Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1908 — SAME OLD GAME [ARTICLE]

SAME OLD GAME

Republicans Resorting to “Scare” and Villification ANYTHING TO RETAIN THE OFFICES Voters Should Consider the Motives Behind These Tax-Eating, Machine Politicians, Who Would Rather Do Anything Than Give Up Their Jobs and Go to Work Like Other People.

Special to The Democrat. Indianapolis, Oct. 27, 1908. The old game of “bluff” and “brag” and “claim everything” is now being played by the Republlplayed by the Republicans, but it is so manifestly absurd in view of real conditions that all well-in-formed persons laugh, and certainly no one is deceived. The simple truth is that the political tide in both nation and state is Tunning overwhelmingly for the. Democrat. The Republican managers know this, but through party organs and machine workers they are putting on as bold a front as they can in the hope that wavering voters may be held in line. The Republican machine will have plenty of money and will use it, even at the risk of getting some of its party workers in the penitentiary, as has already been shown by the attempt to “fix” election boards in Sullivan county and elsewhere.

But in addition to using money, the Republican bosses have been carrying on against the Democratic candidates a campaign of personal slander and detraction. And it has been done in the most contemptible way. Disreputable persons—and even some who claim respectability—have been sent into all parts of the state to whisper vicious lies and to tell “in confidence” all sorts of weird and atrocious tales. It has been told that Mr. Marshall is a “drinking man” and that his wife has to

gravel with him “to keep him straight.” This is simply silly. The truth is that Mr. Marshall is a toJtal abstainer and has been such for many years. This fact and all others facts which go to show that he is a man of the most unblemished character, are not only familiar to all of his neighbors, townsmen and friends, but are also known to the jackals who are whispering the lie.

These things are only referred to here because it is understood to be the purpose of the republican managers during the last week of the campaign to put out a fresh assortment of canards as silly and false as the things that they have already told In ghastly “confidence.” It might as well be remembered that these fellows at the republican headquarters in the Claypool hotel see their grip on the state slipping from them and have become desperate. As the case stands, they have not an honest leg to stand on. The kind of campaign that they have carried on up to date has been about as bad as it could be, and if anything else along the same line is attempted during the last days before the election it will be in the hope that the truth cannot be found out before the votes are cast. The discovery of their “double cross” game, whereby they hoped to deceive both the temperance folk and the saloon people and have them all working solidly for the Republican ticket has thrown the Republican politicians into a panic. It was Hanly on the one side and the Republican chairman at Terre Haute on the other who let this big feline out of the bag. Hanly did it with his mouth and the chairman did it when he took his pen in hand and wrote letters to the saloon keepers. Hanly told his audience to elect Watson and get state-wide prohibition within three years, but the chairman at Terre Haute told the saloon keepers that they could “tie to” Watson and that if they helped to elect him they “would never regret it."

The particular reason why the exposure of this trick has caused such fright among the republicans is that it upsets their scheme to entice temperance democrats into supporting the republican ticket. A broad foundation of misrepresentation and falsehood had been carefully laid and onto this temperance democrats were asked to place) themselves in opposition to their own party. They were expected to forget all that their own party stands for in this campaign, and vote to continue in power that, as a matter of exact fact, stands for everything they do not want. The two-faced, double-dealing character of the Republican campaign is now so thoroughly known that no man is going to be fooled

unless he wants to be. and surely there are not many of this kind. The last week of the campaign has ndw been entered on, with everything indicating complete Democratic success. Mr. Taft’s visit to the state will not, in the opinion of careful observers, lose the Democrats a vote. . Many people turned out to see him at the places where his sumptuous train stopped. They gazed upon Mr. Taft’s ample proportions, got a glimpse of his numerous retainers, attendants, servants, physicians, bodyguards and so forth, and then watched the- departure of the train with unconcealed indifference. No real enthusiasm was anywhere shown. It was mere curiosity that drew the crowds. When it comes to voting, large numbers of Republicans who turned out to “see Taft” will cast their votes for Bryan. Now mark this and see if it does not look like the Democratic part of the campaign is “going some.'* Something like a thousand Democratic speeches vjll be made in the state during the week. The Kern special will be out six days, covering all parts of the state. Several notable speakers will go along Mr. Kern throughout the trip. Mr. Bryan will be in the state all day Saturday on a special train. Itineraries for other noted speakers are being arranged. Nothing like the finish that the Democrats are putting on their campaign was ever seen in Indiana before. The spirit back of it can' mean nothing but victory.