Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 September 1926 — Page 2

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1926. ■ “ ~ r ^ r " r , • ^ " 1 t**-

THE POST-DEMOCRAT A Democratic weekly newspaper representing the Democrats of Muncie, Delaware County and the 8th Congressional District The only Democratic Newspaper in Delaware County.

Entered as second class matter January 15, 1921, at the Postoffice 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. GEORGE R. DALE, Owner and Publisher.

Phone 2540

Muncie, Indiana, Thursday, September 2, 1926.

Organization!

The Muncie Press benignantly advises the democratic party to stop, look and listen. The trouble with the democrats is, says the Press, is that that the poor things do not

know how to organize.

The thing to do is to watch Harry Hoffman, Billy Wil-jAnd, in a certain sense, that is true,

liams and Niny Sample and learn the secret of political ac-

tion. The Press says it is all in organization. » We have suspected as much. Certainly it is not public

sentiment that keeps the Billy Williams crowd in the saddle. If the democrats had sense enough to organize with clubs on election day and knock a few of the republican ma-

chine repeaters in the head’ it might help some. Organization in local republican ranks means the stealing of many votes by the “absent voter ballot ,, route. It means herding all the inmates of the county infirmary

together, marking their ballots for them and voting them

as absent voters.

It means sending “One Round’’ Baker around on election day and voting him twenty-one times under his own

name.

Republican “organization” methods in Muncie means the mobilization of gamblers, bootleggers, thieves and prostitutes into a voting unit, saturating Southside precincts with booze, and the carrying on of an orgy of drunkenness, corruption

and vote buying on election day.

The Clergy In Politics. We note with great satisfaction that there is some reasonable prospect for an early peace in Mexico, where the Catholic clergy and the Calles government have been at daggers’ points over the unjust laws of the Calles regime aimed at the virtual extinction of the Catholic church as an institution of either spiritual or temporal influence. From the beginning of the Mexican turmoil, we have been too far, of course, from the actual battlefield to pass final and definite judgment upon events transpiring below the Rio Grande; but, from the news that has come through, numerous unbiased observers have concluded that the trouble was merely a flare-up of the age-old struggle for the possession of that strip of no-man’s-land that lies between the clearly-defined respective rights of church and state. If you put it that way, the average American citizen— no matter on which side of the ecclesiastical fence he has taken his stand or registered his preference—will feel inclined to shrug his shoulders and say, that from the standpoint of political action, this is “none of our business” as a nation.

As a nation and poli-

tically, we are not concerned with the outcome of the conflict so long as no affronts are offered any of our nationals. But it is equally true that the situation which has developed in Mexico contains for us a lesson and a warning, which we may with profit ponder and apply to our own political life.

* * * *

The complaint of the Calles government in Mexico has been, that the Catholic clergy has crossed the “no-man’s land” to which we have referred and has invaded those spheres of human activity which undoubtedly belong to the state. It is a source of no little regret that certain prominent members of the non-Catholic clergy in our own country have taken occasion to print statements of agreement with the point of view of the Calles regime. We say that it occasions considerable regret to this newspaper, primarily because at this time and from this distance not many of us have any reliable means of knowing just how much truth bhere is in the Calles charge, if, indeed, there is any truth at

all.

But even if we assume for the fraction of a second that svery change made by the government of Calles against the

It means slimy and obsequious truckling to big interests Catholic clergy in Mexico be true, it must be plainly evident that want special favors bad enough to pay for them in the every^ close student of the trend of public affairs in the

way of huge campaign contributions.

It means all that is vile, all that is contemptible, all that is obnoxious to the sensibilities of decent, upright citizens. The democrats of Muncie and Delaware county will never descend to the depths of iniquity into which the repub^ lican machine has sunken. If it takes the kind of “organization” 'that wins here for the republicans to put the demo-

crats across in November it will not be done.

