Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 20 December 1929 — Page 1

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VOLUME IX—NUMBER 47.

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1929.

Priec 5 Ont*—12.00 % Y«*r

SQEEZE ON COUNCILMEN BRINGS ABOUT REPEAL

POLICE, FIREMEN, TO STAY OUT OF POLITICS

The Post-Democrat Has Exposed Police Activities In Politics for Years Including the Recent Election Which Showed Plenty of It; New Administration Means To Take Politicians Out of Both the Police and Fire Departments.

The democratic administration that is to take office two weeks from Monday is being urged by newspapers and individuals to refrain from “playing politics” when the question of the police and fire departments is considered. Almost without exception this unasked for advice comes from sources that were very much opposed to the election of the democratic candidates for the various municipal offices. The question of keeping politics out of the fire department and the police department has never bothered them

very much before.

The question did not become acute until a democratic

mayor was ejected.

The mayor-elect has known foi' a long time that these departments

should be kept out of politics. He must have known it long before hi,s anxious advisers began working-on him, for the Post-Dem-oerat has been the foremost opponent here of the very thing they are- cyinplaining about. The way to get politics out of the lire and police departments is to take the politicians oht of those

departments. In the recent city campaign the police force was almost one solid committee working for the Unity

League.

A fireman Wednesday told the Post-Democrat how he was ordered out to work at the polls on elec-

tion day.

One of his fellow firemen in-

SUGGESTION FROM A READER

In the Post-Democrat of last week you state that any suggestions to relieve the working condition of today will he greatly appreciated. First—Why not force the married women out of the offices and shops. A great many of the jobs in Muncie, or any other town, are held down by married women, who have husbands to support them, and should be given up to single women and men who have families to support, until working conditions are better at least. There are too many cases in Muncie where the man and wife both work, thus leaving a large number of families without income whatsoever. OUT OF WORK.

POLITICS AND POLICE

(By W. J. DANIEL. j] At the present time there is much talk about a shakeup in the police department. The one who is doing the most lamenting about the l jobs in that department, is Mr. -Sutton, editor of the Muncie Press. He seems to think it a great crime to disconnect some of the present members from their jobs. In last Saturday’s issue he laid great stress on the danger a policeman has in chasing criminals. The writer has been a resident of Muncie for the past twenty years, and in all that time he only remembers of one policeman being killed while in the line of duty. Not only here, but in every city in the nation, the casualty list of officers is very few compared to the casualty list in many of our industries. Take the mining industry alone, and you will find more casualties in one month. than there are in the whole police organization of the nation in a year. If, as Mr. Sutton says, a policeman’s job is so dangerous and underpaid, why do the boys in brass buttons hate to give them up? Often in industry hundreds of men are laid off or discharged in one day, and right here in Muncie there are hundreds of men out of work and the prospects are good for them to stay out for quite a while. Mr. Sutton has done no lamenting about those workers losing their jobs, so why is he so het up about the jobs of a few policemen ? Mr. Sutton states that the police department should be taken out of politics. We agree with him there, but so should politics be taken out of the churches, the schools, the factories, the mills and the mines. Mr. Sutton knows that the fear of losing jobs has caused the worker in industry to vote^ the way the masters of industry told them to vote, when it was against those workers’ belief and principles to do so. Mr. Sutton seems to be a bad loser, and being a bad loser, he seems to think the right thing to do is to squawk about everything the winning side in the late political game says it is going to do. Nobody likes a squawker, and so if Mr. Sutton is not careful he is going to make himself about as popular with the good sports of Muncie, as a skunk would be sitting at a banquet table with the ladies of the four hundred. There is but little difference between the two great national games, politics and poker. If you guess right you win, if you guess wrong you lose, and a good politician or poker player never squawks when the game goes against them. Why not quit squawking Wilbur, and join in with the winners and good losers, in the last upheaval in Muncie and help free our city of the stench that has caused it to bear a foul name abroad?

