Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 7 October 1926 — Page 2

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1926.

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, October 7, 1926.

Protect the Courts? The conference of Methodist laymen and ministers, representing many thousands of that faith, indorsed the attitude and stand of the head of the Anti-Saloon League in his comments on the Supreme Court. Will Attorney General Gilliom now be logical and bring before that court every minister and every delegate who cheerea' the speech and the attitude of Dr. E. E. Shumaker? If he does not, will he have the courage to go to the Governor or the courts and declare that his office was all wrong in the case of George Dale of Muncie, an editor, sentenced to jail for contempt of court? The whole theory under which contempt proceedings are brought is that comment on cases before courts which might influence the decision of judges is contemptuous and to be punished. It was under this theory that the comments of Shumaker, declared by six lawyers to have been false and malicious, are charged to be contemptuous. The supreme court has not yet rendered its decision as to the guilt of the dry leader. Although it was announced months ago that the decision would be prompt and early, and the court has before it the j-ecommendation of five outstanding lawyers, no decision has peen given and Shumaker is repeating the same remarks on which he is charged with contempt at every opportunity, pne lawyer strongly argued that there had been no contempt. The action of this religious conference is comment on.the contempt proceedings now before the court. Every speech in behalf of Shumaker, theoretically, at least, might be construed as an endeavor to influence the Supreme Court in this very contempt case. It might be easily construed, so it would seem, as an effort on the part of men who represent at least 75,000 voters lo make it impossible for these judges to pass dispassionately upon the guilt or innocence of the man charged by Gilliom with endeavoring to destroy justice. That the vote was taken in support of the dry argument? of the crusader rather than as a defense of his right of fret .speech may be lamentable to those who believe that this fundamental right is quite as important as the dry law. But certainly the Attorney General has a most remarkable chance to forever settle the question of what men may say or not say. A definite charge against every preacher and delegate for contempt would bring to a most dramatic climax the free speech issue in this state. It would warn all citizens that under the Dale decision no one may discuss courts or judges, and that the truth is nc defense. And legally, it would have quite as firm a foundation another cases in which impetuous editors have been sent to jail. Let it be hoped that Gilliom will not overlook this magnifient opportunity to free the courts from any mob influence— if he really thinks they need defense from any criticism or comment. And let it be hoped that the people will learn how far they are restrained in discussions of judges and decisions.— Indianapolis Times.

and decided that if we had a sweet dolly parade here every day for a year that our local troubles and enmities would automatically cease. That might all be, but nevertheless and likewise notwithstanding, it would be well for the crowds watchipg the parades of little ones to keep their hands on their pocketbooks. However the Post-Democrat is willing to give the thing a trial. If parading infants soften things up to the extent that McCreery wjll voluntaarily cancel his gravel lifting contract with the county and Harry Hoffman will take his snoot out of the hog trough and the three musketeers will give back that $2,600 and Wilbur Ryman act half way human, then we will be* strong for Sut’s formula. Let’s try it. Billy Williams may even be converted and Herb Smith and Bill Floyd may suddenly relax into second childhood, put on little pink dresses and push doll cabs in the parade. It may take a dozen parades or so to get Alpha Holaday' into the notion of giving it back and telling who got which and why and how much and possibly along about the second or third generation of kid parades Merritt Heath and George Pfeiffer and Perry Mansfield may quit running for office.

•S9

cents. A whole nickel on the hundred dollars of your appraisement. In plain English .if ^ou are assessed at $10,000 this tax reduction will save you exactly five dollars. My, ain’t it grand? If your farm is appraised for assessment at one hundred dollars per acre this reduction will save you just five cents, one entire nickel, on each acre you own. Be spre to lay that nickel away and invest it in coal because we might

have a long hard winter.

The present state levy is twenty-eight cents on the hundred dollars. Reducing the levy two cents save the taxpayers about one million dollars in taxes, hence if the entire state levy were removed it would reduce the receipts of the

Watch Us Grow.

Fizzick week started off with the big feed Monday night, Only those who belong to something were allowed in. If you couldn’t show membership cards in some club, or order, or association approved by the chamber of commerce all you could do was stand outside and envy those who were riotious-

ly enjoying themselves inside.

Dan Wiggle, a community builder from somewhere out

How Many Do You Know?