A big republican meeting was held here a few nights

ago at the Roberts Hotel. Congressman Vestal, State Chair- they thought our government ought to do in regard to disman Walb and a number of the state candidates were here, armament, universal peace, world court, league of nations, It was distinctly an “organization” meeting. “Organi- prohibition and dozens of other topics which are purely sezation will win for us,” was the burden of all the speeches, cular in their nature. And you would not need all those five

fingers in order to check off those ecclesiastical gatherings

Chairman Walb said there are only one hundred thous-

United States that a large part of the Protestant clergy perhaps not a majority, but certainly a large part—is in no position to assume a holier-than-thou attitude. For many ministers of our own country have shown a decided inclination to use the power and prestige of their distinguished office to influence secular legislation and national policies. You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of those synodical meetings and religious congresses held in recent years that have not been vociferous in declaring what

and republican “workers” in the state. He is probably that have protested against this sinister itch to drag the af-

right. The other four hundred thousand are the “worked.” : ~ J -~

The hundred thousand are all office holders, office seekers and political appointees,' and their families. Each of these hundred thousand “workers” is charged with the duty of “working” four other republicans who go to the polls and indifferently vote, not knowing or caring whether they have been “worked” or not. . . Honesty, fair dealing with the public and “square shoot ing” are not to be considered in political campaigns under

the code of the republican machine.

Organization, republican machine style, is the mair hope of the yellow dog in politics. Don’t read, pay no atten

tion to public speakers, don’t think.

Let the workers do the thinking for you. Let ’em organize you to the polls and mark your ballot for you. If the workers can seduce you into carrying a torch in a parade and wearing a badge on election day you may forget, in you? temporary elation, that you have been “worked” and that the worker expects to cash in on your stupidity after the

election is over.

Organization made Harry Hoffman sheriff and beint sheriff made Hoffman rich. Organization made John Hampton mayor and the people who are having public improvements thrust upon them that they don’t want, at extortion-

ate prices, are footing the bill.

There should be a general organization here to bust th( organization. Don’t let the workers work you. They make their living by it. Make ’em go to work like you do. Gei rid of the “organization” leeches and parasites that are suck ing the lifeblood out of Muncie and Delaware county.

Efficiency and economy seems to be observed in tht county highway department as well as in the administration of city affairs. Otis Norton, one of the deputies working under Highway Superintendent Ilelvie, recently took two men and constructed two small sewers under the road three miles east of Smithfield. It took a whole week to finish the two trifling jobs. Those living in that vicinity state that the work was somewhat prolonged, due to the fact that Nor-

ton and his two men took two ti ips daily to Smithfield to get their Bible, so far from prohibiting the moderate use of wine water for the job, when they could have obtained water from — -- -

the river, which is only forty rods from the point where

the sewers were constructed.

If Infirmary Superintendent Sherm Shroyer took one half as good care of the inmates as he does of his owr horses, kept by the taxpayers of the county, there would be less complaint. If all, or even a part, of the charges againsl Shroyer can be substantiated, he should be removed at once and he should be compelled to refund to the county. The grand jury should investigate the charges of brutality against the janitor at> the county infirmary. It is said that he brutally assaulted two feeble minded inmates The decent people of Delaware county will not stand for such business. The taxpayers supply the funds that keep the infirmary running and they want the unfortunates to be properly cared for. If the stories told by inmates are true there should be criminal prosecutions.

'airs of the state into the deliberations of the church.

> * * * *

No sane man would underestimate the value of the work which all the churches are doing. At the same time, a mero ayman is often inclined to think that, as compared with the clergymen themselves, he holds a higher opinion both of he efficacy of the means which they may properly employ md of the objects toward which they may properly strive. Perhaps they stand too close to their work to view it in its eal, true perspective, and frequently they seem too impaient of visible results to scorn the use of those means which

hey may not properly employ.

A minister of the gospel is in no sense a policeman in

iroadcloth.

That sounds almost too trite, too solidly self-evident, to equire re-statement; but we have seen clergymen placing hemselves at the head of squads of policemen and raiding >utlawed saloons, vicious dance-halls and other dens of hiquity. And that, we submit, is not their proper work. Theirs it is to kindle and to keep alive the spiritual life of ; ;he men and women who voluntarily place themselves under heir oare, and the only means which they have any warrant ',o employ is moral suasion. That their parishoners incidentally become decent, law-abiding citizens is essentially a by-

product.of their ministry.

