Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1912 — Both Feet to His Mouth; Common Thing For Marshall. [ARTICLE]

Both Feet to His Mouth; Common Thing For Marshall.

Our governor proved his small caliber again last Sunday at Washington. The queerest thing about Tom Marshall to the fact he always chooses, a conspicuous setting when he makes the greatest blunders. The ambitious Thomas, who emerged four short years ago from the oblivion of a little town in eastern Indiana and was elected governor of the state because he had no record, has really grown to consider, himself of national prominence , and a possibility as a presidential candidate. A little recognition with Thomas has proven itself a dangerous thing and we fear that ah ordinary backwoods lawyer has been entirely spoiled. Last fall at the Indiana Society banquet in Chicago, Thomas thought it a good time to spread a little advertising for his political ambitions and he varied from the style of after dinner speakers and undertook to talk seriously of things that he knew nothing about. He got into deep water and 600 banqueters winked at each other as they saw through his rambling speech an effort to establish himself as a model of statesmanship. Since then Thomas has been trying to look wise and to form, alliances that would help him satisf} his insatiate ambition to lead the nation, like Me has ieajj Indiana.

Occasionally he has broken out with toe prickly heat of desire and said isomething and he has usually put both into his declamatory organ when these spasms have occurred. Last week he went to Washington to get a peep at the White House and the Capitol and to shake mitts with some of the real “big ’uns” and to cultivate the society into which; his pipe dreams have lead him to believe' that' he may sometime move as tl« nation’s big stock. Tom has cut quite a sytoth in Washington. He had been heard of over there but had never been seen. He waded through fairly well until- 'he began to talk. That is a weak point with Thomas. He will talk -when gets a chance. He, don’t go Very strpng on the idea of keeping still aqd letting others do the talking. He talks whether he has any-' thing to Say or not Sunday he talked before a large audience at the Firqt

Congregational church in Washington, D. C., and his subject was the “New Puritan.” He deplored the conditions of the country because of the lack of great and hohest statesmen. In the course of his talk he said : “Do you know why I forsook the practice of law in Indiana to enter politics? Well, it was to preserve toy self-respect. I wanted to get into a profession where my conscience could be given breathing room, where I would not have to wink one eye at the truth.” . Our great Thomas got that off at the big Y. M. C. A. meeting in Washington. He seems to have admitted that the character of business he was engaged as a practitioner of law in Whitley county was for a class of crooked clients, wjio had no honest basis for being in'the courts and for whose interests he was willing to "wink one eye at the truth.” No attorney can accept business of this sort without being a voluntary part ot the deception and to improve the associations with which his selfconfessed corrupt practice had surrounded him he entered politics and hobnobbed with Tom Taggart, Crawford Fairbanks, Steve Fleming, Senator Porctor and ail the saloon interests in the state and now his conscience has “breathing room." In this short confession Governor Marshall has admitted his previous corruption, his present weakness and his future impracticability. He has again j>ut both feet in his mouth. In the evening after the Marshall talk, Rev. Samuel H. Woodrow, the pastor of the church where he spoke, announced that he did not agree with lone ot the things advanced by Gov eruor Marshall and that he would soon reply to ths speech. He considers the governor pessimistic and he disagreed with Mm iff the decadence of modern times and he does not endorse the idea that public men are H«ganar*tfnr ‘ ‘ i ■’ Xrfrf!