When the republican press and campaign spell-binders get busy in the near future bragging about the great benefits conferred on the people by the reduction of income taxes

a member of the United States senate? Yes, there are great possibilities in the situation and money may be due a sudden inflation, infiltration, inflow or whatever name you wish to cal) it. v.-~ • - ■ h : L

— — Y f ;•/

What has become of General Mitchell and his fight to take the Air Service out of the incompetent hands of armchair bureaucrats and put it into the hands of actual flying men? Was his sacrifice in vain? Only the other day the Air Service lost another of ita most valuable men when

Zu only about ^fourteenmilHonYollars? 11161 ^ ^ ^ ^

Indiana collected in the year 1925 more than fifty-two million dollars from all sources you see that were the entire state levy removed the state would yet be receiving nearly five times what was required in the last year of the Ralston administration. This gives you the inside dope on the great extent to which the fee system has been developed in this state. Of course these fees are not taxes, perish the thought, but it takes .fust the same kind of money to pay them and the same amount of hard work to earn the money. ^ Also the fee system has created a lot of useless offices with good salaries for you to pay to some political pets. How do you like

it?

of this government leads only to death, retirement or disgrace. Rogers met death, those airmen who carried the flag around the world retired while Billy Mitchell was kicked out in disgrace for protesting against conditions existing then, which still exist. Great is republican efficiency.

It may be that the Michigan boy who used a. toy pistol when he is said to have tried to rob the Pennville bank, got that way through learning of the $5 guns of the State Mount-

ed Police force.

. . , 4- just take a few minutes off and count up the number of p^o west was the hurrah talker. Of course Dan is heie only tor know who paid any income tax. When the tax reduc-

his health. He builds communities just for the fun of it Muncie began to grow as soon as Dan lit in town. He made the usual canned speech and at decent intervals the four hundred dropped their knives and forks long enough to

clap their hands.

Majors and Colonels, and kleagles and team captains were then commissioned to go out in the highways and byways to corral new members of the chamber of commerce Dan didn’t say a word about the contractors’ trust promoted by the city administration that is gipping property

owners.

He never mentioned the gravel trust that busted Dela-

ware county.

tion measure was before congress the Washington News said: “It tends to destroy the very principle of the income tax. It is paving the way for indirect taxes that can be loaded almost entirely upon wage-earners and others of small incomes. This year the little; fellows are being baited with real reductions in their income tax. Some two million of them are being wiped off the income tax rolls entirely. But all the reductions given the little fellows make a smaller total than the reductions given the few thousand citizens .whose incomes run into the millions annually. The latter class gets

the real benefit.”

Yet you little fellows are supposed to get enthusiastic

govern-

He made no complaint about the sale of a second-hand j YanVenthe"/ forget the^ears^f titaereqm^d Tndthe lernB aiKl tlie Pruasian

many court decisions you cussed before you succeeded in ting the constitution amended so an income tax law could be passed that the supreme court wmuld not knock out. Think

truck.

No suggestion was made about the addition of fifty additional jobs created by the Hampton crowd'. Dan’s idea of putting Muncie in the Chicago class was to get as many new members to join the commercial club as

possible.

According to Dan and the Muncie Star and other great

authorities on community buildine the way to make a town grow 7 is to call the elect together, fill their little tummies w 7 ith

indigestible food, and then talk ’em all to death. We don’t know wffiether Dan is to be paid a lump sum

for the job of uplifting Muncie or whether he is doing piece work. Or, it may be, that Dan doesn’t need the monev, and >s just going around from place to place doing missionary

work for nothing.

It doesn’t stand to reason , that a fellow possessed 6f ti

FORMER KAISER WILL GET SMALL PART OF ESTATE

Settles Property Claims with Prussia—$20,000,000 Awarded.

BERLIN—The ex-Raiser, who before the war was one of the richest men in the world, will receive approximately $20,000,1300 in iinal settlement of his property claims against his former subjects according to the agreement now being

back a few years and remember how you and your fathers former Hohenzoiiern

fought for the right to enact this very kind of a tax. you are asked to g£0w enthusiastic at its repeal.

Now

Governor’s Duty.

The warden of the Indiana state prison at Michigan City

lerns ment..

Of the total, $5,000,000 is to be in cash and the rest in castles and landed estates. This would leave the ex-Kaiser about 10 per cent of

crown

fortune, as estimated by the Prussian finance minister, as compared wi h 17 per cent in the previous agreement that caused such popular resentment and precipitated the passionately fought national

referendum last June. Crown Prince Active

has deda'redThat nobody will be permitted to inte^^ D.l ^

Super-Government.