But from time immemorial, clergymen everywhere have >een tempted to hasten the coming of »the Kingdom of God iy the liberal use of the policeman’s club—to confer the accolade of spiritual knighthood with the night stick. Some were convinced that men would be benefited if they vent to church on Sundays. So, they reasoned, why not pass € law compelling folks to attend divine worship, or, at least, oiaking Sundhy so dreary a day that men, from sheer ennui, would go to church. That such a measure might fill their chapels with recalcitrant goats rather than with docile sheep vas apparently, to their way of thinking, a matter of minor

importance.

It is conceded by everybody that drunkenness is an evil. So why not pass a law making the possession of even a pint of wine a crime punishable by fine and imprisonment ? That

implant upon the body politic will Come forth in their own people as a natural and inevitable result.—Fort Wayne NewsSentinel.

Agricultural Agents and Political Machines. The county agricultural agent can, and in some cases has been, of great benefit to the farmer in giving the farmer the latest discoveries made by our state paid experiment stations, by keeping the farmer informed about the things which he, the farmer, has not the time to study. When the agricultural agent becomes a part of the state political machine and attempts to tell the farmer how to vote, that is something else. The news columns of this paper, and a number of others over the state, recently revealed to the farmers that such a nTovement had been started, in fact that the first gun of the campaign had been fired' by a C. Henry, county agricultural agent of Marion county. This political advice by the agricultural agents is directly in line with the'derisive paragraphs so common in republican papers about the “white collar” farmer. Great God, has not the farmer a right to put on a clean shirt, a white collar and do a little thinking for himself? It seems to be the idea of these political leaders (?) that the farmer should be a dirty cuss, should devote all his time and attention to his farm and allow the divinely anointed leaders (?) to tell him how to vote. In the development of modern conditions of life all industries, all men in all industries, are taking more time from actual toil of a physical nature and devoting it to the mental toil of considering how to better the condition of themselves and their neighbors. Is this mental effort to be turned over to the agricultural agents ? Bert Thurman has made of the internal revenue department in this state a political machine, operated by himself, Jim Watson and Vivian Wheatcraft for strictly personal advantage to those three, Fred Schortemeier has made of the state mounted police a political machine for his own personal advantage, will not even allow that force to assist Doc Shumaker in his efforts to make the state dry, and now the county agricultural agents are to be made the political agents of the party in power. These agents are to go about telling the farmers how wealthy they can become, in the course of three or four generations, as did the Henry family, if they will devote all their time and attention to farm work and leave the matter of making and enforcing the laws of the country to those great leaders (?) who, like Jim Watson, acknowledge that the condition of the farmer has been going from bad to worse since 1900, yet these leaders (?) have done nothing about it. This eleventh hour howl about agricultural relief savors too much of locking the door after the horse is gone to be real. Do your own thinking, Mr. Farmer.

The Half-Truth Kind of a Liar. In the news columns of this paper, as well as a number of other papers over the state, there recently appeared a labored article by C. Henry, Marion county agricultural agent, in which that gentlemen attempts to prove fthat the condition of the farmer today is the fault of he farmer. In the first place Mr. Henry compares the condition of the farmer today with the condition of the farmer of the 90’s but totally neglects ,to also give a comparison of the conditions of men engaged in other businesses of today with those of men engaged in the same business in the 90’s. In the next place he selects for his comparison a farmer who inherited a farm worth $10,000 to start with and few farmers were so fortunate. He further confesses that, even with such an inheritance, this farmer was so hard up that he could hardly provide clothes for his family and that the farmer, his wife and ten year old children were compelled to get out in the early morning and milk a herd of fifty cows. Finally he acknowledges that this farmer was not really a farmer but a peddler, a peddler of milk to the business people of a near-by

city.

Let us do a little comparing on the other side of the picture. In the 90’s when this farmer inherited a $10,000 farm Henry Ford had not inherited anything but was running a little bicycle repair shop. It is probable that he would have been glad to sell the shop for $1,000. Yet today Henry Ford is probably the richest man in the world and he did not make his millions through peddling the labor of his family in a near-bp'city at five cents a quart. While the farmer given as an example by C. Henry has succeeded, succeeded far beyond the success of the average farmer, the fact remains that had this farmer devoted the same energy, the same careful management, the same hard work of himself and family to any other line of business, as his wife urged him to do in the early days of the 90’s, he would have succeeded far better than he has. He might even have provided his family with such luxuries and conveniences that the old $65 cottage organ and $48 top buggy would have faded

from memory’s pictures.

