Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1916 — LETTERS FROM OUR READERS [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

I‘OLITICS IN NEWTON COUNTY Editor Democrat: With the Democratic party in control of state and nation and with a record of progress and achievement behind them that means nothing but Success in the coming election, it is truly regrettable that party . conditions in Newton county are such as they are. While we hope and expect general success in the election, there are many' of us in Newton county who cannot support, much less work for the success of the county ticket as a whole. And this condition has been brought about by the actions of those office-holders at Kentland who have presumed that they are more than a servant of the people. You may not understand the situation in this county as thoroughly as we, but you cannot deny us the privilege of refusing to support those persons who have used the benefits of the office. given them for the detriment of a’ party organ that has fought our battles for more than twenty years, ’during which time there was little or no hope of success. As editor of the Kentland Democrat Mr. Steinbach has ever been loyal to the best interests of the party and the people as a whole, and he is most surely entitled to every penny’s worth of patronage in the hands of Democratic officials.

But because his good sense and honor rebelled at some of the methods and persons being thrust upon the party in, the campaign of 1912, and because he had the courage to speak his thoughts, he has been made the goat of the party since that time. I refer particularly to County Auditor Sizelove. No one will deny that during the campaign of 1912 the Kentland Democrat supported Mr. Sizelove most whole-heartedly and enthusiastically, yet just as soon as he ascended to office he refused to even as much as recognize the Democrat editor, and took particular pains to see that the Democrat did not receive one cent of the large amount of patronage controlled by his office. And he has even been so self-assuming in the matter as to feel that he owed no word of explanation of his acts to the Democratic voters of the county who gave him the office. He. seems to think that the office is HIS. to have and to hold and do with as he pleases, even to the detriment of the only real worth-while Democratic paper in the county. That is why many Democratic voters of Newton county are opposed to the re-election of Mr. Sizelove. When any man becomes bigger and more important than the party he is supposed to represent, it is time he be retired, which will surely come to Mr. Sizelove this year.

Democratic success in Newton county has not served to build up the party, but rather to tear it down, and this must be more fully realized in the future. The ticket as a whole, this year, with the exception of the candidate for auditor, is an unusually strong one. and is deserving of election. - They are not the caliber of men who will usurp the privileges of an office to the detriment of the party’s be= f interests. . . **