Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1915 — WHAT A REPUBLICAN PAPER THINKS OF IT. [ARTICLE]

WHAT A REPUBLICAN PAPER THINKS OF IT.

The indictment of . Tom Taggart and a host of Democrats, Republicans and Progressives in Marion county for alleged election fraud? and irregularities will not excite any particular astonishment in Indiana. Indicting them and proving them guilty are horses of two entirely difl'orent colors. This paper finds it difficult to work up any hysterics over the indictment of Taggart and believes that he is no worse than, numerous other political bosses who lead the dear people into the barnyard where the trough nestles and then permit just who they want to feed at the trough. If Taggart is guilty or if any of the indicted crew are punished on the charges brought against them we shall say "Amen.” We have always stood for the purity of the ballot and no paper printed in Indiana can point to its files and show a more consistent fight against corruption at the polls than The •Times. Tito -memorable Cary campaigns of years ago when election practices were carried to such a degree of scandal that they reached depths hitherto unknown will never be forgotten in this office where the fight against the shameful methods was carried on single-handed. The recent Terre Haute stench is fresh in the public nostrils. If the Indianapolis scandal is of the same calibre we can only pray that it be fully exposed and the political cancer cut out. It will be interesting to note now the attitude of the holier-than-thou Indianapolis and down-state papers who were wofit to hold their noses between the thumb and first finger an,d “phew” distressingly whenever the cities of Gary, East Chicago and Hammond elections were mentioned. Everyone up here when our own cities were experiencing growing pains, when election riots and sensations succeeded each other, knew that conditions were just as bad in Indianapolis and elsewhere. .