Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1909 — THE DEMOCRATS ARE IN EARNEST [ARTICLE]

THE DEMOCRATS ARE IN EARNEST

Republican Leaders Finally Getting Their Eyes Opened. EXTRAVAGANCETO BE EXPOSED

Popular Demand for a Return to Honesty and Economy in Public Affairs, on Which Late Successful Campaign Was Won, Is to Be Met by Democrats in the Legislature, and as a Consequence There is Said to Be No Ent! of Uneasiness in Certain Quarters Where Republican Extravagance Has Been So Largely Manifest. Indianapolis, Feb. 2. —It has finally dawned on the Republican leaders in both houses of the geneial assembly that the Democrats are in earnest about reducing the expenses of the state government. And the Democrats are in earnest. There is not and never has been the slightest doubt about It. The Democratic state campaign was made on the issue that there was wasteful extravagance in state affairs and that the. people were not getting proper return for the high taxes that they have been paying for years. During the campaign of 1906 the Democrats opened fire upon the Republican state management. Attention was called to the rapidly increasing cost of government, the needless multiplication of offices and the general unbusinesslike dissipation of public revenues. The election in 1906 showed great gains for the Democrats everywhere. The Republicans could ouly muster six majority in the house of representatives. But they took no heed of,their narrow escape from overthrow. They went right along piling up expenses, making new offices, increasing salaries and raising tax levies. But the Democrats did not suspend their attack on these things. They kept right on throughout the “off” year of 1907 and carried the fight into and through the 1908 campaign. The party newspapers were wide awake all the time to the importance of the issue, and by facts and figures and arguments drove home their charge that the people were being compelled to pay too much for what they were get ting. Regardless of whatever else may be said, the late successful campaign in Indiana was largely won on the demand for a return to honesty and omy in public affairs. The Democrats were splendidly led. Their national ticket was satisfactory and popular. The nomination of Mr. Bryan himself would have, made it so, but the naming of John W. Kern for vice president added immensely to the strength of the ticket in the state. In the strictly state campaign tlie Democratic cause was superbly championed by Thomas R. Marshall No candidate ever made a more tireless, brilliant and effective fight for the best things his party stood for than Mr. Marshall made from the time he entered the contest until the day of the election.

The result was that the Democrats achieved power, though not full power. The legislature is only half controlled by them. But to the extent that they have power they are trying to use it in fulfillment of their campaign pledges. This week will witness the appointment of a committee to investigate the state offices with a view to finding out how much can be saved. This committee will be joint and nonpartisan if the Republicans in the senate will act with the Democrats in proper spirit, If they will not do this, the Democrats will make the investigation on their own account. There is a good deal of uneasiness, it is said, among the employes in various state offices and institutions about the security of their Jobs. But the Democrats are not going to cut and slash for the mere pleasure of cutting and slashing. There must be efficient government, but it mUBt not cost more than it ought to. No competent and needed official has cause to fear anything worse than a reduction of salary. It will be hard, however, to get an appropriation through the Democratic house for anything that to of no value to the state, and many official sinecures and soft snaps will be found missing from the appropriation bill.

