Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 117, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1904 — ITS UP TO THEM [ARTICLE]

ITS UP TO THEM

Indiana Democratic Leadership Given Chance to Make Good. SINCERITY OF PLATFORM CLAIMS Challenged by the Governor and the Alternative Offered of Demonstrating the Correctness or Confessing the Falsity of Their Charges —An Opportunity to Swell the Campaign Furi'cT Which Remains Unembraced. In an open letter to Hon. W. H. O’Brien, chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, Governor Durbin offers a splendid opportunity to the Democratic organization to “make good” on Democratic platform charges against the state administration. In fact he offers to help swell the Democratic campaign fund if the facts regarding the character and purpose of institutional management are made public by a method readily available. The letter follows: Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 24, 1904. To the Hon. W. H. O'Brien, Chairman Democratic State Central

Committee, Indianapolis, Indiana. Dear Sir: In the platform unanimously adopted *t the state convention of the Democratic party, upon which its several candidates for state offices and the general assembly are making their campaign for election, appears the following: “The administration of Governor Winfield T. Durbin is a mournful and humiliating illustration of the decadence of the Republican party in Indiana under its present leadership. Through his persistent endeavors to build up a personal political machine, the efforts of his Republican and Democratic predecessors to put the state benevolent and penal institutions on a nonpartisan basis have been nullified. He has insisted on thd control of subordinate appointments,” etc.

Either these charges are true or they are untrue. If true, the conduct of state affairs during the past four years, and its endorsement at the Republican state convention, deserves the disapproval of the people of this state and amply warrants the retirement of the Republican party from power in Indiana. If untrue, if known to be untrue when they were given utterance through a state platform, and if unsupported by any substantial evidence, they call for popular condemnation, not only because the bearing of false witness in a matter so important to the people of Indiana would be an offense as dishonest as the malfeasance it alleges, but because it would have a vital bearing upon the sincerity of your party’s platform pronouncements with reference to the attitude of those nominated by your convention toward the state’s penal and benevolent institutions in case of their election. Of course nothing could be hoped for from an administration elected upon false pretenses, and If these candidates propose to revolutionize conditions in Indiana institutions should they be entrusted with responsibility, it is important that we should know what present conditions really are

Happily there is available a method of determining the truth or falsity of these plain statements in your party platform The law of the state provides for democratic representation upon all the institutional boards of the state except that of the state prison, and upon this board I have voluntarily placed a Democrat. Upon another board, that of the institution for the education of the deaf and dumb, I have placed two Democrats, constituting a majority of the board, because the second Democratic apointee possesses qualifications which I desired to press into the public service. I have appointed upon these board* men whom you will call representative Democrats when you have seen the list, substantial business men of unquestioned probity and of sufficient public spirit to make certain their careful attention to the duties entrusted to them. The sacred duty imposed upon these men, particularly because of tuelr membership In the opposition party, Is that of preserving the institutions of the state, which belong to all our people, against any effort to prostitute them to personal or partisan ends. There is not one of these men who would be suspected by those who know them of a disposition to betray a private trust. There is not one of them who Is not serving the state at a personal sacrifice, because nothing approaching adequate compensation for their services is or could well be provided by law 1 , and therefore there is no one of them who is under any obligation to me for the appointment held by him, particularly in view of the fact that these appointments have been made on the basis of manifest fitness and not as tbe result of personal or political pressure. Even if any of them could be suspected of such base cowardice as would impel them to remain silent in the face of such prostitution of. the state’s Institutions as your platforrri alleges, no one of them will com j before me for reappointment.

