Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1900 — About Township Nominations. [ARTICLE]

About Township Nominations.

Next Wednesday is the day set for holding the Marion tp., democratic nominating convention, and Tlhe Democrat desires to make a few remarks on the subject of selecting township candidates that apply not only to Marion township but will apply equally well to every township in Jasper county. Too little attention is generally given to the qualifications of the nominees for local offices, especially to those in which there is no big thing in the way of salary, but the selection of local officers is of much more importance to the taxpayers' than is the selection to many of the offices to which large salaries are attached. The selection for township trustee should fall upon a man of good business qualifications, at least fair education, and, above all, honest and upright in every way. The township trustee handles more of your money than does the county or state officers. For members of the township advisory boards the same qualifications are necessary, especially the latter ones. Make no mistake here. For township assessor a man in the prime of life, a man of sound judgement as to property values and one who will show no favoritism, should be selected. The road supervisors are important offices. See that good,straight, men are selected, men who are interested in good roads and who will see that every dollar of the road fund buys one hundred cents worth of labor or material.

Justices of the peace and constables’ offices generally go begging, but in a township like Marion these offices yield a very fair remu-1 neration, and a democratic justice ; and constable should be elected here by all means. Select a man for justice who has not passed to second childhood and yet has reached a mature age, a man, say, between 30 and 50 years old, and one who will mete out justice to saint or sinner, regardless of his religious or political affiliations. For constables do not select almost anyone “to fill out the ticket,” but nominate good, conscientious men, men whom you would expect to do you or your neighbor, justice in selecting a jury or in the serving of papers. Your pocketbook is sometimes placed at the mercy of unscrupulous justices and rascally constables. See that YOUR ticket is made up of men whom you or your neighbor can each trust. With a good, clean ticket of this character it seems to us that success awaits the democrats of this township next November, but, let the result be as 4 will, it is better to suffer defeat with a clean ticket than to win success with a rascally one. All good citizens are interested in good government, both local and national, and while party prejudice often carries through a bad ticket, the calm, sober-minded, intelligent voter sooner or later recognizes true merit, and ultimate success will finally rest with the party that makes it a point to go into the field with a ticket for which it need make no apology.