(Rushville Republican.) Thomas H. Adams, of Vincennes, veteran Indiana newspaper publisher, has promised in a letter to Indiana editors that he will expose a super-government growing out of the rule of D. C. Stephenson, as head of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, that extended from the state house down and from the lowiiest office to the United States senate. This promise alone should interest all good citizens and those who are familiar with the facts know that Mr. Adams is not talking through his hat. Madge Oberholtzer, for whose alleged murder Stephenson is serving life sentence in the Indiana state prison, said that Stephenson told her that his word* was law in Indiana. Revelations are at hand, according to Mr. Adams, which prove that there w 7 as no fiction in what Stephenson said. Senators, governors, congressmen, judges, sheriffs and juries bowed to his will, facts in possession of the publisher show. They cow 7 ed before him because he held in the palm of his hand that wffiich is coveted by every politician—votes. Politics make strange bedfellows. Time without number this has been demonstrated. Mr. Adams w 7 as the bitterest enemy of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. He forcefully assailed the invisible empire on every occasion and Stephenson ana his aids looked upon him as an implacable foe. By a queer twist of fate two score and more of Stephenson’s trusted lieutenants are now Mr. Adams’ wdlling aids ir striving to unravel the strands of a deep-seated plot thacaused high government officials to take a super-oath that violated their promise to enforce the law without fear or favor They are working in a spirit of revenge to avenge the wrongs the/ fancy have been done their ex-chief. Their targets are the officials in Indiana who bargained with Stephenson for votes. But Stephenson could see into the future. He foresaw the time when, his pow 7 er waning, those who courted his favor for the votes he controled', w 7 ould sink their daggers on his back. Evidence is at hand to show they did. The penitentiary for life was a convenient place to have a man who could disgrace them. And the dagger went into the hilt. Stephenson, according to the evidence in possession of the special committee of the Indiana Republican Editorial association headed by Mr. Adams made no contracts and accepted no premiums unless they w^ere written. The dotted line served his purpose well; also the purpose of good government. After endless investigations, two years of time and the expenditure of $10,000 of his own money. Mr. Adorns has been rewarded, and he pledges to make public all the infamy that has been going on since Stephenson came into power through a Klan. Then the people of Indiana may sit in judgment.

C. Stephenson save upon formal order of Governor Jackson. o r3W n Prince was most active Thomas II Adams and his committee of the Indiana Repuo-|- m i m kw; : n.g the former Kaiser to Mean Editorial association, together with several teorCl p ; of the Indiana senate, would like to talk to Stephenson th a t' wrajth In returrit it is understood,

^ ssriToirtot—rr ;

most any day with eyes shut, and not half try. j son for the necessary authority to get at btepnenson iOui the Reiich , stag by the government.

Muncie has plenty of home talent that is able to figure 1 either a public or a private examination. ^ , out our communitv ills and cure them. We don’t need to bring]^ There can be no minimizing the giavi j ol e « h in outsiders to tell us how to do it. I embraced by the statements already coming from Mr. A crams

Nor can there be anv hushing up of the accusations or any

We don’t know 7 where f)an Wiggle came from originally, but we’ll wager our mammoth fortune that his old tow 7 n has w 7 eeds growing in the middle of the street and spider w 7 ebs

on the doors.

Muncie will eventually come out of the kinks but not uhTl the cancer is removed that is gnawing at the vitals of the body politic. Labor is the backbone of the community. Labor must be given a square deal and crooked politicians

thrown out.

This Is a Funny Joke. It might be well for the city administration to purchase a little device used by the state highway commission in order to check up on some of the work now being done by the paving trust. The device is a testing machine wheih is used to remote small cores of the paving at different places along the line of construction. These cores show whether the speifications have been adhered to by the contractors. We dare the board of works to buy a testing machine and check up on the work that is being done by the administration paving trust. The little device would not cost but a fraction of the amount paid out for a certain truck and will do something that some statesman consistently refuse to do—it will tell the truth.

