Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 260, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1912 — ADDRESS TO VOTERS. [ARTICLE]

ADDRESS TO VOTERS.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Republican State Committee with State Chairman * Fred Sims; 'the following address to the voters of the State was formulated and its publication authorized: To the Voters of Indiana: Reports received from all .parts of Indiana inidcate a tremendous lasthour drift to the Republican party. Despite the organized, persistent effort to create an impression to the contrary, which has been carried on for political efTect, it is perfectly apparent that the battle In this state is between Wilson and Taft, between Ralston and Durbin. It is between the Republican and Democratic national and state tickets that the voter must choose in order to avoid throwing his ballot away. This realization is general at this time, not ofily among the Republicans, but apxong men of all parties; this in itself has accelerated the drift to the Republican standard of those who do not wish to jeopardize the prosperity of the Nation, and who place the welfare of the country above partisanship. A significant feature of the situation is the announced determination of thousands of Indiana Democrats tc support the Republican national and state tickets, which we believe is indicative ,ofc a still larger silent vote from that quarter for both Taft and Durbin. This drift is particularly noticeable in the rural districts where farmers view with apprehension the possibility of a return Of the conditions which followed the election of 1892. The startling historic parallel between the campaign of 1912 and that of twenty years ago has not been lost upon those who passed through the national experience which followed the rejection of the protective policy at the end of the administration of President Harrison. The farmers have had their particular attention called to the possibilities involved in Republican defeat by a slump in the prices of live stock on the eve of election, and the fact that at sales held in hundreds of rural neighborhoods during the past month, farm animals have brought lower prices than have obtained for years, showing that farmers are already discounting the future because of the menace 6$ another period of depression. There are single rural townships in Indiana in which the known democratic slump to Taft runs from 25 to 50 votes. The information received by this committee also indicates that as election day approaches wage-earners, manufacturers and business men generally have begun seriously to deliberate upon the chance involved in a change at this time —and every vote against Taft is a vote for a change. For weeks the unknown factor in the political equation has been the silent and undetermined vote. The developments of the past few days convince us that this silent vote will speak at the polls in behalf of the Republican national and state tickets. The blue sky promises of the “Progressive” politicians, who have advocated every issue believed to have within it the possibility of a vote, have failed to stand the test of that thorough weighing out which* the reflecting citizenship of the state applies to every campaign profession. The revelation of the affiliation in former years of this very leadership with the very elements of Big Business it has with self-righteous unction condemned, the notorious part these leaders have played in fastening upon the Republican party the abuses against which they inveigh, has brought home to the sober, thinking people of the state the conviction that theirs is and has been a campaign of “hysteria, hypocrisy and hypercriticism,” as President Taft has so well expressed it.

We call the attention of Republicans to the fact that this is not the first campaign in which the Republican party in Indiana has had to confront serious defection, or even open treason. The party has for years been suffering with an accumulation of internal dissensions, growing largely out of personal disappointments and unsatisfied ambitions, and in the face of these has been able to cope as an equal, or nearly equal, adversary with the Democratic opposition in this state. The defection of this year is better organized and bettei advertised than that of four years ago, for instance, but it is not to be counted a new defection in its entirety by any means. In recent years the Republican poll in Indiana has been showing thousands upon thousands more than the Republican vote, and in so far as the new party will go to a third ticket, rather than direct to the opposition, the Republican party will benefit rather than lose by a substantial percentage of the new party vote. The leaders of the third party movement in Indiana were all disloyal to the Republican state ticket of 1908. We make this statement to show that the loss to the Republican party, by reason of the new party movement, is not a loss, but in no small degree is an old defection appearing in a less dangerous form. And this year loss has an offset in a support that comes to us from men of other parties who desire, to maintain prosperity. This support is more general and pronounced in 1912 than in 1908, because four years ago, under President Roosevelt, there were two hundred thousand idle men hunting jobs In Indiana, and this year, under President Tali there are probably two hundred thousand vacant jobs hunting men. With a full realization of our responsibility to the Republican voters of this state, we issue this statement for the purpose of warning Republicans against taking any action between ncfar and the close of the campaign, or at the polls, based upon the theory that there is any danger whatever of Roosevelt and Beveridge either carrying the state or running second in the race. We appeal to all Republicans and to men of all parties who desire Republican success in this campaign, to rally to the support of the Republican ticket in the Justified belief that WE CAN AND WILL WIN. We have no reason to believe that, through the unfair partisan press and otherwise, an effort will be made to delude Republicans daring the next

few days, as there has been for some weeks, in the belief that there is a possibility of the state being carried by either Roosevelt or Beveridge. No ones knows better than those responsible for these campaign fabrications that the sole hope by which they are animated is that of delivering the nation to Wilson and the state to - " Ralston, that they may build upon the ruins of the Republican party and the wreck of their country’s prosperity and tJieir state’s welfare a party organization in which their selfish bossism will he supreme. * We repeat that every development of the past few weeks has- been In favor of Republican success, and with cumulative effect the tide of the campaign is now sweeping full and strong toward Republican victory. We appeal to Republicans everywhere throughout the state to rally to the support of the party in the closing days of this campaign, with the assurance that the problem before us now is not that oi simply saving our party —the chief plotters of its destruction have already been convinced of the futility of their efforts in this direction—bui that of overwhelming at the polls our ancient adversary, the national and state Democracy. FRED A. SIMS, Chairman. COL. GEO. B. LOCKWOOD, Marion, Chairman. ENOS PORTER, Shelbyville. GEORGE W. KRIETENSTEIN, Terre Haute. WEBB WOODFILL, Greensburg. PERRY SMITH, Warsaw. Executive Committee