Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1886 — Dr Patton as a Reformer. [ARTICLE]

Dr Patton as a Reformer.

Nine Hundred Dolldrs Ahead nnd Nt til got the Land The Democratic Sentinel as well as the other three Democratic newspapers of this senatorial district, repudiate the action of the democratic Convention, held Auguest 11th, 1886, which unanimously passed the following preamble and resolution 34 days after Simon P. Thompson was nominated and 21 days after David H. Patton had announced his. independent candidacy. “Whereas the senatorial field being fully occupied it is the sense of the convention that a nomination is inexpedient. Therefore be it resolved, “That this convention recommend to the voters of this Senatorial District to cast their votes for the candidate whom they individually believe will best subserve the interests of the people. —r- - - M. G. Traugh, John G Perky, Michael Scanlon. Committee.” This is an author ative declaration of the Democracy of this senatorial district, and it is therefore a part of their platform that each voter, untrammelled by party bias, should endeavor to ascertain which of the candidates, if elected would better discharge the important and varied duties of a State Senator. Taking the platform as a guide,, each Democratic newspaper should treat both gentlemen fairly. Last week the. Sentinel very properly published Simon P. Thompson’s account for services as school examiner from Sept. Ist to Dec. 6th, 1871, amounting to. 893. The account is clearly itemized, and the. board of commissioners in allowing the same could have known by enquiry, whether Mr. Thompson had earned the compensation claimed. We venture to say that no occupant of that office since, has performed more faithful service, or presented account of his work. The public and official acts of any officer are a proper subject of enquiry. The Sentinel seems to think that 86,00 was too much for the board to allow for ten lectures. The time and place of each lecture was stated in the account and the board after due inquiry deemed them worth 60 cents erch, and allowed the bill. We may remark by the way, that Mr. D. B. Nowels, while holding the • office, received from one to three times the amount received by Mr. Thompson for corresponding periods of time. Mr. Thompson is willing that all his accounts, reports and publications either as school teacher, school examiner or school trustee should be published. A pioneer in the school work, he wrought many changes in the conduct of our public schools, which time and experience have shown to be wise. It could but result in good, for Democratic newspapers all over the district to rehearse the history of our schools and institutes under, the leadership of Simon P. ThompOn the other hand David H. Patton has also been a school officer, though his career in that field has been limited. In Jun#, 1873, lie was elected as one of three school trustees of the town of Remington, and served until June, 1876. While acting in this capacity in 1875 he was elected treasurer. He owned prior t 01874 some real estate in the town of Remington, including his homestead and an adjoining tract 375 by 18 71 tee t “Hesold and conveyed said real estate in 1874 to Mary A. Lindsay, his wife’s foster mother. The consideration for th# 375 by 187| feet tract was 8500 as seated iu the deed. (See deed record 25, p. 436.) Mr. Patton’s homestead still appeal’s recorded in the name of said Mary A. Lindsay. In October 1875, there was iu the hands of David H. Patton about 81100 of special school fund. On November 4th 1875, he received from Mary A. Lindsay o. voucher for 8900 and a deed was made by her to David H. Patton and his co-trustees, by name, for a part of the 8500 tract, to-wit 150 by 315 feet, with a consideration named therein of 8900, being at the rate of 81340 for the entire tract, which Mr. Patton had himself, about r year before, estimated at 8500, being an increase of 8840 in one year. (Deed record 28, p. 283.) The lot was and still is unimproved. This lot of 150 by 3J.5 feet of ground has ever since been in possession of Mr. Pidtu&fand usScTas a the school town of Remyjgton has neither legal title same. Since Nov. sth, 1875, the special school revenue has been minus 8900, the interest upon which at 8 per cent is 8792, total $1692. The lot was never worth to exceed S4OO and could not now be sold for s3uo. It is unfit in location and character of ground for a school house site-

This is a scrap of history which Democratic voters would do well to ponder. As a piece of financial management Mary A. Lindsay seems to have come out considerably ahead. One of the school trustees, Mr. Nelson, the father of our present county superintendent, opposed the transaction and resigned his office therefor. Mr. Patton and the other trustee, however, consented, and the event took its place in history as’an example of the wisdom, discretion and honesty (?) displayed by David H. Patton in his short and profitable career as a school officer. Compare the official careers of these gentlemen by all means, Mr. Sentinel. Their private characters may be equally as good and we only speak by the record.