Let’s Try It. Our old friend, Wilbur Sutton of the Press prints a good many sensible things in his paper and then again he gets! ’way off occasionally. Sut blew up one day last week in his agony collum in the west half of the southeast quarter of page one of the Press I

A Little More Efficient Econ Omy. News from Indianapolis recently was to the effect that Governor Jackson and his republican assistants were busy transferring $100,000 from the automobile and gas funds tc other funds. Perhaps the reason is revealed in the fact that our “econ mical” governor has lately employed Dr. Floyd W Reeves of the University of Kentucky to make a survey o Indiana’s institutions of higher education and find out wha - * is the matter with them. Can it be possible that republicar efficiency has permitted anything to become wrong with those institutions? Governor Jackson has employed this non-resi-dent educator without the advice or even the knowledge of our State Superintendent of Public Instructions. Mr. Sherwood does not even know what the Kentucky educator is trying to find out. We wonder if the Kentucky gentleman will be sent to Fort Wayne to investigate the Feeble Minded school there which is under the control of a brother of the governor. It seems this Kentucky educator is receiving either $1,000 or $1,500 per month, no one seems to know which unless it is the governor and the gentleman from Ky. He also receives a liberal allowance for expenses and is given assistants at a salary of $57 per day it is claimed. Vouchers on file in the office of state auditor Lewis S. Bowman show that $5,649.14 has already been expended on this “survey” and the work is not expected to be completed before December. Dr. Reeves asserts that the object of the “survey” is to find out the needs of the various state institutions and that is about all the information available, except the expense accounts. No Wonder it takes a tax burden of $52,000,000 a year to keep up such an administration. You can not get rid of Jackson for two years but you can hobble him by electing democrats to the other state offices, especially state auditor;

allaying of the suspicions bred in the public mind by ignoring* what already has been made a matter of publicity. Governor Jackson cannot very well refuse to permit Stephenson to be examined by those who have been engaged in this investigation so far as it has gone. These charges are seriously made by men of repute whp declare that what they have stated L based upon credible evidence; documentary and otherwise, af-j ter painstaking search and inquiry conducted in quarters where such evidence was to be had. And what the investigators say they have found does not relate merely to political activities. A good deal of shady work goes on in politics which may not be strictly answerable to the law. What is asserted to have been going on in this state relates to the use of enormous slush funds for the debauchment of voters, to the stuffing of ballot boxes, to the bribery of officials, to the huckstering of offices, to the corruption of law-makers high and low, and to the erection and maintenance of an evil power over the very government of the state itself. Charges of this character made by men of standing can-

iThe fate (of Dels is one of the chief

points still at issue.

Republican and Socialist papers,

however, charged that the estimates put the value on the landed estates too low and the fight is expected to start all over again when

the agreement is published. In addition Prussia also will have

to surrender about $6,000,000 worth of land to other members of the

Hohenzollevn family.

TRANSFER 0. K.D OF $75,000 FUND

(Chicago Tribune.)

The public, and especially newspapermen, will watch with interest the course of events in the Indiana klan exposure. The political strength of the klan in Indiana is no secret, but the courageous editors who are defying whatever

statements already made and the high character and repute of them who are responsible for the statements. It is a grave and disturbing matter which should be sifted to the bottom. If they are innocent, ^Lould not continue to rest upon them who are suspected. Attempt to embarras and obstruct the men who are making the investigation can have no consequence but to confirm the public mind in all that it may

now suspect.

It is Governor Jackson’s plain duty to permit those who have been managing this inquiry to examine Stephenson ,and to have there present those Republican and Democratic state senators with whom Mr. Adams and' his committee already have consulted.—Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette.

The committee also voted to restore the

salary of John D. Williams, direc-

Indianaipolis, Oct. 2.—Transfer )f $75,000 from the maintenance fund of the state highway department to the motor transport fund, which its expected •to cover alleged overdrafts of $46,544.23 and meet other expenses in the motor transport fund, was approved by the

not bo ignored without involving those who ignore them in state legislative finance committee

charges that they have something to conceal, something toi Wedl ? esda3 Jfear. There ought to be no hesitancy or delay to open the; linamm,ous y way to a complete inquiry that these charges be disproved and the public mind set at rest or established that the guilty may be. brought to justice. It will be no answer to these charges to say that Dave Stephenson is a convicted murderer requiting his crime in prison and worthy of no belief. H what Mr. Adams and his committee of Republican editor? say they have found be true, the evidence is beyond Stephenson and does not depend upon him for its authenticity. Yd Stephenson, if this evidence be of any value, can put the investigators in the way of gathering more and of establishing

:he value of all of it.

