Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1907 — THE DEMOCRATIC POSITION. [ARTICLE]

THE DEMOCRATIC POSITION.

A congress which will pass a ship subsidy steal naturally finds it easy to pass a salary grab bill. President Roosevelt has called upon the Democrats in the senate to help him out of several scrapes with his own party, but he throws them Overboard at the first opportunity. Perhaps it will be learned after awhile that Mr. Roosevelt is not as innocent as he looks.

The right of the people to manage their own local affairs should be restored to them. To this end the metropolitan police law should be so amended that the power to appoint and control the members of police boards in the citiesi of the state shall be vested in the cities and not in the governor. Long distance government under the Hanley administration has not only been a miserable failure but a constantly growing irritation.

It is now conceded by the Re* publican papers that there are a good many Republican legislators who refuse to wear the collar provided for them by Boss Hanly. “Anywhere from fifty to eightyfive votes,” says the Indianapolis Star, speaking of the house, “can be mustered almost any time to put an executive measure to sleep. ” As there are cnly forty-seven democrats in the bouse some idea can be got of the Republican disaffection.

It has been made very clear by the Democratic members in both houses of the general assembly that they are both willing and anxious to support measures, which, when tested by the Democratic theory of government, are likely to be beneficial to the people of the state. But the Democrats in the legislature have made another thing equally clear, and that is that they will not assist in the passage of any foolish or unjust law, no matter how it is labeled. If there is, in the end, bad legislature or a failure of good legislation, the responsibility for it must rest upon the Republicans. They are in the majority. They have the presiding officers in both branches. They have all the officers of every kind. They have the chairman of all the committee and a majority of every committee. But, handicapped as they are by these circumstances, the minority members are strong enough to wield a powerful influence and they intend to use it on the right side of every question.

The Democratic members of the legislature have prepared and in-

traduced bills covering every miterial and genuine reform proposition that has been before the people of the state in recent years. These bills have been offered in good faith and for the sole purpose of giving the people wholesome and needed legislation. As to these measures the Democrats are working together. They are not handicapped by cross-pur-poses. If they had a majority the bills for which they stand would be passed, just as in former years, when the Democratic party was in control, the tax law, the Australian ballot law, the fee and salary law, the school book law, the state debt sinking fund law, and other great reform measures were passed. But what the result will be as matters exist can not be foretold with definiteness. In the house there sre forty-seven Democrats and fifty-three Republicans. In the senate there are thirteen democrats and thirty-seven Republicans. And the Republicans are not agreed upon any genuine reform. There is a bitter feud between Governor Hanly and certain members of his own party in both house and senate, which is due partly, at least, to Hanly’s bossism. From present indications, if anything is done that is worth while the Democrats will be in a position to claim large credit for it, though, being a minority, they can guarantee nothing.