formed him a few days before the election that Chief of Detectives Everson wanted to see him at police headquarters. “I didnt want to go, said the fireman, for I had an idea that Pete might get me in bad, but he sent for me again and I went.” He states that the chief of detect \ves ordered him to be at the polls all day elecion day. ‘Tm working days and can’.” was his reply to which Everson responded, according to the fireman, that he would have a man work in his place election day. “So what could I do?" asked the fireman. “I was afraid to refuse for fear I Avould lose my job right off the hat, so I was around the polls in the morning and another man took my place at the station as Everson told me he would.” This brings up a very interestVig question: How many firemen I were forced to do political work, las this man says he was, and how Jdoes it come that a police officer ! could give orders for a fireman to leave his post of duty tttnl Work at I the polls and also arrange to have j another fireman take his pice? Those who are now r expressing j fears that the new mayor will | make political footballs of these j two important departments know, J or should know at least, that they were both used in the desperate effort to put over the Unity League

slate.

If in the coming administration policemen and firemen pull off one- | tenth of one per cent, of the crooked political work that was j used by them in the recent election, they will be discharged and ; prosecuted as the law contem;plates. The Post-Democrat exposed pojlice activities in politics while these ’new critljcs were all asleep. It told jhow a republican county infirmary ! boss voted all the inmates as “ab(Continued to Page Two)

THEATRES TO AID SALVATION ARMY

Food Will Get You Pass Liberty or Royal.

(Muncie Star) Raids on the pantry will be made by Muncie children, beginning tomorrow, when every child under twelve years of age who bring;s either to the Royal or the Liberty theaters food for distribution by the Salvation Army at Christmas! among poor families will be admitted free. Manager A. iE. Bennett has announced that the two theaters will co-operate with the Salvation Army in this way of providing foodstuffs for the annual Christmas relief work carried on by the organization. j The hours when the children will be given free admission in exchange for their contributions will be fromj 3 until 6 o’clock tomorrow and Fri-I day afternoons; from 1 until 6 o’clock Saturday afternoon; be-| tween the hours of 1 and 6 o’clock ^ on Monday and Tuesday afternoons' of next week. The family larder may suffer a. ! temporary setback, but it will be a small one, and, according to Ensign M. R. Calvert, of the Salvation j Army, there is great need for the| provisioning of Christmas baskets! for the poor this year. The foodstuffs will be placed on! specially constructed racks in the lobbies of the theaters and each evening will be loaded on a motor truck and taken to the Salvation Army Citadel. The provender which the children may offer in lieu of the regular price of admission may be three potatoes, three onions, car-1 rots, parsnips or any vegetable; or two oranges, two eggs, or one can of fruit or vegetables; a jar of jelly or jam, breakfast food, coffee or sugar.

Shedding Crocodile Tears

Muncie citizens have been regaled recently by dolorous tales written by the sob sisters of the daily newspaer trust concerning the possibility of brave policemen and valiant deputy sheriffs being thrown out of work in the winter time. How strange it seems that these varnished tales of official heroism should have been kept so completely under a bushel until a democratic mayor happened to be elected. Painting as heroes the policemen and deputy sheriffs who captured the moron Wood in Kentucky and the policemen who took no the colored man who struck and robbed Mrs. Roy Rees after a taxi driver had subdued him with a club, the sob sisters think that it would be a shame to turn them out in the cold next month. Four years ago Hampton became mayor and the first thing he d d was to “turn the rascals out.” Mr. Hampton d&a wholesale job of it r as we recall the circumstances, and we have no recollection that the sob sisters shed any tears at that time. Among those who were let out were the four policemen who captured Gerald Chapman in the face of gunfire, a notable capture that made the men who did it famous all over the nation for their bravery in subduring and bringing to justice one of the most noted bandits and murderers in the annals of American criminology. If ever there was a time when the sob sisters might have shed tears, crocodile, or otherwise, on the bosom of their readers, it was then, but the fount of tears did not spout for the simple reason that the four policemen had supported the democratic candidate for mayor in the 1925 city election. For four years the Muncie police department has been protecting criminals of all descriptions. The Post-Democrat told about it and when its editor became a candidate for mayor he pledged the people to reorganize the department. He was elected by a large majority, largely because of that pledge. The sob sisters, believing him to be a man of his word, fear he will fulfill that pledge when he becomes mayor two weeks from next Monday, hence the lachrymal overflow that has dampened things up here of late. Sooner or later the .sob sisters must learn that neither tears, threats nor bribes will avail them in their determination to defeat the will of the people as expressed at the polls last month. The people demanded a change and they are going to get it, in spite of the weeping and wailing that has suddenly transformed Muncie from the city of wotinell-you-goin’-to-do-abont-it into the original vale of tears.

