Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1914 — CAMPAIGN OPENS FOR DEMOCRACY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CAMPAIGN OPENS FOR DEMOCRACY

Gov. Ralston Arraigns Detractors of State Administration. FACTS AND FIGURES 6IVEN Shows by Comparison That State’s Business Has Been Economically Administered—ln Full Accord With President Wilson. Indianapolis, Sept. 16.—Governor Ralston opened the Democratic campaign in Indiana at Tomlinson Hall last night, and it was filled to overflowing. In his speech the Governor handled the detractors of the Democratic State administration without gloves and proved by facts and figures that the charges upon which the opposition is harping are malicious misrepresentations. Preceding the meeting there was a parade, and different sections of the State were represented by delegations. The meeting was a fitting opening of what is destined to be a successful campaign for good government and the Democratic hosts of Indiana. The Governor said, in part: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is my privilege and honor to speak tonight as an humble representative of the Democratic party. I believe this party should succeed in Indiana this fall. It has made its mistakes, as all parties have, but it has survived them and withstood the criticism and the storms of a century, because it is an honest party and its principles are the basic principles of this Republic. Its record of achievements is a sufficient guarantee of its ability to'withstand the attacks now being made upon it by rival organizations and a hireling press. Personally I have no desire to sidestep any question or issue that should be discussed in this campaign, hovFover unimportant it may be. The

public is now admonished to repudiate the Democratic party in this State, it is claimed that the record of the Democratic legislature of 1913 will not bear inspection, and that is speaker, Homer L. Cook, now the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, made a bad record as Speaker. Do these charges deserve serious consideration under all the circumstances? During the session of the legislature of 191.! the three daily newspapers of Indianapolis had numerous representatives present at every session of that body, who saw everybody and everything that took place; and these newspapers never at any time intimated that its deliberations were corruptly controlled. No one of them up to this hour has charged the bribery of a single member, and yet the press bureaus of both the Republican and Progressive parties are daily sending out stories designed to convince the people that the last legislature was one of the worst morally in the history of the State. I cannot in the time allowed me on l this occasion discuss all these stories. The most I can do. thcreforb, is to call attention to a few instances of the unfair methods parties are resorting to.

Senate Bill 423. And first 1 want to say something about Senate Bill 423 that increases the salary of the Recorder of Lake County to seven thousand dollars a year. This bill was approved by me as governor, because it came to me in the usual way, properly signed by the president of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. lam now convinced that in its pretended passage two or more persons purposely worked a fraud on the Legislature and the public. Who they are I do not know. I may have my suspicions, but suspicions are not legal proof. But if any one thinks Lam not trying to find out who the guilty parties are, let me say to him that he does not know me. Speaker Cook denies having knowingly done anything wrong in connection with this bill. The presumption is in favor of his innocence. He challenges his critibs to point to a single corrupt act on his part; and I owe it to him to say that I do not believe that, when he signed this bill at the time he signed several others, he recalled that it had previously been indefinitely postponed by the House. Senate Bill 423 was" introduced in the Senate by Senator Gavit, a Progressive, to increase the salary of the recorder of Lake county, one of his Republican constituents. The biR passed the Senate and went to the House, where it was taken charge of by Representative Van Horne, a Republican, of Lake county. One Poland, Republican county chairman of Lake county, was a lobbyist for this bill. He is now the deputy recorder of Lake county, and I have heard the