I ■ ... Tb'sy are, therefore, free to speak, and not only free, but in duty bound to bear witness in this matter if the dec 5 ' larations of the Democratic state platform upon the subject indicate anything* less than the stultification of. its framers. I have, therefore, to make publicly this proposition to the Democratic state central committee, earnestly urging its acceptance. I ask you to submit to each of the gentlemen hereinafter named, the representatives of your party on the several institutional boards of management, the plank from which your state platform on Institutional management, which I have quoted, and to secure from these gentlemen statements which I hereby ask them to give freely and without reserve, setting forth the attitude of the executive toward these institutions during their several terms of service, the fact as to whether or not there tyas been any intervention whatever on my part other than for the promotion of the interests of these institutions, whether or not there has been any effort on my part to dictate the appointment of subordinates, and whether or not as a matter of fact, personal, factional or partisan purposes have been sought to be served by me in any degree in the manage ment and control of these institutions. If your committee will secure these statements and will cause them to be published, I hereby bind myself to contribute one thousand dollars to your campaign fund and to have printed and distributed a sufficient number of copies of this document to ensure its being read by every taxpayer in Indiana. In view of the further statement of your state platform that "a subservient legislature has promoted his (my) design by passing the iniquitous ‘ripper’ bill in the face of a storm of disapproval,” I will increase

the amount of my contribution five hundred dollars if you will secure and cause to be published in connection with these other statements a statement from Mr. D. J. Terhune, Democratic member of ? the Board of Trustees of t£e Indiana reformatory both before and after the so-called “ripper” bill was passed, cohflrihing the charge in the platform and further that the conditions 1 existing in the Institution are not so good now as under previous managements. For your convenience in forwarding the inquiries suggested, and as indicating the character of the appointments I have made to these boards from your party, I submit herewith a list of the Democratic members of Institutional boards: Central hospital for Insane —Eli Marvin, Frankfort, banker, and business man. ;; 71 1 ■ Eastern hospital for insane—Adam Heimberger, New Albany, business man, formerly candidate of Democratic party for secretary of state and clerk of the supreme court. ' Northern hospital for insane— Henry A. Barnhart, Rochester, editor Rochester Sentinel, the Democratic organ of Fulton county, and president of the national organization of independent telephone companies. Southern hospital for insane—Lee Rosenbaum, Mount Vernon, merchant. Institution for the education of the blind —John F. Hennessey, Indianapolis, of the Vandalia railroad, originally appointed on the board by Governor Matthews. State soldiers’ home—Louis B. Fulwller, Peru, retired soldier and business man, formerly publisher of the Democratic organ in Miami county, and Eli W. Menaugh, Salem, editor and publisher of the Democratic organ of Washington county. Institution for the education of the deaf and dumb —William P. Herron, Crawfordsville, banker and business man, and Professor H. B. Brown, Valparaiso, founder, president and proprietor of the Valparaiso normal college, one of the largest and most successful educational and business enterprises in the United States. Soldiers’ and Sailors’ orphans’ home —Col. William R. Myers, Anderson,, attorney and former Democratic secretary of state. Indiana boys’ school—William C. Ball, Terre Haute, formerly editor Terre Haute Evening Gazette, Democratic organ of Vigo county. Indiana reformatory—D. J. Terhune, Linton, mine operator, and Dale J. Crlttenberger, Indianapolis, business manager Indianapolis Sentinel. Institution for feeble-minded youth Edward M. Wilson, Fort Wayne, real estate and insurance business. Indiana state prison—Patrick O’Brien, South Bend, manufacturer and business man. It would be impossible for me to give you an accurate poll as to politics of the various superintendents of our state penal and benevolent institutions, but to the end that no information may be lacking that would assist your organization in determining the truth or falsity of what has been alleged in your state platform, I give you the names of such of these 12 male superintendents as I am informed are democrats. Dr. George F. Edenharter, superintendent Central Indiana insane hospital, Indianapolis. Dr. Samuel E. Smith, superintendent Eastern Indiana Insane hospital,: Richmond. Dr. Joseph G. Rogers, superintendent Northern Indiana hospital for insane, Logansport. Richard O. Johnson, superintendent Institution for the education of the deaf and dumb, Indianapolis, Albert E. Carroll, superintendent Indiana institution for feeble-minded youth, Fort Wayne. This is an open letter. I Very respectfully yours, jjjfry.. WINFIELD T. DURBIN. I