Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1914 — MAYOR OF MARION AGAIN REPUBLICAN [ARTICLE]

MAYOR OF MARION AGAIN REPUBLICAN

Supporter of Roosevelt and Beveridge Sees Future Hope in the Grand Old Party. The Indiana State Journal, the republican state paper which appears from Indianapolis and Muncie, will this week publish a signed statement issued by Mayor James O. Batchelor, of Marion, a progressive party leader in the 1912 campaign, aligning himself again with the republican party on the ground that the abuses within the republican party against which there was revolt in 1912 have been corrected, pnd that principles vital to the welfare of the nation are now at stake which can only be preserved by the reunion of all former republicans in the party of Lincoln. In his statement Mayor Batchelor outlines the fundamental differences between the republican and democratic parties, and declares that the sanely progressive thought of the country is in sympathy with the republican attitude on all great national questions. He says that he supported Col. Roosevelt in 1912, like many other progressives, not because of the Columbus speech, but in spite of it, and declares that the proposals of innovation in the spirit and substance of government in Col. Roosevelt’s Columbus address are incompatible with efficient, popular government. The announcement of Mayor Batchelor is the more important because his private and public record compel the belief that he Is prompted in his attitude by conviction. As an official he has shown a tenacity of purpose and an intensity of purpose unusual in public life. n In his statement Mayor Batchelor says that he was chosen mayor of his home city, not aS a partisan, but on his platform of law enforcement and that he made this plain during his campaign and after his election. Mayor Batchelor was, at the time of his election, a traveling man for a paper and publishing house. Prior to that he was a public school principal; For two years he taught in the Philippine Islands. He has been recognized as one of the ablest leaders of the progressive party in northern Indiana and his cogent, common sense statement of his present position will undoubtedly exert a wide influence. The'last two paragraphs of the statement follow: ; « “I know of no progressive who left the republican party because he disbelieved in the fundamental principles of the republican party. For progressives and republicans who believe in these basic principles, to continue to stand divided against themselves while democracy, like a blight, emasculates the nation’s vigor, Is unworthy the heritage which their forefathers have handed down to them. "I stand, therefore, for an aggressive republican policy, in which the old time principles shall be fought for, In which leadership shall seek not the highest things for themselves, but opportunity for the highest service for others, and in which the honor of the nation shall be preserved.”