Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1919 — RAPS GOVERNOR GOODRICH [ARTICLE]

RAPS GOVERNOR GOODRICH

DOES NOT LIKE CENTRALIZATION PLANNED BY INDIANA EXECUTIVE. | | _” L . Here is another letter from our odd friend, Clarence Fate, of Crown Point, in which terms not ambiguous are used in reference to Governor Goodrich’s message to the present Indiana legislature: ■• . , Crown Point, Ind., " ""“""Jan. 20, 1919. Mr. Mose Leopold, Rensselaer, Ind. 4 Dear Mose:— I have been reading the Governor’s message to the 71-st Session of the Indiana State Legislature. Some message believe me. 'Say Mose—Conditions have been changing mighty fast, or we have been sending a lot of dummies down there in the past. Why, the way I make-him, everything is wrong-g-ex-' cept the State Boundary Lines, and nothing sure about that. If we need all the changes he suggests—we are in almost as bad shape as Russia, and maybe thats giving Russia a shade the worst of it. We’ve been singing “Indiana,” “The Banks of the Wa'bash” and hollering our heads off what a fine State we have, when we are standing on the ragged edge all the time. Justbecause *we have been squandering all our money—nominating and electing men to the State Offices we wanted them to have. All wrong Mose, all wrong. All we would have had to have done, was to have left it to our Govenors, and went on with our Fall Plowing. Funny thing Mose. Just as soon as a Goven-or signs a Thanksgiving Proclamation, right away, he thinks he is the bird who invented that day and that the office he holds, was handed down to him like the family clock. Of course we have got to have these Govenors, same as a ball game has got to have Umpires. But like the Umpires they are not supposed to make the rules neither do they have any thing to do with the Box Score except to see that the game is played on the Square. You know wjiat I mean—We hav’n’t gone down for the third time, we aren’t gasping for breath. We still have life and sense • enough to hire our own players and arrange the batting order. Ail this Bird wants is Ceritralazation of Power. The Appointing of certain Officers—(Meaning everything except the VUllage Night. Watch. H—’ll Mose that’s all the Kaiser wanted. And we just got through arguing that an proved the Kaiser was wrong. Supposing (that Tom Marshall had been called >on to fill the State Offices, while he was Govenor. Fine. Wouldn’t he have chosen some Heavy Hitters. Why he admits, he wouldn’t have known there was such a man as Theodore Roosevelt, if he hadn’t seen his name in the Telephone Directory, or something Ifike that. Why that bird thinks Washington made good, by being the first to cross the Deleware during the Spring Thaws and Abe Lincoln did nothing but split rails. He’d have given us a fine set of brains. If we draw a blank in our selection of a Governor, it isn’t going to hurt much, the way things are now. We are taking enough chances —why go any /further.

Let me tell you something, Mose, the Men who have hatted five hundred or better in this United States League were selected by the people and not appointed, because they could deliver a certain Ward or County. You want to sort of shy at that Appointment Stuff Mose. Because the Bird who does the Appointing, might decide that the brains are all in his family. You know what I mean —Its awful hard not to give your own folks a shade the best of it. You know Your own Kids are always a lot brighter than your neighbors. With the Czar an also ran, the Kaiser spending the winter in Holland and the Crown Prince looking for a Job on The Section-, jt seems to me that the Patent has run out on that Centeralization of Power Stuff. Now I want you to get me right Mose, I am not sore at govenors because you have to 'have them- And I am not sore at our own, because I think he is alright as Govenors go. You know what I mean. If he hit one over the fence, I think he would make first base—ls he didn’t;, fall down.

But I think we ought to find some scheme, to impress it upon these birds, THAT THEY ARE NOT THE FIRST GOVENOR THIS STATE HAS EVER HAD. That they are working for the People, just Hke a hired hand, only more money and no Chores. And arty time the Hared Hand tries to tell you how to rotate your crops Its time to get a new hand or else sell out to him. Hoping that we will make a seventh inning rally and bat these ideas all over the lot, I am, Your f riend, C. P. FATE.