Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1910 — PUNISH TON BUT REFORM BAUER. [ARTICLE]

PUNISH TON BUT REFORM BAUER.

Consistency With a String At- \ tached to It, and for Why? It la strange indeed to see a lot of republican politicians in Jasper coup l .y y tearing their shirts oft to keep i democratic bridge grafter out of the penitentiary. The zeal displayed in this matter looks bad, to say the least.—Jasper County Democrat.

The Republican can see no effort on the part of republican politicians to seek to keep Mr. Bader out of the penitentiary. We believe that the feeling of sympathy has been extended to him largely on account of his family and in the belief that he was the victim of a system that was more general than has become known. We believe that-many people regretted to see him go to the penitentiary for 2 to 14 years because they have considered the purpose of the law to be reformatory and not persecutionary. Bader has learned the lesson that his bridges must be built according to specifications Just as well as he would learn it if he served a penitentiary term. He has a wife and five children who need him and he has his means largely in his business which needs hia attention. To send him to the penitentiary now would cause his family untold anguish and possibly result in t£e complete destruction of his business. That would be revenge but we are really glad to know there are some men, both republicans and democrats, who approved of the exposure and of the conviction, but who are of inion that the lesson has been taught and who are willing to extend the gracious hand of aid to the convicted man. The petition that was sent from Rensselaer asking a temporary respite for Mr. Bader was signed by N. Littlefield, chairman of the democratic central committee, by N. S. Bates, J. A. McFarland and prominent democrats who have probably never given the matter of -politics. a single thought and whose action was prompted by a motive higher than politics and - which shows that there are a good many people who are not trying to take advantage of the misfortune of others to political ends. Mr. Bader was a democrat, is a democrat. The .-judge that tried him and the prosecutor that succeeded in convicting him are republicans. The lawyer that defended him 1b a republican. We can see no political significance in any of this and nothing that could possibly be gained to any person in keeping ’’Mr. Bader out of the penitentiary. On the other hand we can see no reason unless it should be one of personal savage vengeance why any one could get any satisfaction in gloating over Bader’s punishment. Worse men than he are breathing the air of freedom under the protection of political influence that are corrupt but Bader had been convicted, sentenced and paroled and we believe that no harm can be done to any person on earth by his parole and we are confident that no political capital can be made out of the fact that*«u democratic governor paroles a democratic convict because good and responsible men of, both parties have recommended it.—Rensselaer Republican. Um. Of course. \ When the state hangs a man for murder it is not to punish him for the crime but to reform ‘him. How unfortunpt# that the person hanged is not in a position ■to appreciate the humor. When the republican attorneygeneral held that Tom McCoy should be released from the penitentiary, in an opinion asked for by Governor Marshall, on the grounds that he was entitled to a dimuni>tion„ N os sentence for good behavior, and acting on this opinion the Governor ordered his release, the Republican nearly had a fit, and jumped onto Gov. Marshall with both feet. It was fiercely venegful against Tom then, to use its own reasoning now, and nothing but the full tierm of his sentence would suffice. ' And yet; Tpm had served some 2 ! yearls of his maximum sentence of three years at that time, and had no doubt learned the “lesson” and the “reform” action had gotten in its work. Tom, t 06,, had a family, and his gray-haired father and mother both went to the grave during his incarceration, the latter at .least driven there through the disgrace brought upon the family and worry over her only son being in prison. Tom was a republican also, and a home citizen, the chairman of the Tenth district republican.

committee, and the sympathy of the Republican would more naturally have gone out to him than to a democratic grafter, as in the present case. Perhaps, though, it did not know then that the policy of the state' was to reform and not to punish, and that the “persecution” of Tom should have ceased with his trial and conviction. Had it knowrf this we do not believe it would have criticised Gov. Marshall so severely for acting on advice of the republican attorney-general. We have always admired the consistency of the Republican, and we* can onlly believe that the error in Tom’s case was one of the head and not of the heart. Now both Robert Parker and Fred Gilman had excellent families, the latter several small children and the former a crippled daughter; both were highly moral men and both were Sunday School superintendents and stood high in their communities. Both were victims of circumstances—they lost money by bad loans and the failure of friends to pay back the monies loaned them as they had promised. When their banks broke and those who had lost money by depositing therein clamored for their punishment, we do not recall that the Rensselaer Republican > f shed any crockodile tears over their goodness or the fact that they had excellent families.

And yet these men did not set about to deliberately rob the people of their respective communities as did the Winamac Bridge Co., the taxpayers of Jasper county. They would gladly have made good if they could have done so. Their acts , were not a hundredth part as bad as the acts of Mjr. Bader, and yet both were punished, and Mr. Parker will probably have to serve fourteen years, if he lives that long a time. If The emqcrat took igfftctnge a part in trying to keep a guilty man from being punished the very people who are taking Bader’s part go enthusiastically now, would say we were trying to shield someone else. We should be just before we ■ are generous, and no grafter was ever defended by this paper.