Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1916 — CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE [ARTICLE]

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

The Indiana Forum, an independent Democrat paper, lays the loss of Indiana to the Taggart state organization, which has been too cocksure of success, and have not kept up with progressive ideas. The following article is taken from the Indiana Forum: Truth is a very unkind creature, and yet it must be served. Indiana Democracy has been destroyed by its own child; it has reaped the whirlwind of its own folly. The people of Indiana believe they have chastised the political boss and the regime of the “personal organization.” The Republican party did not win the election in Indiana. The Taggarts, Crittenbergers, Korblys, Bells, Cooks lost The responsibility can not be shifted. This party disaster has been brought about by the ruthless, selfish policy of that inner ring that has ruled the Democratic Party in Indiana for many years with a rod of iron. The Democratic party had nothing to offer the people, but a coterie of big and little bosses in whom the public long since had lost confidence. The result should not have been a surprise. It was to be expected. It was the logical conclusion of recent events within the Democratic party. Mr. Taggart’s own organization was irr-absolute control. It made up the ticket. It had its way in the primary, it had its way in the convention, it had its the platform, it had its way in the campaign. To it be the glory. How well we remember the ridicule heaped upon us during the primary fight when we were telling the state organization that Adair could not be elected! The evidence was clear to all except those who would not see. How wg were scoffed at when we insisted that unless Joe Bell was made to keep his hands off the Marion county situation there was no hope! All that could be said for us then was that we were suffering from sour grapes; that we were playing second fiddle to the Indianapolis News; that we were wild idealists, impractical reformers, knowing nothing about practical politics. On February 26, 1916, in an editorial “Hnnest Democracy and Our Standard Bearer,'” we said: “The honest Democracy is stronger than ever before in Indiana. If it were given leadership in its state ticket that would in

some degree measure up to the leadership of President Wilson and John W. Kern, the Democratic majority in Indiana next November would be the largest in the history of the party. “To attempt to force a machinemade, brewery-supported candidate onto the ticket and to commit the party to a wishy-washy, gold-brick platform dictated by breweries and bosses, is to kill all hope of Democratic success. “What is done in Indiana toward getting a capable state ticket and a party platform that rings true with the Wilsonian administration means more than defeat or victory for the state ticket. It means defeat or victory for Wilson and Kern and it means defeat or victory for the men who spend their money in campaigns for county office. “We want a leader at the head of the state ticket who can get the vote of the honest Democracy of this state and who will appeal to the progressive Republican in this state who doesn’t care to tolerate Hamilton’s methods. "Honest Democracy is against machine rule in the party. There is the most determined opposition to the kind of leadership that gave us the shame of Terre Haute and that has split the Democracy of Marion County in five pieces* “Can J. A. M. Adair coming from the atmosphere of that fatal leadership undo what has been done in the party in Indiana? Can he, with Taggart and Crittenberger behind him. get that great volume of voters who have been crying out against these Taggart-Bell policies for years? “He most certainly cannot. His nomination spells certain defeat. Not only defeat for John Adair, but his nomination immediately jeopardizes the chances of Woodrow Wilson in Indiana, it places John W. Kern where his battle is almost hopeless, it places every county candidate in the place where he not only has to fight his own battle, but he has to fight Adair’s battle and carry the Taggart burden while he fights. '“Mr. Crittenberger and Mr. Van Nuys were present at the meeting of the Irish-American Democratic club in Indianapolis last Wednesday night. They know what took place there. If they are as patriotic to Democratic principles and lo the party as they pretend to be, lot them carry the word to the l owers that be of what took place in that club. Let them tell Mr. Adair and Mr. Bell that revolt is in the air; let them nail this fatal confidence in the ability of the machine to get by with whatever it undertakes. Let them say to those in high places what they must know is true, that a machine slate, even if John Adair is on it, is absolutely fatal to victory in November.” This wasn’t “hind-sight.” We made this statement in February, nine months before the election, it was plain to us that time that the old organization in Indiana was driving the party to destruction and defeat, and it was plain to thousands of progressive Democrats throughout the state. The Democratic party of Indiana would not listen to the progressive spirit that was abroad in the land. The old horses were brought out for the race. There was no attempt made to get a progressive ticket, every effort was made to build a reactionary platform, the brewery crowd was permitted to have its own way in that platform, and then 'the Fleming crowd went to St. Louis and there put Indiana in the attitude of being out of harmony with the national administration. That was true. There was nothing in common between Wilson and Steve Fleming. There was nothing in common between the national Democratic platform and the Indiana state platform. The first was a platform of Democracy; the latter I a platform of brewery plutocracy. J And what happened?

Why, the very brewery crowd to which our leadership had been playing went out and pulled the trap on the party after it had seduced it. Will any Democrat who is in a position to know of what he speaks saj that the liquor vote remained with the Democratic ticket? - < Some of it, yes. Most of it, no. It played its own game. After having put its trade-mark on the back of Democracy so that the vast number of voters who are against the liquor interests would flock to the opposition, much of that liquor vote crept in along with the drys. That is the way the liquor interests double-cross the drys. Tying up in the open with one party, the liquor crowd swung the dry vote to the other party, to which the liquor interests, of course, are tied by a hidden and secret bond. The Democratic having the power to put up its old pensioners, presumed on Wilson’s strength. It proposed to set up its decrepit favorites at the pie counter again, believing that Wilson would pull the ticket through. Having kicked every decent element in the party in the face, when the. fight was on, the organization began to cry, “Line up for Wilson.’’ It urged those who had been insulted, ignored and mocked to “vote her straight,” for fear of losing Wilson. It knew all Indiana contributed was a drag. Mr. Adair went before the people on but one proposition. His-whole case is summed up in this: “Thank God for Wilson.” When he wanted to change the tune a little, he said, “Ralston Paid the State Debt.” But not a word of what Adair did, less of what he intended to do. He sought office on the record of two other men. Let us face the trqth in time to revive and rejuvenate the Democratic party in Indiana. The Republican party won by no merit of its own. Its victory is builded on the demerits of its opposition. The resurrection day is at hand. The day is near when we can have a truly Democratic party in Indiana, a party that will fill the place which would have been filled by the Progressive party had it not been basely betrayed. Democracy is not dead in Indiana. It has asserted itself. It has thrown off its tyrants. Perhaps it has installed other tyrants, but it has at least the novelty of a new master. That such men as Kern, Zoercher, Schlosser and men of their type were dragged down to defeat is deplorable, but it is according to the inexorable law. The just suffer with the unjust. Marion county lost. The state ticket lost. The national, ticket defeated in Indiana. Who led us to this station of circumstances and glory?