People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1893 — Hear Us. [ARTICLE]

Hear Us.

By what rule, or means, can any one measure the difference between Democratic promises, and Democratic performances. The late Indiana legislature adjourned in disgrace.—Ex. That isn’t news. Every one for the past twenty years has done that. We ask a careful reading of our articles denominated “Our Plea.” We earnestly request all to preserve the copies containing them, and when finished read them as a whole. We have so much faith in the justice of our demands that we don’t believe any fair minded man will dissent when he understands them. Hence we beg for an impartial hearing.

A fanner living in Jordan township owning 160 acres of land, half of which is in Jasper and half in Newton, both assessed at $1,200 apiece, paid last year on the Jasper 80 for county purposes (exclusive of all state and township taxes) $5.40. On the Newton 80 he paid for county puposes (exclusive of all state and township tax) $4.04. A farmer up in Gillam has two 80’s, one in Jasper, the other in Pulaski, both valued at $1,200 each. On the Jasper 80 last year he paid for county purposes alone (exclusive of all other tax) $5.40 and on the Pulaski 80 he paid for county purposes alone $3.84. If these figures are not correct we would like for the Republican or some of the county officers to set us right. The official organ is continually harping about us slandering the county officers. What have we charged these officers with? We said the net increase of local tax last year was $13,251. The Republican was forced to say the same. We have said that for county purposes alone ours is among the highest taxed counties of the state, within 14 or 15 of the highest notch. Noboby has as yet denied it. We have said we pay the highest gravel road tax in the state, over $300 per mile. Nobody has dared to dispute it. We have held that the county officers, or at least part of them, are responsible for the unreasonable, uncalled for high tax we have to pay. The question is simply this: is our tax too high or is the tax of other counties too low? If our’s is too high who is to be blamed? We examined the report of the auditor of state and find that if 75 or 76 of the 92 counties of the state do not tax the people enough, then have we unjustly criticised our county officers.

Elsewhere will be found the decision of Judge Wiley in reference to the PILOT—whether or not it was a newspaper of general circulation. The decision was expected by everyone and was no surprise, but it was a matter of gratification to everyone, with the exception of the commissioners who have prostituted their office for spite and a few ringsters. The commissioners have incurred the contempt of every honest man in the county and have insured their defeat should they, in the future, run for any public office. O. P. Tabor, the president of the board, has proven time and again that he would stop at nothing contemptible or dirty to

gain his ends, but the other two members, previous to accepting office, were always regarded as honorable men, and by their course in prostituting their office to be revenged on the PILOT they have done an act which they will always regret and be ashamed of. As soon as O. P. Taber and the other two members were elected to the honorable and responsible position of county commissioner their official acts became public property, so to speak, and therefore were proper subjects of criticism. As for Tabor, our strictures have been of Tabor, the official, not of Tabor, the individual. True, we have said he is bald headed, and truthfully we might have said that while externally his head is as smooth as a billiard ball, it has infinitely more on the outside than it has on the inside. His first error was that he thought the office conferred on him the power to alter the law from what it is to what he thought would serve his ends, hence when the law said “a newspaper published in the county,” he changed it to “a newspaper of general circulation

published in the county,” and refused to obey the law, (ostensibly) because the law was not what he thought it ought to be. But he is now denied this consolation, since Judge Wiley has found “that the PEOPLE'S PILOT is a weekly newspaper of general circulation” within the meaning of the law. His second error lies in his entire misconception of the duties of a county commissioner. He thinks that when elected the office becomes his personal property, and is to be used to gratify his own personal spites and party hates and to reward party henchmen. It has not, nor cannot, enter his thick head and muddled brain (if he has any) that this honorable and responsible office belongs to the whole people, and that he is only one of the chosen agents of the people to see that the law is observed, that justice is done, that the rights of all are respected and that the most rigid economy consistent with a progressive policy in the management of county affairsis practiced. The ideal commissioner, in his office, knows no man or party, but with a clear head, honest heart and firm hand discharges its duties to promote the good of the whole people. How this contemptible whiffet has misconceived and misdischarged the duties of his honorable office we leave the good people of Jasper county to determine. We owe the PILOT readers an apology, or explanation, rather. When we first disgraced our columns and occupied valuable space in the PILOT by writing Tabor's name, we must say that we didn’t believe the man so low and contemptibly mean as he has proven himself. History affords instances where men, by their acts, have become so obnoxious to mankind that it was made a capital offense to speak their names. Tabor is not that bad yet, but he has moved so far in that direction that from our utter contempt for the man and a decent respect for the good taste and opinions of the people of Jasper county, we would never mention his name in our columns again, but for the fact that his missdeeds would never become known were it not for the PILOT, as the subsidized press of Rensselaer makes 1 a specialty of suppressing facts which might incur the enmity of this czar from Carpenter township.

We begin this week a series of articles, entilted, “Our Plea,” and we ask at the hands of our school teachers, ministers, lawyers, doctors, business men, politicians, wage-workers and farmers, a patient and careful reading of what we have to say. We may be in error. we may not read the signs of the times aright, we may misconceive the

trend of national affairs, but we don’t believe that we do, and being possessed of that faith, we are confident that we are nearing a great national crisis unless we effect many changes in our social and political affairs. And so believing we speak and ask for a patient and impartial hearing.