We think there should be no obstacles placed in the way rf carrying the inquiry to some conclusion. We have nothing upon which t/o judge what this situation may be beyond the

tor of the highway commission, to $6,000, from which it was reduced to $5,000 several months ago, it was learned. According to Lewis Bowman, state auditor, there is no irregularity in the motor transport fund of the highway department showing a deficit of more than $46,000. Mr. Bowman declared that the highway department has been unable to keep its funds exactly as other state departments are kept. The law provides, it is said, that depleted funds must be replenished before being overdrawn, by action of the finance committee. Appropriations made by the Legislature for certain funds can net be overdrawn legally, state officials declare, and all state departments must have authority of the finance committee for transferring money from one fund to another before issuing additional warrants on the exhausted fund. Other transfers in state funds in various departments requested and approved by the finance commit ay. 1 brought the total to more than $100,000. AHACKS FLORIDA LEADERS TACTICS Red Cross Head Asserts Officials “Practically Destroyed Relief Drive.”

* Washington. Oct 2>—Whisperings of discord which have aeoinpanied the effort to raise a $5,000,000 relief fund for Florida storm sufferers culminated yesterday in a flat charge by John Barton Bayne chairman of the American Red Gross, that Florida officials and real estate men had “practically destroyed” the campaign by repeated attempts to belittle reports of damage and suffering. Despite these efforts, which were attributed to Governor John W. Martin, Mayor E. C. Romfh of Miami, and others, Chairman Paj&e said he felt duty bound to carry on the drive for funds and appealed to the country to continue to help. A little more than $3,000,000 has been collected in the face of efforts to minimize the storm losses. Mr. Payne assfrted that Red Cross offigials in Florida had reported the greatest need for relief since the San Francisco, (Cal.) earthquake and fire, listing 5,000 homes as totally destroyed and 18,000 families poverty stricken. ■ o-Twenty-five committees repressenting various groups of the "American Bankers’ associatiqn presented reports on state and national financial problems at Los Angeles, Tuesday, at the first general session of the American Bankers’ Association.

A Free Press Fights for Freedom.

Was it the World Court or utility concessions that nominated Smith in Illinois? Remember Muscle Shoals is a valuable electric plum.

Generosity Galore. The JAdkeon administration, alarmed at the tight beiny made by the democratic party fAr economy in state affairs, now promises, to reduce the state levy to the amount of five

One hundred thousand workers at.the polls for Jim Watson is the promise of Clyde Walb. At half the price paid for such service in Pennsylvania that would mean the expenditure of half a million dollars. Keep your eye on Indiana. Jim Reed. Remember thatJim Watson was a lobbyist for the Manufacturers Association, the same one which furnished the money for Pepper, at Washington during the time the people, of this state retired' him from office. If, as a private citizen, Jim Watson was worth hiring by that

armory propose to disclose to the fullest extent possible the ramifications of its powers and the character of its control over govern-

ment.

It is not surprising that pressure has been brought to bear at once to prevent exposure, but wo have complete confidence that it will not avail. It is no pleasant or profitable duty the editor and owner of a small newspaper in a small town or city performs when he attacks an intrenched and unscrupulous political force. Often it may mean 'bankruptcy or business osTacism. Nevertheless, we know the stuff the newspaper fraternity is made of and we know it will not "alter. Of course there may be individuals who cannot stand the lest whether from special conditions or' personal limitations. But there will be plenty to carry on the fight and the fight is bound to be

won.

Meanwhile, the self-respecting, straight thinking citizenship of Indiana has a duty as clear as that of he fighting editors of the association. It is to support’these men who sre fighting the battle of responsible self-goverirment and American liberty for them, and to

whether in the form of political influence or financial pressure, or personal threat, does not prevail. We do not know, of course, what the editors’ probe committee has lo uncover, hut we have every confidence that it is trying to perform a public service of the greatest importance to the good name of Indiana and to its hopes of decent government. It is the high function of the press to lay bare such evils in the body politic and its faithful and un flip chi mg performance is our highest reason for being. That is why in the fundamental law of the repubMc it is solemnly guaranteed that the press shall he free, and no commonwealth which has any regard for its liberties or for the integrity of its instilutions will fail to preserve a free press as the chief of its safeguards. “Give me but the liberty of the press,” said Richard Brinsley Sheridan in one of the greatest debates in the history of British eloquence, “and 1 will give to the minister a venal house of peers. I will give him ;f corrupt and servile house of commons. 1 will give him the full swing of the patronage of office. I will give him the whole host of ministerial influence. 1 will give him all the power that place can confer upon him, to purchase up submission and over-awe resistance; and.yet, armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him undismayed. I will attack the mighty fabric of that mightier,.engine. I will shake down from its height corruption and bury it beneath the ruins of the abuses

organization how much more valuable would he be to them as see' to it that secret terrorism, it was meant to shelter.