Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1894 — UNDER BOTH PARTIES. [ARTICLE]

UNDER BOTH PARTIES.

Indiana When Republican and When Democratic. How the Former Debauched and Mixgoverned the State—Summary of the Reforms Accomplished by the Democracy—Who Would Go Back to the Old System? Indiana Republicanism is essentially retrogressive. It has for years stood in the way of necessary reforms and now announces that if given power it will repeal the legislation that has been enacted by the Democracy. This being the case, it is well to refresh the memory as to the old method and learn what it is that the Republican party would bring us back to. Rotten Electoral System.

Up to 1890 Indiana had one of the worst election laws that ever was devised. It made fraud easy and invited every device to cheat the voter out of his honest expression of opinion. While ostensibly a secret ballot it was in effect just the opposite. The party managers and workers had little difficulty in ascertaining how every man voted. Vote buying was facilitated by the methods prevailing and intimidation or espionage were made easy by lack of safeguards and secrecy. Under this vicious law the Republicans found it easy to practice those arts which enabled it often to win victories where the honest majority was clearly against them. In a struggle of this kind that party had a great advantage. Its long supremacy in state and nation and consequent control of vast sums of money, its “pull” on the trusts and corporate wealth made its resources practically unlimited. The party opposing it had to contend against immense odds. Every Indianian will remember the campaign of 1880. Dorsey, the Arkansas carpetbagger, was imported and placed in full charge, his only capital being an abundant supply of money and a total lack of conscience. How this vassal plied his nefarious game and the consequent debauchery of the state with liis crisp ten-dollar bills is too well known to be repeated. The same game was repeated on a larger scale in 1888, with only a change of generals and an enlargement of “commissary supplies.” Dudley and his “blocks-of-five” proved the last feather that broke the camel’s back. The whole state was disgusted with the shameless exhibition of that year and a cry went up from river to lake for a decent law that would abolish Dudleyism and rescue the its debasing influences. Democracy to the Rescue. Fortunately for the people, the legislature of 1889 proved to be Democratic and one of its first moves was to introduce a ballot law framed upon the Australian system. The Republicans quickly recognized that this was an attack upon their “vested rights” of debauching the suffrage and that if enacted would destroy their supremacy. They dreaded nothing so much as an honest ballot law and the whole tribe of Dudleys, Dorseys and Micheners were indignantly arrayed against the proposed reform. After a bitter contest, with the Democracy arrayed solidly on one side and the Republicans with practical unanimity on the other, the measure became a law. It was first tested in the fall of 1890 and the election that year was a revelation to the people of the state. For the first time in its history the state had an election that, was absolutely fair and honest. Vote-buying was rendered impossible. Absolute secrecy and safety was secured to the voter. The ticket-handlers and hustlers, heretofore inseparable adjuncts of Indiana elections, will no more be seen. The crowds around the polls, through which in former years the citizen was compelled to press his way, had disappeared. All was quiet and peaceable. There was no pulling and hauling, there was no independent solicitation, above all, there was no mysterious transfer of money around the corners. Such in brief was what was done for Indiana in the important matter of reforming the electoral system.

As to School Books. Another crying evil in Indiana for years had been the manipulation of school books by sundry formed rings and class corporations. Frequent changes of school books, which were effected by scheming and collusion, the monopoly enjoyed by favored firms and many other abuses long worked great hardsMps upon the patrons of schools. The expense constituted an immense tax all the more difficult to be borne because of the fact that it was known to be for the benefit of rings and people who enjoyed political “pulls.” This abuse also, after a long and doubtful struggle,' was finally swept away by a Democratic legislature. A law was passed carefully regulating the whole business, fixing prices and insuring improvments. Books purchased are good until used up and are not subject to sudden and capricious changes. Parents moving from one part of the stare to another find the same books available everywhere. Above all the prevention of extortion by regulation of prices has proved a great saving. It would be difficult to estimate the pecuniary benefits conferred upon school patrons of Indiana by this timely and wholesome law. It is solely the work of tho Democratic party, as the reform was fought by the Republican, party at every stage. Robbery by Unequal Taxation. But the greatest of all reforms for the people of Indiana was the passage of the new tax law in 1891. Before that the trap was laid to catch the small game while the large always managed to break through. The assessing was loose, haphazard and unfair. Those least able to pay were generally mulcted to the full extent, while - the powerful corporation, the favored millionaire and money lord either escaped entirely or paid only a fraction ot his past dues. The evils were great and universal and long and loud were the demands for relief. At length it came and now Indiana has the fairest and most equitably administered tax l»w of any state in the union. All are