The Democratic press throughout the country is pushing the prohibition party movement. Every set of candidates nominated, every move toward the organization of a Prohibition party, is announced in flaming headlines and proclaimed in double leads, as if a genuine Democratic victory. The purpose and intent of this encouragement by Democratic publications is found in this fact: A vigorously worked Prohibition ticket usually secures a Democratic victory, and is sure to reduce Republican majorities. In every Republican state such are~ notoriously the facts. It is equally well known that the Democratic party as a party does not and never has favored prohibition. On the contrary in many instances as in our own state, it is the ally and supporter of the whisky ring, which is avowedly opposed to all temperance legislation. One of the avowed purposes of this partisan prohibition organization is the destruction of the Republican party. In the light of these facts it is not strange that prohibition so-called, and whisky, as represented iu the Democratic party, should be allied. Organized Democracy has never done a thing in favor of practical prohibition, neither have organized partisan prohibitionists. Their influence has always been favorable to the widest license and lowest depths of saloon infamy. It is only where the moral temperance element has come to tne front, and by force of public sentiment, repressed the traffic, that any practical work has been done. The sale of intoxicants is not a universally recognized evil like larceny, and prohibition laws do not receive the general support of the community that ordinary criminal laws do. A prepondering sentiment against the traffic built-up before prohibi—tion laws can be enforced. Such sentiment is not created by nominating tickets and fighting and abusing everybody who does not support them. Neal Dow, tlie noted Prohibition Apostle, and St. John another, have recently shown their insincerity in the temperance cause so completely as to leave no doubt in the minds of all honest men. In the Maine campaign which closed so gloriously for the Republicans, Dow and St. John worked day and night to defeat the Republicans by urging votes for the third party prohibitionists. In their speeches both admitted that their only hope was to draw votes away from the Republicans, and thereby elect the Democratic ticket. Dow in his speeches declared that for twenty years the Republican party of Maine had done nothing for the cause of temperance. Yet he is on record time and again as saying that Prohibition in Maine was a complete success. Let it be borne in mind that the Republican party of Maine gave to the State all iha temperance laws it, .ever, naif, and the conclusion is inevitable, that .Dotf'has either been lying to the people of the country for the last quarter of a century or he lied in the last campaign. —St John, so Dow has said fre - quently this tall, received SSO for each speech he made during the campaign just passed. At two places, Bangor, and Augusta, he refused because the money was not raised. He hai eviI •

dently struck a big bonanza in his fight against the Republican party and/ proposes to make his pile out of it as soon as possible. Terms —cash in advance or no speech. How long will the sincere temperance people be deluded by such hypocrites. -Hammond Tribune. The people of Indiana will cast a serious reflection on their honor if they fail this year to return a Republican majority to the legislature. The gerrymander by the Democratic majority was disgraceful enough to call for a rebuke that will demonstrate the condemnation of the people of that kind of work. The purpose of that measure was to render it impossible for the majority in this state, how- . ever large, to express their will in opposition to the party. In other words, the action taken was in effect such as to prevent any Criticism of that party and its representatives in congress and in the Senate of the United States. The question is whether the voters of Indiana want to be placed in position where they may make their wishes known without having an overwhelming majority to do so. The time to speak out against this work is- this f all, in the next election. There will not be a question before the people of this State any more important to the people of Indiana than this one. It should be kept steadily before the voters.

The soldiers of Indiana should organize at once. The Republican ticket merits the hearty support of every veteran in the state. They should rebuke Cleveland and his sneering "vetoes in Indiana. Down every Democrat at the polls in November who defends him. Assert your manhood by crushing out the party which, by its -rhfamous gerrymandering of the state, practically disfranchised the majority of the legal voters in the state, including the soldiers. Down the entire crew. - The prohibitionists of Newton, jasper and Benton counties met in Goodland last Wednesday afternoon anti nominated Joseph Lockridge, of Benton county, for Senator; Jas. Yeoman, of Jasper,, for Representative; and A. D. Babcock, of this place, for Prosecuting Attorney. Several speeches were made in which the universe was wiped from stem to stern with the mangled remains of the two old political parties.— Goodland HerThat infamous Democratic gerzryjajandering of the state has awakened the honest voters to a realizing sense of the degradation to which they are subjected by being practically disfranchised; and, from one end to tlie ether of Indiana there is a united determination of the people to crush out the party guilty of such brazen rascality. The Democratic party of this state will find that they have bitten ofl more than they can chew. It takes 7,424'-Democratic ; votes, according jo the gerrymander, to elect a state senator, while it requires 15,694 Republican, Greenback and Prohibition votes to elect. By this means a democratic vote is given more than twice the power in electing senator than a Republican vote. The books of the State Treasurer need inspecting. Something is rotten in that quarter. Let the books be opened. The people have the right to make this demand. In vetoing private pension bills President Cleveland used language the most insulting. These were acts of the administration that the Democracy endorsed. J If Jeff Davis is a goo i Democrat and he says he is, the# it is time for every soldier and friend of tpbe the opposite — a good The supplement alone of The Republican, last' week, contained as much “home print ’hs the entire Message of the same week.