Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1911 — THE DEMOCRATS KEEP PLEDGES [ARTICLE]

THE DEMOCRATS KEEP PLEDGES

Indiana Legislature Rapidly Fulfilling Party Promises. THE LOCAL OPTION MEASURE

With the Enactment of a Law Consistent With the People's Wishes In This Important Direction, and Rapid Progress That Is Being With Other Platform Measures, e Majority Has Proven Its Good Faith.

Indianapolis special: The Indiana Democrats In the general assembly have crossed the county option Rubicon, and whether it spellß defeat or victory for the party in 1912, they are prepared to stand by the decision. When speaking for publication or when making addresses on the floor of the bouse or senate, the Republican members in the general assembly predicted that the doing away with the oounty as the option unit would mean disaster for the party now in power; but secretly they believe that it has added an element of strength, and while they secretly rejoice that the “iniquitous llanly measure,” as It has been termed. Is about to be wiped from the statute books, they are fearful of the effect on Republican, chances two years hence. Carried Out Platform Pledge. In doing away with the county as the option unit, the Democrats carried out the pledge made In the state platform, adopted last April. They ihade their fight with the distinct understanding that if they controlled the general assembly the county option law would be changed. They not only obtained control of the general assembly, but elected every man on the state ticket, twelve out of thirteen congressmen, and made heavy inroads on tha Republicans In com ty races. Representative Wider of Elkhart, a Republican, who voted with the Democrats to change the option unit, made what has been termed the best liquor speech since the county option came up when the fight was on on the floor of the house . last week. Wider reviewed the county option movement In the state, and declared that It had been a failure from the standpoint of the regulation of the liquor traffic, and that the way the people of the state voted last November showed conclusively that they were tired of it and that they favored the party which had promised them that If elected it would relieve them of the unsatisfactory conditions which have resulted from the operation of the law. In Wider’s own candidacy, the county option was made an issue. The Anti-Saloon League and the ministerial association, controlled by the league, made an open fight against him, and he won by an overwhelming majority, after having made It clear to Jiis constituents that If elect-' ed he would help change the unit, If he deemed it practicable. Party Has Strengthened Itself. The real Democratic leaders who have studied the option situation carefully believe that the party has strengthened itself by substituting the smaller for the larger unit. The sensible Republican leaders, who understand the real condition and -who are not moved by tbe “sentimental twaddle of the Anti-Saloon League leaders,” as their arguments have come to be called about the * legislative chambers, will tell you that the chances are that the Democrats have bettered their outlook by changing the law. Temperance radicals have been busy spreading the information that the Democratic party has placed the saloon back in communities where it was not wanted, but the conservative newspapers of the state, whose editors are neither temperance sentimentalists nor creatures of the liquor force J, have made it clear to their readers that the legislature did not provide that a saloon should be set down anywhere the people themselves did not want it. The incorporation of the Moore township and ward remonstrance law in the amending measure, it has been clearly shown, was for the very purpose of preserving to the people the right to prevent the establishment of saloons where they were not wanted.

Adequate Liquor Regulation. Both the Democrats and the Republicans acknowledge, however; that thp effect of the change in the option unit on the Elemodratio outlook will be affected very largely by what the gens ernl assembly does about providing an adequate liquor regulation measure. One IS new under why, drawn by Senator Procter of Elkhart, which Is designed to place the regulation of loons In the state on ai higher plane than even before in the state- This, bill IS scheduled to oosie before' the senate this week for amendment ana

passage, and it is now honestly believed that when the bill Is complete it will satisfy ail the temperance forces except the radicals who have not yet expressed satisfaction with any attempt made by the legislators to clean up the liquor situation. Governor Marshall has his finger on the regulation measure, and the majorities in the two houses are inclined to listen to him. The governor’s program, n understood by the leaders, is to put through a regulation measure that, if lived up to, will take the saloon out of l>olitic« for as long as the law remains on the statute books. A number of Republicans have agreed to help pass the measure If it Is drawn so as to be truly regulative. The Proctor bill as it now stands provides for the restriction of the number of saloons, according to popular tlon, for Increased- license, and for revocation made mandatory for cause. All the leaders in both houses are agreed that if the hill becomes a law it will at once put out of business more saloons than the county option law did in its two and a half years of existence, with Its expensive machinery of county option elections. The Child Labor Question. All the enorgles t of the Democratic majority in the house are being turned at this time toward preventing a serious split over the child labor question. A child labor bill hns been Introduced which places the minimum for the employment of children at eighteen years. The minimum is distasteful to a considerable number of the members, but the union labor forces, headed by Representative Keegan of this city, are standing out for the hill. The committee on labor was unable to reach an agreement, and the majority, In caucus, was unable to come together. It will be thrown out on the flood this week for the members to light It out, and while It Is not expected that the bill will pass In Its present form. It is expected that a good child labor bill will be evolved, but at the expense of the support of the out-and-out union labor men In both the houso and senate Many ftf the leaders are taking the stahd that the union labor forces are unreasonable In their legislative demands on this score, and are roundly assailing Keegan because he will not retreat from the eighteen-year clause. An inclination exists among many of the members to tell Keegan to do his worst* while they refuse to support his measure, although giving to the unlion labor forces a child labor bill that will greatly better conditions in the state. Keegan haß refused to listen to any overtures for a compromise on the question, although the overtures are said to have come from the governpr himself. Compromise Talk In the Air. Just what effect the turning down of the Keegan measure would have on the party in 1912 Is conjectural. The leaders declare that they are ready and willing to carry out the platform pledges on the child labor question, but that they are unwilling to work an actual hardship on Invested capital by adopting a measure with an age limit of eighteen years. The labor unions were much disaffected after the adjournment of the general assembly In 1909, because a number of their demands were not granted, and some of the Influential labor leaders fought the party ticket consistently during the recent campaign. A number of tbe Democrats fear the effects of hostile labor unions in 1912, but are not inclined to purchase their good will, they say, through the enactment of a law which would. In their estimation, drive a number of employers of labor from the state, while throwing out of employment many boys of sixteen and seventeen years of age, now the only support of families, and, many men now depending on these employers for their livelihood. Compromise talk Is In the air, and It Is expected that out of the row’which will come over the Keegan bill there Is expected to come a compromise measure which can be supported by the majority and give actual relief to the child labor conditions in the state.

The Movement For Economy. Party pledges are being redeemed rapidly by the Democratic ma|orlties. The movement for economy In public office is controlling In the legislative expense Itself. Pages, doorkeepers and darks are receiving less money than they ever received before, while printing bills a_ - e falling far short of former sessions. The house committee on ' ays and means and the senate committee on finance have their appropriation bills virtually ready for introduction, and the total appropriations recommended are -some $3,000,000 lower than two years ago for the ensuing two years. Boards of trustees and heads of state institutions have virtually completed their hearings before the committees and have acquiesced in the lesser recommendations made. These institutions are not lobbying as usual, and the bills will go through without the disgraceful conditions which .formerly accompanied the passage.of such bills. Some thirty Mils to increase salaries have been offered, chiefly at the request of officeholders, but It is now a foregone eonolusion that none of them, with possibly a few pressing exceptions, will get through. -