Agricultural content would be a very valuable thing for this country, but such cheap attempts as that by C. Henry where he shows the life work of an entire family necessary to save a $10,000 inheritance is a poor w r ay to produce that content. The gentleman closes his statement by saying “There are three kinds of lies, white lies, black lies and statistics,” to which must be added the half-truth lie-of

deliberate deception.

The Judge’s Bad Break.

Judge Dearth’s first official action, after returning froni

WANTS FOREIGN DEBTS CANCELLED

Cleveland, O., Aug. 30—Expressing the conviction that the American policy in the matter of interallied debts should be one of cancellation, Newton D. Baker, former secretary of war, has presented his views on the debt problem in a published article, in which he criticized the Dawes plan as having worked too great a hardship on tire German people and the British debt settlement as having resulted

in ‘^xnagnificent disaster.”

The former war secretary’s views are contained in a signed statement in the current number of Trade Winds, the monthly business publication of the Union Trust Com-

pany of Cleveland.

The consequence of the Dawes plan in Europe is a “long and tragic story of which no man can yet foresee the end, either to Germany or to the rest of the world,”

he said.

The British settlement, Mr. Baker said, established a precedent impossible to follow with regard to any other Country, because ngne of the other debtor nations is even remotely able to settle on

such terms.

“We are obliged, therefore, to discrimmate and in order not to make the case against our treatment of England too awkward, we must appear hardhearted and exacting of everybody else,” he as-

serted.

o

Mrs. Vivian T. Wheatcraft seems to regard that collection of jobs she is accumulating at the hands of the state republican committee and the congressional republican committee in the light of the old song that, “every littl^ bit added to what you got, makes just a little bit more.”- That expression is literally true of the troubles of W^tsfcn and Walb, their troubles seem to be “just a little bit more” than is comfortable. i. 1

i ■ 1 - = , I— a

contractors to whom is awardedthe contract. The estimated cost of said improvement is $4,168.60. • Each bid shall be accompanied by personal or surety bond, in a sum equal to double the amount of the bid filed for the work bid on, to be approved by th Board of Commissioners of said County. Said bond shall be conditioned for the faithful performance of the work. The sureties, if personal, shall be resident freeholders of the State of Indiana, one of whom shall be a resident of Delaware County. Said bond shall be for the benefit of any person, persons or corporations who shall suffer any loss or damage by reason of any such bidder failing or neglecting to enter into a contract to perform such work awarded by the said Board of Commissioners, or to carry out the same in any particular or to pay for any labor or materials which may have been furnished to any such contractor or contractors or to any sub-contractor, agent or superintendent under him, in the

construction of said work.

Said improvement will he let as a whole to the lowest responsible bidder upon affidavit of non-col-lusion, which must be submited with the bid, and 1 upon failure to submit such affidavit such proposal or bid will he rejected by the Board; and the Board reserves the right to reject any and all bid^. Time for the completion of said work will he agreed Upon after the letting of said contract by said Board of Commissioners and the

successful bidder.

Dated this 17th day of August,

1926.

JOHN W N . MdOREEHY, Jr. ANDREW JACKSON JOHN W; TRUITT, Board of Commissioners of Delaware County, Indiana. Attest: James P. Dragoo, Auditor Delaware County, Indiana. Ang. 19-26-Sept. 2.

NOTICE

TO ROAD

TORS.

CONTRAC-

actually prescribes it for the most solemn of Christian sacraments, and frequently praises it as a precious gift of a kind

and generously provident God, is impatiently brushed aside j his vacation, was to summarily discharge four of the six

by hands calloused with casuistry. Nay mope, if men still refuse to bow to their edict, kill them at sight; and, if the offenders chance to be on board a ship, sink them, ship and all, “without trace of warning l” And all this they ask and demand in the name and for the sake of—we shudder to complete the sentence. The gentle Saviour’s name must not be used in connection with such ruthless savagery.

State of Indiana, Delaware County.

Notice is hereby given that the Board of Commissioners of said county at their office in the Court House at the CPy of Muncie, in Delaware County, State of Indiana, will receive sealed proposals for the improvement of a certain highway, fiffy-six hundred eighty-four feet (5,684) in length, in Harrison Township, said county and state, by grading, draining and paving with gravel as set out in the specifications, plans and profile now on file in the office of the Auditor of said county, by and under the laws of the State of Indiana. Said sealed proposals will be opened and the contract awarded for *sa-id improve,ment on ^Saturday, September 11, 1926. Bids or proposals will be received up to ten (10:00) o’clock A.