statement made that he was to receive for his salary as deputy recorder the increase provided for by this biff. Senator Gavit says that he had heard his bill was defeated in the House, and the first he knew it had become a law was when he discovered it in the public Acts; yet the biU had been returned to the Senate and its return announced to the Senate. It was enrolled in the Senate after its return thereto, and afterwards the president of the Senate announced to that body that he had signed it. I wonder why he did not discover the bill he was interested in had been returned to the Senate and :ha!fi been mgned by its president. * Senator Gavit has been renomi Bated for the Senate, by the Progressive party. Van Horne has been nominated by the Republicans to come back to the House. This bill was fathered by the former and was championed in the House by the latter to help a Republican official and the Republican county chairman of Lake county. These are circumstances that every man must weigh for himself. One thing is certain, however, no Democrat was to be benefited by this legislation. Another thing is also certain: This combination between Republicans and Progressives resulting in the deception of a Democratic legislature will not succeed in arraying Democrats against their party. And I would suggest that; instead of talking so much about Cook coming off the Democratic ticket, common decency requites that Republicans and Progressives should give a little prayerful consideration as to the advisability of removing Van Horne and Gavit from the tickets they adorn. I am not here to assert that Cook did not make any mistakes, while acting as Speaker. Who, among hiS predecessors, had a perfect record? 'But I am here to demand that the scurrilous hounds baying at his heels, either make a specific charge of his official crookedness, or else retire to their kennels, whipped into silence by public scorn, if not conscience stricken. While the Democratic party has been severely assailed by its opponents because this bill found its way into the Acts of 1913, the people are to be congratulated that it is clearly unconstutional and its intended beneficiaries will not in the end be benefited. The same statement can be made regarding Senate Bill 499, known as the deputy assessor’s bill and House Bill 360, known as the assessor’s bill of Calumet township of Lake county., about which we haveheard such wild declamation.

From the outcry made by Republicans and Progressives against the legislature of 1913, one is almost persuaded. to believe that that session was the only one in the history of the State in which there was anything irregular. But not so. Democrats will not blush, if they elect to make a comparison of the records of Democratic legislatures with those of Republicans. But speaking of legislative methods, the people have not forgotten that specimen of Republican methods which they applied to rhy friend Myron King, who was secretary to Governor Matthews, when they tried to imprison him in the state house elevator. Their “patriotic” purpose was to prevent him from reporting the Governor’s veto of a bill to rob the executive of his rights and grab a few Republican jobs for janitors in the state house. Some Republican Record. The people of Indiana have not forgotten the history of the famous Baking Powder Bill, that figured in the Republican legislature of 1901. A local concern in Indianapolis sought to sechre the enactment of a law, prohibiting the sale of baking powder containing certain chemicals, among which was “bitartrate of potassium.” After this bill had 1 passed both branches of the legislature the words “or bitratrate of potassium” were erased therefrom and in its mutilated condition the bill was approved by a Republican governor. Serious charges of the crime of mutilation were made by men of high standing in the Republican party against other Republicans of high standing in this State. At that time all the peace and judicial officers of Marion county were Republicans, but no one was prosecuted for this unlawful act. More than that: The Indianapolis News did not demand the prosecution of the guilty party, or demand the defeat of the Republican party because of the commission of this crime. On the contrary it has stood in every campaign from that time to this for the election of Republican State tickets and Republican legislatures. In the Republican legislature of 1907, House Bill 633 “prescribing a method for the preparation of ballots for the proposed constitutional amendment” passed both houses, but the bill was side-tracked. It never found its way into the Acts, and no one ever heard of anyone of the Republican papers demanding the defeat of their party, or criticising any of the Republicans of the legislature of 1907, because of the mysterious history of that hill. But what a monstrous! crime the history of that bill would have been had the legislature of 1907 been Democratic! Again, the Senate Journal of the Republican legislature of 1907 at page 1624 shows that an important amendment affecting the rights of citizerts in their dealings with foreign corporations, offered to Senate Bill 127, was defeated. Yet the Acts of 1907 at page 287, contains this amendment as passed. What convincing evidence this would have been of the unfitness of the Democratic party to be entrusted with power, if the legislature of 1907 had been Democratic instead of Republican! Comparison of Expenses. The Honorable Howard Maxwell who presided over the recent Republican State convention, indulged in certain comparisons for the purpose of showing that Democratic administrations are more expensive than Republican. He dealt with certain items of expense under the Marshall and Ralston administrations, comparing them with similar items in the Republican year of 1908. He pointed out that the increase in the offices he chose for comparison had been respectively 23 per cent, 44 per cent, 45 per cent, 70

