Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1914 — DEMOCRATIC MACHINE TRAVELS ROUGH ROAD [ARTICLE]

D EMOCRATIC MACHINE TRAVELS ROUGH ROAD

Blunderbus Management, Reckless Extravagance and New Offices Have Created Trouble.

_ - •£ . yr : Indianapolis, Ind., June 3.—Engineers Of the Indiana democratic machine are beginning to realize that the road they will be compelled to travel this year will' be rather rocky compared with the smooth way over which they ran their machine two years ago. The imposing obstacles ,that are now looming up are causing considerable worry and apprehension among the politicians who figure! that the democratic party in Indiana has been committed to their care “to have and to hold.” Two months ago they confidently expected that division in the ranks of the republicans would be sufficient to bring victory to their standard no matter how “strong” they might go in their nominations and manipulations. For a time they refused to accept at their face value the ample indications that ttie republicans of Indiana were rapidly being reunited in their opposition to the free trade party, but at last these 'evidences have been piled so high that they can no longer deceive even themselves that they have a ghost of a show of winning in Indiana this year if they .rely solely on division in the ■republican ranks. The practical disappearance of the bull moose party, as such, has thrown the candidates on the democratic state ticket into a panic. They are railing at the organization leaders and besieging them to “get busy;” they are bringing every pressure possible to bear on President Wilson to promise to make a speech in Indiana this fall in an effort to stem the tide toward republicanism; they are trying heroically to divert the attention of the (Voters of the state from the two real issues—tariff and taxes; they rave analyzed the results of the recent primaries in Indiana, showing great republican gains and startling democratic and progressive losses and they have about come to the conclusion that everything is working together for the good of those who follow the G. O. P. The democratic machine leaders and their state candidates are almost dumfounded by the manifestations of activity of the republican workers in every county of Indiana; the remarkably large attendance at the various county conventions has caused them to sit up and wonder; they seem at a loss to comprehend why thererhas been such a change in public sentiment in favor of the republicans during the past two months. They seem to be unable to realize that the republicans of Indiana, in their recent state convention, nominated one of the cleanest tickets that was ever presented to the voters of Indiana and adopted a platform which has been pronounced one of the most progressive documents ever presented by any political party in any state. -™- = Business, agriculture and political conditions are all working to the benefit of the republican party. The unsatisfactory workings of the democratic tairiff bill are making republicans by the hundreds in Indiana each passing day. That’s the real reason why the democratic machine leaders are waking up to the feet that they have got a hard task cut out for them if they beat the Indiana republican ticket this year. The realization that the bull moose vote In the state this year will not be large enough to materially aid the democratic ticket has given the democratic machine leaders and the state candidates a feeling akin to seasickness.