Sewer Ordinance Knocked Out By Vote of 6 to 4; Secret Agencies Get In Work and Muncie Citizens Are Again Victims of the Old Familiar Bunko Game,

Using extraordinary pressure on those councilmen who voted two weeks ago against the repeal of the sewer ordinance passed a year and a half ago, the secret agencies demanding such action were successful Tuesday night at the special session in getting the deal over and the ordinance was repealed by a vote of six to four. Councilman Jay Adams, who voted against the repeal at the special meeting the night of December 6, left hastily lor Lebanon Monday morning and was not present at the meeting. His absence was a great surprise, as was the unexplained action of Council President Bert Wallace, who voted against the repeal two weeks Ago and reversed himself Tuesday night. Four Stood Solid

Two weeks ago the vote stood six to six, but the absence of Adams jand the wobbling of Wallace sent the repeal ordinance over the goal

line to final passage.

ThTsTTwho voted for the repeal were Wallace, Budd, Barnes, McCullough, Herron and Allen. The four who stood solidly for decency land a square deal and voted against ithe repeal were Replogle, Roller,

j Hoffman and Claspell.

Councilman Replogle voiced the .sentiment of a vast majority of the

ploying the “lame ducks" to defeat the desires of the people. The people of Muncie expressed themselves in no uncertain terms when the same crowd tried to put over the park district plan, which operates similarly to the sanitary district idea, in that it creates a separate taxing unit, in no way responsive to the control of the officers elected by the people. It has well been said that the power to tax carries with it the power to destroy and those who are behind this infamous sanitary

jpeople in Muncie when, in arguing; sewer district are the chosen agents 'against the repeal, branded the ac-jof destruction, sent to the front by | lion as unfair and declared that if j those who hope to profit at the ex-

Ithe ordinance is had now it.was pense of the people.

bud nearly two years ago when it was passed and if it was good then

it is good now.

Leave it to the incoming adminjistration to decide, was his argujment. In voting against the repeal

Two weeks ago Bert Wallace, president of the council, who will retire from office January 6, voted against the repeals of the sewer ordinance. In an interview with a representative of the Post-Demo-

I Councilmen Claspell, Roller and jerat, just a few minutes before he ! Hoffman, voting no. voiced the I voted, Mr. Wallace voluntarily |same sentiments. stated that there w r as no reason in

Councilman Herron, explaining ! his vote favoring repeal, made the

rather disingenuous argument that it was being done as a favor to the

the world why the ordinance should

he repealed.

“There is nothing whatever to the argument that it should be re-

incoming democratic administra- pealed,” he declared emphatically, tion. He. also stated that “a large j “and I am going to vote against It. amount of money” had already been j why should this particular ordinspent on the sewer project. t ) an ce be repealed in order that the ’i' v ; -"•qy .T^u^iajaugl^ptes-i aAnviniatretion. shmiW have r. eiu as a spectator, was granted tne. field? If the argument is good then privilege of questioning the trans-j we should repeal all ordinances action. He advised against the re- p asse d bv this council, peal on the ground that an action j Sq AIr Wallace voted against might be brought against the city | ordinance two weeks ago and by the Hancock Engineering com- vo ^ e( j f or ^ Tuesday night without pany, of Chicago, to recover the a wor{ } Q f explanation. Mr. Wallace amount due them on the contract. owes to the people of Muncie an entered into between the ( ‘ oni l )an Xj ex pi ana tj on G f ^is sudden change

and the board ot works. 0 f f ron t

Councilman Budd replied, to thisi What influence was brought to by remarking that the conti act j^ear on him that was of sufficient would not be binding on the C1 L V ; we jght to cause him to change his

after the present board of works!