Aunuugu me income u, me nuue government has been large, the management for the past dozen years has been so loose and reckless that it is now impossible to make ends meet without a heavy curtailment of expenses. The ways and means committee of the house finds that it is going to be hard to satisfy the neces sities of the state Institutions and to supply the actual wants of the government. There will be no money for luxuries and little, if any for new projects. The state treasury is already carrying all the load It can stand with the Income it has in sight. The old slogan, “retrenchment and reform," can be aptly applied to the present situation. .• • • There seems to be a misapprehension in some quarters Interested and otherwise, as to the attitude of the Democratic party toward the coutty •ptiori ihw which is now being applied In mr.’ >• ccuntleß of the state. But the situation is simple enough. The Democratic state convention met before the Republican state convention. It planted itself firmly on the propo* sition that the people in their respective localities should settle for themselves the question as to whether liquor should be sold as a beverage In those localities. The Democrats geographially described these localities aa wards and townships. The Republicans when they met in convention later, took a wider geographical view and named the county as the unit preferred by them. Then while the people sere considering their preferences as to the difference, Governor Hanly got busy, called the old Republican legislature into special session and commanded it to then and there “redeem the party pledge.” The result was the passage of the county option law And now the question is what to do about it. The Democratic party is under no express pledge to repeal it, but at the same time it is not in harmony with its platform pronouncement, County after county is voting “dry” with a rather unusual hilarity. Is this because the people like It, or is it merely because it is the newest weapon put In their hands with which to swat the Demon Rum. Now the Democrats, so far as I am advised, have no objection to anybody swatting the demon who is so inclined. They believe in temperance, but they have never been classed as Prohibitionists. They want the. people to have what they want, and they, speaking generally, believe that sound Democratic principles, properly tap piled. will come nearer to giving the people what they want than anything proposed by a party with a narrower view of the purposes of government. So, therefore, what’s to be done about this local option business? I don’t know what is going to be done, but a good deal is going to be said about the matter this week and next week and perhaps the week after. The Republicans up in the senate are saying that the Democrats down in the house will make a “break” and “queer” themselves with this element or that one. But the Democrats in the house will do nothing of the sort. If they pass any bill or bills on this liquor matter it will be to advance the cause of temperance and not to set it back. That being so. the mere method is of no consequence and no “element" can feel that It has a just grievance But there is one tiling that should be remembered by all who are interested, and that is, that so far as the legislature goes it is “horse and horse”—the Democrats controlling one house and the Republicans the other.

Good citizens of ail parties were amazed last week at the obstructive tactics adopted by the.lßepubllean minority in the house to break down the honest election bill introduced by Representative Strickland. Amendments Vere offered which, if accepted, would have left the election laws no better than they are now Bilt the bill passed the house and is now in the senate. Tin- decision of the Democratic state candidates not to contest the late election was to remove all cause for partisan turmoil from the legislature and allow it, to use all of its time for the public business. The decision, however, was coupled with an appeal for a remedy against the voting evils that are possible under the existing laws and that caused the defeat of a part of the Democratic ticket. This appeal has produced a strong effect throughout the state, but it did not at first make much impression on the Republican leaders In the legislature. The cheap politicians who do not see beyond their noses believe that all the ne w foreign voters being imported into this state can be handled for the Republican party, and they think that the work of handling them should not be made too hard. In northern Indiana, the steel |rust, the Standard Oil company and ether large concerns are adding thousands of newly arrived “Hunvaks” to their payrolls, and aeioss the border in Illinois are other tens of thousands within easy reach at election times. If It continues to remain easy to use these men to swell the Republican vote the cheap politicians will rejoice. It is to prevent the misuse of these importations and the evasion of residence qualifications by others that the Democrats are insisting upon the passage of the election bills that they have Introduced. The charge was made early In the session that the Republican leaders In the senate had adopted a program whereby the bills Introduced by Republicans should be pushed rapidly forward, while the bills offered by Democrats should be held back. When this charge was first made there was a denial of lt3 accuracy. But now it Is made again more positively than ev*y

and the facts seem to bear it out. It appear* to be a mere game of partisan obstruction that the Republicans are playing If they can provoke the Democratic majority in the house to retaliation and thus bring about a dead lock between the two house/# and block legislation it will be, they think, great sport. But before this crisis arrives the Republican leaders, by pushing their own pet measures alopg rapidly, and holding back the Democratic bills, hope to get something of their own through and throw the responsibility for 'he failure of everything else on the Democrats, But the latter have served notice that they will not submit to this sort of thing. They stand ready to consider and act upon any meritorious bill, regardless of its authorship, but they will Insist on fair play. Up to date not a man on the Democratic side has shown that he wants to “play politics" at the expense of needed legislation. <

MILLARD F. COX.