M. on said date.

The said road to be improved is located in Harrison Township, Delaware County, Indiana, and is to be known as the John D. Dee et al, road when so improved. Bids will he for the completion of the said improvement in accordance with the plans, profiles and specifications in the office of the Auditor of said county, and shall include all labor and materials for said work. In no case will extrv compensation be allowed for any additional work alleged to have been done by the contractor or

EXCURSION via BIG FOUR ROUTE —TO— NIAGARA FALLS Saturday, September 4th

$7.50

ROUND TRIP

Half fare for children, 5 and under 12 years. Special train will leave Muncie 7:55 p m. Central Time, arrive Niagara Falls 8:20 a. m., -Eastern Time. Returning leave Niagara Falls 6:00 p. m„ Eastern Time, Sunday, September 5.

EVERY ONE SHOULD NIAGARA FALLS

SEE

For tickets and full particulars apply to Ticket Agent, Big Four Route.

ams

A new writer ^jr the Muncie Star is responsible for

frequent effusions about Muncie cut loose Wednesday with _

the discovery that it is the chamber of commerce that ha. r this demand in any case, their position becomes wholly un-

made'Miincie what it is. We always rather suspected it and now we know it. According to this fancy writer the chamber of commerce is just on the verge of locating a galvanizing plant in Muncie. That’s The very thing Muncie needs There are many things here that need galvanizing, including the chamber of commerce—and the Muncie Star.

The grand jury for the September term of court haf been drawn and court will begin Monday. The promise war made that the Holaday matter would be investigated. II Mr. Ogle neglects his opportunity there will be other grand juries after the first of the year, after he retires to private life. '

Is it any wonder that, from time to time there appear certain evidences that the church is losing its hold upon the masses? Isn’t it the most natural thing in the world that men should turn away in disgust from the antics' of

spiritual mountebanks?

There are clergymen who in one breath claim the Bible as their supreme authority and advocate policies which lay their authors open to the challenge to cite chapter and verse for every official statement they make and for every policy which they officially advocate. If they arc unable to meet

tenable. They destroy the nimbus which naturally and properly attaches to their holy office. Laymen, having once seen their feet, of clay, will easily imagine that the clay may extend to higher and nobler portions of their anatomy. And there is the real pity of it all. Properly conducted, the clergyman’s office is a most potent power for good in anv community. But mere civic righteousness—outward conformity with the law—can be maintained by the machinery if the state. We do not need ministers for that. Thejr ofice is to create and nurture in men a mentality that will express its deepest yearnings in the prayer: “Create in me a

lean heart.” If they succeed in that, all those virtues which sat down on it. Hastily arising he very feelingly remarked, “Melican

-hey now, by a process of skin-grafting, futilely attempt to, man’s butterfly veiiy much hot.”

members of the counay board of charities and corrections. This action was taken to prevent an investigation of the county infirmary which would have been embarrassing to

some of Judge Dearth’s political friends.

Apparently Judge Dearth is not concerned over complaints made by mistreated inmates of the infirmary. He is more concerned at the complaints of his political

and' factional comrades.

The judge had a grand jury on his hands the last term that started to make things lively for others of the republican machine, of which the judge is a bright and shining

star.

The Holaday matter was taken up and the judge suddenly adjourned the grand jury. There are more ways than one to kill a cat. When things get nasty, just call off the game on account of rain and let it go at that. The people have been fairly easy here but they have just about reached the limit of forbearance. Judge Dearth’s interference in the infirmary investigation by the appointment of people designated' by Billy Williams will not stop the investigation, nor has his action added to his fame in Delaware county. Watson was determined to have Mrs. Wheatcraft on the state committee pay roll and, as he seems to own that committee, body and soul, of course she is on the p«y roll._ Before the campaign is over it seems probable that Watson will be in the position of the little 'Chinese boy who caughtt an American bumblebee under the delusion that it was a butterfly. He placed the bee in the rear seat of his trousers and then

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200 NORTH WALNUT STREET Phone 186

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