per cent, and as high as 361 par ewt —the latter being an increase of sll,723.96 in the office of State entomologist. Had this versatile gentleman gone further into State expenses, he could have shown that the Republican expenses in 1907 over Democratic expenses in 1893, the fast year the Democrats were in full control till 1911, was 245 per cent in the Governor’s office, 158 per cent in the Secretary of State’s office 248 par cent in the Auditor’s office. 249 per cent in the office of State Librarian, 274 per cent for the Board of State Charities. 014 per cent for the State Board of Health, and 2360 per cent, in the office of Commissioner of Fisheries. Experience has shown that the only thing the average Republican could conscientiously do when called upon to give an account of his official conduct was to respond, “I have got the money and what are you going to do about it.” He could not explain. The Republican press of the State has been complaining about certain increases of salaries by the last General Assembly, in such a manner as to mislead the public. The General Appropriation Bill passed with only two votes against it in the House and six in the Senate, all Democrats; so if any injustice was done the public in its passage Republicans and«-Progres-sives must assume their part of the responsibility for the wrong. A few of the items going to make up the charges laid against the present administration and the last legislature largely show the character of the whole bill of particulars filed against the Democratic party in this campaign. It is claimed that there was an increase of SB6O in certain' salaries of clerks in the office of Secretary of State, made by the General Appropriation Bill. What are the facts? Instead of an increase there has been a decrease in the operating expenses of this department, and a saving to the people of $940 a year, by Mr. Ellingham, the Democratic Secretary of State, transferring an SI,BOO clerk to the automobile bureau, a self-support-ing department. But the business of that office has greatly increased. For the two years ending September 30, 1894, under a Republican secretary, the total receipts of the department were $76,487.20 and it required four employes to take care of that business; while for the two years ending September 30, 1913, eighteen years later, the total receipts amounted to $415,124.43 and but one more employe was required to take care of the business than in the former year. Republican papers are also crying out against the appropriations for the office ,of Attorney General under the present administration, although there has been an actual saving of $l,lOO per year since Honan came into office. Another charge is made that a salary grab of SSOO was made by the Reporter of thte Supreme and Appellate courts through the last legislature. What did occur was a readjustment of salaries in this office with the appropriation remaining the same as before. Mr. Zoercher has in fact saved $360 per year, while giving notably good service to the public. And we are told that the Democratic. legislature of 1913 committed a wrong by increasing salaries in the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The total increase for this office was $2,470, fifteen hundred dollars of this amount being added to the salary of the superintendent, making it $5,000 a year. This increase was recommended by the visiting committee, was in the original appropriation bill, and was based on sound business policy. The ability required to meet the duties of this office could no longer be commanded for $3,500. In eight years two Republican Superiatendents reported and collected in teachers’ license fees the net sum of $693.40; while in a period of five years the Democratic Superintendent R. J. Aley and Charles A. Greathouse paid into the State treasury out of the money received for similar fees the net sum of $9,337.95. There should be added to this $2,000 more that Greathouse will pay to the treasurer in a few days, making a total of $11,337.95. How do you account for this sudden increase of these fees under Democratic officers? Yet we are told Democrats should be turned out of office and the State delivered over to the Republicans because Greathouse’s salary was increased $1,500. False reports have been sent broadcast over the State regarding the Auditor of State’s office. The critics have not the common honesty to admit that under Auditor O’Brien this great office is being run on, strictly business methods. The record show's that the total fees and licenses collected by the Republican Auditor of State in 1908. was $452,070.77, while the total fees and licenses collected hv the Democratic Auditor of State in 1913 was 567,040.53 or an increase of $!♦!,969.76. The original aopropriation bill of 1913 carried an increase of S2OO on the recommendation of the visiting committee, to the salary of the accountant in the treasurer’s Mr Vollmer did not ask for it, but the Legislature made it and in doing so it acted wisely. Tinrie forbids my pointing out all the inaccuracies and falsehoods sent broadcast over the State by the marplots of a hireling press against the management of State affairs by the present administration. No department, however efficient, has escaped the venom of their scorpion 1 tongues. They have not hesitated to attack the last Legislature for a small increase in the appropriation made for the Bureau of Inspection, in which labor is vitally interested —characterizing this increase as a salary grab in the face of the fact that under the active supervision of Edgar Perkins it will cost $1,200 less to operate this bureau this year than it did last year The charge is made by Republican leaders and their press bureau that the policy of the last Legislature was “Johnny Grab it all” and in support thereof they charge an increase of a thousand dollars in the salaries of “the employes at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument,” all of whom are old soldiers. It would seem that this is going to the limit. Nothing like it was ever before promulgated in any campaign. Old time Republicans

GOVERNOR RALSTON.