Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1906 — THE DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS. [ARTICLE]

THE DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS.

When the legislature meets the republican state machine will get busy with its own special "reforms,” Of all such the democratic members will be properly suspicious, The last session of the present congress will meet December 3. There is nothing to prevent the Hon. Fred Landis and the Hon. George Washington Cromer from answering to roll call, but the country will survive if they don’t. When the legislature convenes next January some effort should be made to find out how it is that the school-book trust has been permitted to hold up the parents of Indiana. Here is a chance for reform that Governor llanly has not talked about. Now that the election is over there is no reason why PostmasterGeneral Cortelyou (who is also chairman of the republican national com mi i tee) should not take steps looking to the return of the money filched from the New York life insurance companies and used in the 1904 campaign. The democratic party stands for honest and beneficial reforms all along the line, but it wants no shams, counterfeits or false pretenses. In Indiana the record of the democratic party is clear. It has to its credit the passage of practically every genuine reform law put in the statutes during the past thirtvNj'ars. Some scared republicans want President Roosevelt to call a special session of the fiOtli congress, to meet immediately after March 1, when the present congress ends, to take up the question of tariff revision. It is not known what Mr. Roosevelt will do, but the country has cause for alarm. Whenever the tariff has been ‘‘revised by its friends” it has been revised upward and the trusts have rejoiced. It is a sure ““thing that tin re will be no decent tariff reform so long as the Joe Cannons and the Dal/,ells have any inti lienee in congress. If any republican member of the legislature believed fora minute that he was going to have an independent part to play in the work of the coming session he has had the idea knocked out of his mind. Governor Hanly, acting for the state machine, has already chosen the speaker and the heads of all the committees. Pretty soon he will have men picked out for all the doorkeeper and clerical po-

eitions. If any republican waute a job or ba4 a pet notion about some sort of a bill he should see the governor. It is not worth while to bother a member of the legislature. More than a week before the supreme court made public its decision in the Sherrick trial, it was stated in the Indianapolis Star, and afterward in many Indiana newspapers, that the court would reverse the verdict of conviction and give Sherrick his freedom. This is just what the court did, but the wonder is how the fact became known in advance. Some one either made a good guess or else there was a leak.

Although the republicans have a majority in the lower house of the general assembly, the membership is so evenly divided that a great responsibility will rest upon the forty-seven democrats who hold seats. But they are all men of such character and ability that there is no question as to their attitude toward proposed legislation. The democratic party has been the real reform party in Indiana, and its legislative record, made against republican opposition, is one to be proud of. No honest and needed reform measure has ever appealed to democratic legislators in vain, though they have never acted hastily or vindictively. The passage of a law is always a serious business, and frequently involves a careful consideration of many things. Differences are to be reconciled to the single end that the completed work shall be for the public good. Many important matters will come before the legislature next winter. There is much to be done and it ought to be done. The republican party has been in •control of the legislature for* twelve years. Much of the work it has accomplished has been an abomination, atid the needed things that it has left undone are legion. The democratic members of the house and senate have an opportunity to make their power felt at the coming session “Such as they have not had in many years. The republicans will try to “play politics” from the start, but the democrats should keep their eyes steadily on the people’s interests all the time. That is the best way to block the partisan game which they will tind themselves up against. Let them stand shoulder-to-shoulder for everything that is really good, and shoulder-to-shoulder against everything that is bad.