Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1898 — BRYAN’S DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY. [ARTICLE]

BRYAN’S DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY.

The improvement on Front t street is a good example of the K '‘business management’ of the present City Council. After a hedvy rain there is almost water enough on the street to‘float the Spanish navy. C H The Democrats of this city nominated a business ticket last Friday evening which if elected is pledged to reduce expenditures. Had a majority of the present Council | been men like those nominated by the Democrats last Friday the tax payers of our city would not how be struggling to meet a tax levy of $3.49 on. the hundred dollars. A vote for the re-election of the present Council is an endorsement of ; their official acts which made a $3.49 tax levy on the hundred dollars possible.

We are pleased to note that we ; have so far received courteous j treatment from the press, of this ] and adjoining counties with but | one exception. The Chalmers j Ledger a little 2x4 sheet, (Geo. Healey editor.) published at a flagstation on the Monon in W hite county, makes a personal attack Upon the editor of the Democrat, l Among other charges of a personal nature he says that the editor is a man without brains. Consider- j i ing the source from whence these •charges came we shall make no reply. It is not the province of a newspaper to make personal attacks upon individuals. When an ’editor l>elittles himself by so doing he ceases to be a gentleman, and becomes a disgrace to the profes-sion—-an object of pity rather than ■ In the series of articles, on tin ■fNew Court house,’ - which will np~ ■tear in the Democrat from time Bp time, we shall endeavor to give B history of all the proceedings reBeting to it from the first negotiaBonswith the architect, until the Hpiicture is a complete edifice. m r « shall trace the steps taken by Be board of eommissiouers. scanBnp- each item of expenditure as it Uppears of record on the records Bind files of the Auditor's office and Eat the public judge ns to the wisRom of their official acts. We look Spoil the new building as a "thing Bf beauty” but believe ns we trace Be expenditures from the first roBrt of the architect, to the final, Bmpletion of the building, that pe taxpayer will unite with us in \ ■tying that “it cost to much.” ■On December 10. 1895 the board | Bceived the report of one Alfred | Bindle an architect, who it seems Be hoard had previously employed ■ report on the condition ofVthe Bd court house building. Grindle ■ported that the building was un■e and dangerous and the health Bd lives of the county officials Bre jeopardized by n longer use B the old building, and “that said Hiding could not be repaired." therefore the board” resolved to time to time to consider Kd decide upon plans for anew gß*rthouse.” (Bee commissioners Hsord 10, pages 172-3.) iSFhe records disclose but little Bd the subject until February ■ 1896 when the board in special Obion made the following order. BHha board after careful considernow selects Alfred Grindle .f Wayne. Indiana as architect HRlrnw up the plans and speciticaBB&, for a new court house.” ||lh commissioners record 10. |||ft>te the fact that the same archiemployed to draw the |As and specifications fora new pot house that had condemned Mr. Grindle probn|l|aknew his business wlieti he the old one for it is a WM of the business of his proses-

sion to pull down and build up when the money consideration is is sufficiently large. He was first appointed by the board no doubt with the understanding that he was expected to report ‘fright,” as the board wished to have their names engraved upon the corner stone ©f a new “Temple of Justice” even if it did cost the tax payers SIS2,(XX) to do it, so that their grandchildren might point with pride to the work of their sires, as they went to pay their taxes to liquidate the debt their said sires had created. The condition of the walls of the ... >' old building was thoroughly j tested when the workmen attempted to tear them down with pick and sledge* but found it so difficult that dynamite was resorted too. A heavy charge was placed under the corners, and the citizens of the town were almost thrown out of their beds at 4 o’clock the next morning only to arise and find the wall without so much as a crack to show the force of the explosion, and all this in the face of the fact that Mr. Grindle had reported the walls cracked and liable to fall, lead us to the conclusion that he was acting under instruction. In our next , article we shall speak only from the record.

Our friend Clark of the Journal seems to think that the only way to answer the statement made in the last Democrat on local politics, is by attacking the business I record of the editor. Now if Bro. Clark wants to make a “bit” he will have to do it in some other way. The Public has no interest in a man’s business or private affairs and no decent or self-re-specting newspaper will allow., anything of this nature to appear in its.columns. We might a.iswer in the same way but we will not do so. The “search* light* of investigation if directed on his past record might reveal some “unholy spots” that the public does not need to know. Now if Bro. Clark wants to disprove the charges of the Democrat let him publish a list of the City’s I obligations, and also the amount of bonds issued for the court house and such other bonds as the county has guaranteed the payment of and give his readers the sum tqtal and let the public be our judge.

I want all of you to know that at last we have written a definition of democracy that is broad J enough to reach from the Atlan--1 tic ocean to the Golden gate and from the lakes to the gulf; a definition of democracy that is broad enough to furnish the faith for those who believe in the prin-j eipies of Jefferson and those of Andrew Jackson.

“There is one thing that makes me love democracy aad that is when you get down to the real principles of democracy, when you get dow>: to those fundamental principles proclaimed by that great sage, who organized ; the party, and advocated byJackson in his day, * you have principals that are so comprehensive that they will solve every question and so simple that they can be understood by every citizen. These principals are now the.foundation of the democratic party, and as democracy today stands for equal rights to all and special privileges to none, we have a party definition -* and a creed that can be as popular in one section of the country as in another, because it does not mean harm to any living soul, it does not mean menace to anv existing right; it simply-means the bringing of this government back to a time when it will protect with an equal hand all the citizens, rich jimLpoor, high and low, and preserve "to each the right to life, to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and it is because democracy has dug down and found this foundation principle that our democracy does not terrify the

silver republican, who loved the ;< repulicanism of Abraham Lin- u coin and hates the republicanism h of Mark Hanna; and it .does not; terrify the populist, who loves ji alike the democracy of Jefferson |i and the republicanism of Lincoln.