compelled to pay in proportion to their holdings. Favoritism has been abolished and tax-dodging made exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. What Republicanism Teaches. It is difficult to conceive, but It is nevertheless true, that one of the great political parties of "Indiana has pledged itself, if restored to power, toaepeal or change all of the beneficial legislation aobxe enumerated. The Republicans give the people to understand that the Australian ballot law is not good for their health. They yearn for the return of the Dudleys and the Dorseys. They sigh for the “good old days” when vote-buying was a fine art and a ‘ ‘vested right” of Republicanism. They look mournfully at the Democratic, law which ruined this Republican industry and insists that steps shall be taken to “protect” it again. The same party wants the old loose tax system and the ring schoolbook system. In fact, they want to carry the state back a decade or two to the days when cheating at elections was easy, when tax dodging was in full vogue and when favored cliques controlled school supplies. For all these and other abuses the Republican party mourns, like Rachel for her children, and refuses to be comforted because they are not. If they get back into power, they say, there shall be a general smashing of reform laws and an undoing of all the good things that Democracy has done for the state in the last 10 years. Some Republican papers are complaining that the now bill makes such radical reductions in the tariff that prices on most articles will be reduced below what American manufacturers can afford to make them for. Other Republican papers are gloating over the alleged Democratic failure to accomplish any substantial tariff reduction. These assertions are inconsistent. Which one do the Republican loaders propose to adopt in making their campaign attacks on the new tariff ?—Omaha World-Herald. All the panics of the last 35 years have occurred under a high protective tariff, if not because thereof. Yet the Republicins would have us believe that it was “the threat of free trade” that made the country wilt and wither. Common sense teaches that it is what has happened and not wnat is going to happen that oauses financial depression either to individuals or nations. Whatever bad national laws are on the books up to the present congress are due solely to the Republican party. The last year was the first in over 35 that the Democrats had the power to pass federal statute. Panics and hard times always come from what has been done and not what may be done in future. The late disaster was purely a Republican product.

Benjamin Harrison threatens to go over into West Virginia and help Ms friend Steve Elkins down Chairman Wilson in tho congressional race: Benny will have Ms hands full at home, and when matters warm up a little will find that he can spare no time from Indiana if he hopes to keep his party in a respectable minority. The Republican party for a year past has been a veritable calamity howler. It tried to make the country believe a visitation had been sent upon it because it was choked loose from the offices. It welcomed hard times and blue ruin in hopes that such conditions might enable it to get back under cover without merit, repentance or reform of past sins. Since the Democrats gave Indiana a decent ballot law one never hears any more of Dorsey, Dudley & Co., who used to be the most prominent adjuncts of Republican campaigns. Like Othello, their occupation is gone, and with them has gone the two-dollar-bill device and the “blocks-of-five” system, which ran for years under Republican patents. Republican platforms tMs year are all things to all men and everytMng to everybody. They promise one tMng in the west and another in the east, promise both tMngs at once in some sections, and are ready to grant the people whatever they want provided only they give the promisers the offices. The Republican party has no existence in the south and but a very precarious one in the extreme west. Soon it will have to rely exclusively upon Pennsylvania and Vermont for its claim of being a national party. It never was a national party, but purely sectional from its birth.

The Republicans are not carrying Indiana as much as they were a few weeks ago. As the shades of autumn approach their chances grow slimmer and slimmer and by election time they will discover that the “great revolt against Democracy” we have heard so much about has not materialized. Republicanism was thrown out of power in ’92 for a long list of political sins. Now, without any signs of repentance and certainly without any improvement in morals, it asks to bo restored. It will take much more than two years of exile to purify a party which had 30 years to learn its wickedness. The Republicans are pledged to repeal the present state tax law if given power. They want to return to the old system which lot the big corporations escape and placed the burden on the rest of the people. Republicanism is nothing if not a friend and copartner with trusts. The Republican party has lost two Beuators without the formality of elec-, tions. Senators Stewart and Jones of Nevada have left their old party in disgust on account of its hostility to silver. If this thing keeps up there will not be enough of the old party to swear by or at. What can organized labor ask of any Ethan has been done for it by tho >cracy in Indiana. All the labor laws now on the statute books were placed there by the Democrats. Not a reform of tMs kind can be credited to the Republicans. All KnownotMng parties spring from and go back to Republicanism. Thepresent A. P, A. is a spawn of the same parent. No such snakes as this are ever hatched from Democratic eggs. That party has ever been the champion of religious liberty. RepublicaMsm in Indiana has done nothing for years except oppose everytMng proposed by the Democrats. Not a single one of the great reforms accomplished by Democracy but was fought ft nverv steD hv a solid Ronnblican oartv.