vote. He certainly meant w hat he

was superceded by a board of w 01 ks’ a j ( j w ) ien i 16 told the Post-Demo-appointed by the incoming mayoi. cra t it was against public policy to I he councilman failed to explain j p ass yuc i x an ordinance, how he had arrived at such an ex-. rp^ e C jtj zens 0 f Muncie praised traordinary conclusion. I he present jyj r Wallace for his vote two weeks board of works made the conti act j a g 0 ^ w h en blocked the sanitary lor the ci.t.v, in their official ta P ac '| district grafters. Who is thanking it.y, and it is an established point , 110w f or w hat he did to the o! law r that the acts of an a Sent i p eo pj e Tuesday night. Who talked

are binding on the principal, the law cuts no figure when

but |

the

to him about it? What argument was used to force him to vote

Unity League desires to score a ( against his own convictions? His P°* nt - I vote turned the trick. If he had Mayor-elect Dale, who was among vote( j as did two weeks ago a

the spectators ,asked for the pny- tie would have resulted,

ilege of speaking. “1 know it is I , s it strange that the people of somewhat irregular and not accoul- ^ uuc j e vo t_ e d the present adminising to parhmentary rule for private tration out of power, when they citizens to argue while a vote is, w it nes8 transactions of the kind nemg taken, said he, But I take’ p U u e d off in the council chamber? it that your permission granting j lt will be recalled that after the Mr. laughinbaugh the light to ; p os t-i>emocrat charged that an atspeak is an indication that you are tempt would be made to name a willing to wane the mle in thm| san it a ry commission before the

TT , . ,! present administration went out of

‘Councilman Herron has just office Councilman Budd carded wets being eiea ed a, an esp£ l<,a,ly "-'"••“I*" <« ^ thnt any ial act ot courtesy* in the l„eomln*l?“ ,, » .J" contemplated and administration. Speaking for niyselfl’ T ^ woul A 1 ” ot , b( ', d , one ' , „ and the nine democratic council.I D h ' s ,»" b ! isbed sta t e “i nl . Mr men elect. I will say that we are i Budd declared that he had but o

not asking tor this •favor.’ l 1 ’"^ ln ur , si . nK ,h f 1 . rep f l °'

-It you want to do us a real fav-, ; ' 11 " 0 "'* Siring the board ot or and reallv want ns to have a ! vvorks the P° wer to construct the tree'hand, and wish ns'to have the «'''•«• under the Barrett law plan opportunity to exercise our otyn I,nd that was t0 cl6ar the deck3

judgment, why tamper with this

for the new administration. Colloquially speaking, that as the

apple sauce. The people will now sit back and await with such patience as they may have left, to see what Mr. Budd and his fellow conspirators really have up theif

sleeves.

The people feel that whatever it is it is not good for hat ails them and the incoming administration, sandbagged by a Santa Claus who stuffed the repeal ordinance in their unwilling stocking, may have considerable to say before the th : ng is

over.

j ordinance at all. It may be better j than you really believe it to he, in I spite of the fact that you passed it I yourselves. Gentlemen, we don’t ’ want your Christmas gift.” j But of course argument had no j weight with the six men who had | determined to put over the repeal | under the hypocritical plea that it i was being done as a favor to a I democratic administration that re-

jected their gift.

I Influences that were strong 'enough to get one councilman out I of the city and to compel the president of the council to change his j vote, would hardly have been ini voked if the only reason for the

repeal were those ascribed. | A determined effort is being made j .Washington, Dec. 18.—The airto force upon the city theunwanted| craft tender, Wright, with apsanitary commission plan of cou-j proximately 500 marines aboard, structing the intercepting sewer. Ifj has been ordered to return to the this plan is adopted the work will, United States, according to an he done under the supervision ofi announcement made by the Dethree sanitary commissioners who) partment of State today,

will draw salaries of $3,600 "a year each for an indefinite period. The incoming democratic administration is opposed to such a plan and ninety five percent of the citizens are against it but the action of the dying council indicates that the promoters of the plan are em-

Aircraft Tender With Marines Ordered Back

The Wright was ordered to Haiti during the disturbances two weeks ago, but at the suggestion of Brigadier General John Russell, the Wright was diverted to Guantanamo Bay, when the Haitian conditions sud-

denly improved.