Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1910 — ROOKER’S VIEWS EXPLAINED. [ARTICLE]

ROOKER’S VIEWS EXPLAINED.

Once Defeated for Nomination, He Now Criticises Democrats.

Some of the motives which inspired William V. Rooker, of Noblesville, to confide cently his “fear” that the Democratic party was doomed to defeat in Indiana unless it followed his advice, are shown in an editorial printed in the Hamilton County Times, a Democratic newspaper published at Noblesville. It shows that Mr. Rooker is merely a disappointed office-seeker, and that If it had been the will of the convention, he would have been glad to run for office on the very platform which he now denounces. The Times says: “There is no reason why Mr. Rooker, as a citizen, should not have his opinions and express them on any subject. He is also at liberty as a Democrat to have opinions on party policy, and he has a perfect right to express them through the press of the State, but he does not have the right to mislead the people of Indiana by proclaiming that he is one of the leading Democrats of Hamilton county, and as such take issue with his party about a plank in the platform made by a convention in which he sought a nomination and which was good enough for him to go into the. contest for a place on the ticket with the platform principles already set out. “That Mr. Rooker is not a leading Democrat of Hamilton county was attested in the last Democratic State convention, when he was a candidate for supreme judge, and only three delegates of Hamilton county cast their votes for him. He is wholly without influence in the party In his home county, and his actions and talk have long ago placed him outside the ranks of the Democratic party.”