GRENIER; all salt had to be taken by the producer, on penalty of confiscation, to the GRENIER who fixed the price paid for the salt, and then sold it to retail dealers at a much higher rate. All government officials as well as soldiers were very active in enforcing this salt tax. Under this system of taxation on salt, smuggling naturally arose from one district where salt was cheap, into a district where salt was dear. The profits in smuggled salt was enormous, salt bootlegging, hi-jacking of smugglers and salt running became events of the day; salt was adulterated, until almost unfit for use. Graft and corruption on the part of Government officers became common, and the galleys and prisons of France were filled to overflowing by the arrest of salt-smug-glers, many of them mere children, trained by their parents for the illicit, but highly profitable traffic. This warning from France as to the dire results endured, under such a code of laws, has fallen upon deaf ears, and blinded eyes,%of our fanatics with one track minds—who now control our government—and new chapters of the same sort as prohibition will be introduced, and placed upon us; and the reel will be continuous until the reformer and fanatic are returned to the gutter, where they belong and should have remained for

the past few years.

Jump, Jim, Jump! Some time ago Jim Watson, and his temporary political pal Artie Robinson, thought they saw the shadow of Jerry Beveridge on the political horizon and deserted the Coolidge leadership for that of Johnson, Norris, LaFollette and Borah. In their efforts to climb the political ladder they kicked the policies of President Coolidge in the face, also in the slats, and voted against the World Court and now brag of that vote. Now comes Mr. Beveridge in his Philadelphia address and announces his opposition to denaturing the constitution as per Wayne Wheeler et al, and demands that the Bill of Rights be enforced in all its particulars. This might put Jerry in line for the presidential nomination in 1928 should the now active wets have control of the convention that year. Shades of Ananias, must Watson and Robinson make another lightning change act and desert Wayne Wheeler and the Anti-Saloon League to maintain their precarious hold on those $10,000 a year jobs? Can’t that man Beveridge ever learn to be good? Didn’t the Watson element in the republican party sit back and watch him get defeated by Ralston just to show him that he didn’t count in the republican party? First thing anybody knows Beveridge may force Watson to desert the high tariff recipients of government bounty and that would wreck his entire career. It must be simply awful, or awfully s ; mple, for a United States Senator to get all his ideas of government policy from another and that other a political enemy. Yet for years Watson has been busy trying to grab the spot light of public favor from Beveridge and now Robinson is following the lead of Watson. Watson follows Beveridge, Robinson follows Watson and two-thirds of , one-half the republicans of Indiana are willing to follow Watson and Robinson. Wouldn’t such a situation amuse some of the real statesmen who have repi*esented this state in the senate?

Not In Accord. / You remember that several weeks ago Bert Vestal very kindly offered to send six bulletins to each and every man, woman and child in the Eighth congressional district, absolutely at the expense of the postal department. Bert is very liberal and wants to scatter the bull broadcast over the entire district. After a careful reading of Artie Robinson’s keynote speech at the Watson convention in Indianapolis, one is forced to the conclusion that Artie has very selfishly tried to absorb all the bull of all the agricultural bulletins he could get his hands on. This is just another point of discord and lack of team work among the republkans. Here is one leader trying to scatter the bull broadcast over the land while another is trying to get a corner on it. Get together, boys and work in accord but don’t be too darned liberal with your fertilizer—remember the country is suffering from “overt-production” now.

Are you satisfied with what this county hag received in return for the taxes collected? Remember it is not so much the amount of the tax paid, that is of vital concern to you, ns the amount of benefit you receive for the money.

TEACHERS FAVOR REPEAL OF GRADE EXAMINATION LAW Assert Diploma Act Unsatisfactory—Officers Elect- , ed By Superintendents.

Indianapolis, Jnne 17—Albert Free of Spencer, superintendent ot the Owen county schools, was eleoted president of the Indiana County Superintendents, assoeiation at the semi>

annual session held at the John Herron art institute yesterday. Mr. Free succeeds A. E. Condon of Crown

Point.

Other officers named were Howard Williams of Kokomo, Howard cotpaty uperintendent, rice president; Glenn V. Scott, of New Albany, Floyd county superintendent, re-elected secretary and R. EP Eckert, of Jasper, retained as permanent treasurer. October 20 and the Hotel Lincoln were the date and phtce announced for the second meeting of the year.

Favors Repeal

In a closed session following.the general meeting was a ''resolution adopted favoring repeal of the "preent law eonceming eighth, grade diploma examinations.” Resolutons were adopted also approving the “waAe

schedule for teachers as it. is how operating” and opposihg any, ohahge in the law,-,and expressing-approVal of the present method v of licerieihg teachers as “an improvement)'over

earlier methods.” . ,

The resolution regarding the eighth grade diploma eiaminhtiotts,.reads: Inasmuch as there eiists allfMident and widespread dissatisfaction with the present System . of promotion to the ninth grade, resolved that this body should favor the repeal of he present law concerning the “eighth grade diploma examinations. i

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ASIA EXPLORERS FIND RARE RONES ' Andrews Expedition Discovers Fossils of Pleistocene Age Animals. Pekin, China—Fame of “dragea bone medicine” among the Chinese of the interior province of Szechwan has led to, remarkable discoveries of remains of long extinct animal forms by a member of the oentrar Asiatic expedition under Roy Chapman An* drews. Xfcrawn by reports . ol l n trade in “dragon bones,” which hes flourished along Aha middle Yanfcte® ' ;■ for seven or eight centuries. ‘Walhsr Granger, paleonfalogist of the rexpqdition, investigated, and;found fossils of thirty-five'to forty animals of the pleistocene age. Granger disclosed his discoveries in Pekin, where the expedition still is waiting for a chance to get tO‘k«lgan and the Gobi’desert to continue its search for traces of primitive man. Civil war at present bars any movement along the railway from Pekin to Kalgan, although the American scientists are ready for their next excursion into the upland wastes of Mongolia. Among Granger’s most notable discoveries of “dragon bones” were skulls of the stegodon, an animal which resembles the mammoth, of a giant tapir and a rhinoceros, a Complete fossilized skeleton of a gkur, or East Indian bison, and fossils ef about thirty-five other extinct forms, including ancestors of many presentday animals.

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PROHI MEASURE TO LIE DORMANT

No Immediate Use of Coollidge’s Recent Order Is Expected.

police as Federal prohibition agents is contemplated by treasury officials, although its legality was upheld yesterday by a majority of the Senate judiciary committee. L ; Although the order was signed by the President more thap a month ago no appointments have been made under it, and it-has been decided that; nooe will be made unless a request hi received from prohibition admintetrators in the field. The order was issped primarily tr meet a situation in California, bv word came today from Ned 3Vf- Gre« administrator there, that govef ment’s plan for that state probabl would be dropped. He said the usefulness of the order was “likely to be destroyed” by opposition oU state and local officials.’ ■ O ■. ’ Battle Creek Coed Is Awarded $50,000 Battle Creek,,Mich- Jyue 17.—Miss DouieeKiog, Battle Creek coedj,was Arthur B- Rich, pronHueot , isttle Creek youth, m circyit court^ye$t'er- . ,y y A y * fcich isj serving a-life senteoce’foi JMpsed crimioal assault upon’Miss Miss King sijed'fo'r^ioo.eoo.-aUeg her experience with young