Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1913 — DEMOCRATS NAMED RAINIER FOR MAYOR [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRATS NAMED RAINIER FOR MAYOR

New Man in Town But Willing to Be Tried—Spread Eagle Oratory in Nominating Speeches.

The democrats of Rensselaer nominated the following ticket Wednesday evening: For mayor, O. K. Rainier. For clerk, John Eigelsbach. For treasurer, Carl Duvall. For councilmen-at-large, T. M. Callahan and C. E. Simpson. For councilman Ist ward, Nattie Scott. For councilman 2nd ward, F. M. Donnelly. For councilman 3rd ward, James Snedeker. That is a right good ticket and beyond doubt part of the -democrats in Rensselaer will vote for it. It is perhaps a trifle heavy at the bottom, but the proportions will develop as the campaign goes on. Mr. Rainier, the head of the ticket, is a nice man and has lived in Rensselaer a little two years, having come to this city from Lafayette, where he had resided for several years. He moved to Lafayette from Chalmers, White county, near which city he owns a large farm. Mr. Rainier served one term as commissioner in White county and was defeated for election to a second term. He was an*>involuntary candidate fpr state representative a year ago, having been brought out, it is understood, to split the McFarland vote from this county. Each candidate received 4 of the 8 votes and the nomination went to Patrick Hayes, of White county. Mr. Rainier has done considerable running, it will be observed, but he is not regarded a 10 second sprinter and the company he is in now will require him to do a big lot of training or get left at the post.

The democrat convention drew out about a hundred people, quite a number of whom were mere auditors who had gathered expecting that Babcock-Honan, et al, would start an effort to remove J. A. McFarland from the chairmanship, but this move was not made, and Honan during the day had sought to placate the troubled party seas with the finest spreading of salve that has been oozed hereabouts since the invention of vaseline. He announced timeand again that he knew when he was whipped and that he was ready to be good and that he was now a McFarland man or a Littlefield man, just as the emergency presented to say so with effect. Not all the 'democrats accepted his profession seriously, however, and the McFarland forces were at the convention in force and when they are in force they represent at least 95 per cent of the democrats in the city, the per cent having gone up from nine-tenths since the continued efforts of unhappy Bab to keep up his hopelessly defeated cause. But to get back to the convention.

W. R. Nowels was asked by Mr. Rainier to place him in nomination and he spoke at considerable length, pointing out the excellent qualifications, business and social, of his candidate. He pictured O. K. as the embodiment of every quality essential to a mayor; possessing progress coupled with conservation; dignity with joviality and public spirited citizenship with Simon pure democracy. His speech was concluded by a statement that it was now time for every democrat if he was an honest man and found himself hopelessly in the minority to stop his bickering and get in and boost for democratic success. Mr. Nowels’ speech was conceded to be a splendid one in behalf of Mr. Rainier and certain to attract favorable attention to him from those who have not yet become acquainted with him because of his short residence among us.

The effect of the speech was somewhat spoiled by Orator Honan, who made the seconding nomination. Ed had become so used to the vaseline spread in the afternoon that he could not refrain from its use and he offered terms of highest praise to the other candidates, saying that no matter where one went, up and down the street, every person irrespective of politics admitted that Chas. G. Spitler, the republican candidate, was the best qualified man in the city for the office. Mr. Honan pulled the eagle feathers with both hands and the poor bird was stripped of Its plumage right at a time of year when a cold snap may be expected any time the weatherman opens his head. He proved beyond a shadow of doubt that Woodrow Wilson is a democrat and the president of the United States. He spoke of “that noble statesman, that splendid patriot, that magnificent little

giant, our own native son, whom we all love, Thomas R. Marshall.” He furnished undisputed evidence that Sam Ralston is governor of Indiana, that John Worth Kern, “that great champion of the cause of the dear people,” is a democrat and a senator. He did not leave a shadow of a doubt that Benjamin, F. Shively is still a democrat and he carried the eager audience into the very clouds with his silvertongued oratory as he told of those thirteen patriots who are representing Indiana in the national house of representatives. He was at his very best and with gesticulation of a graee so rare and a selection of words so choice as to call to mind that gerat Athenian orator, Demosthenes, he declared that now was the time to put Rensselaer in the democratic column and that this could be done with the dove of peace hovering over the democratic camp and restraining the malignant hatred that rankled in the breasts of the faction makers. It was a great speech and will go down the corridors of time as one of the classics of oratory long after the magnetic words have ceased to reverberate about the corridors of the court house. Mr. Honan has for years, as the social head of the democratic party, entertained all distinguished democratic statesmen and orators who have visited Rensselaer, and doubtless by this contact he has absorbed of the rhetorical sweets that have been denied the rank and file of the party. It is reported that Mr. Honan and Editor Babcock spent mo.st of the afternoon together, evidently planning for the evening, by which Mr. Honan was to do all the talking, while the editor sat resignedly and in mute acquiescence approved the proceedings of the evening. Democrats have been playing politics vigorously for a few days. There was a dragnet search for a candidate to head the ticket. Ben Fendig, the druggist, would have been the choice but Ben can not be tempted by political flirtations. Ed Randle is said to have refused for similar reasons and Nattie Scott would not consent to anything “higher up” than councilman. E\i Gerber was willing but that would precipitate another avalanche of prejudice from Babcock and Eli found the seas too rough for mayorality sailing. It Anally resolved itself into a ease of O. K. Rainier or nothing and O. K. won by a narrow margin.