Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1908 — WATSON’S CHARACTER [ARTICLE]

WATSON’S CHARACTER

Strong Endorsement by Ministers end Prominent Home People. At the beginning of the campaign Mr. Marshall, candidate of the Democratic party for governor, said hp would do no mud-slinging nor encourage it in the contest. He has kept his word. But men and newspapers supporting him are vilifying Mr. Watson as much as they can. They are lying fluently all over the state. They are going around saying that Mr. Watson is “a man of vicious habits, a drinking man and a gambler/’ This defamation is prompted by the brewers. The saloon men have taken the contemptible cue. They are adepts in the knifeplays, knock-out drops and bottle blows, and the dirty, lying tongue-play oomes easy to them. Taggart heelers think they are earning their money and helping Marshall to his election by circulating the slander. We might speak of Tom Marshall and his past, hut we respect him as one who has risen on stepping-stones erf his dead self to higher things. Men who slander Jim Watson don’t know him; most of them never saw him. Yet they take as truth the wicked word of men they would not introduce to their wives and spread the noxious lie. Crooks and thugs have been sent masquerading as commercial travelers over the state to spread the falsehood. Do you remember that Tom Taggart a few weeks ago was made head of the “Commercial Travelers’ Association," formed by the Democratic national committee? In his home town a man cannot live a double life and fool his good neighbors. In Rushville, where Jim Watson lives, all the ministers and bankers uphold his character for sobriety, probity and morality. Some of them are Democrats, and will vote for Marshall. Father Cronin, rector of the Catholic church in Rushville, is one of these. This is the declaration they have written and signed and made public: Rushville, Ind., Sept. 18, 1908. Rumors of derogatory reports, circulated in some sections of the state, affecting the personal character of the Hon. James E. Watson, having reached us, we, the ministers of Rushville, his home city, desire to certify that Mr. Watson stands high among us as a citizen. With his neighbors his home life Is reoognized as ideal. In his church his character has never been questioned for a moment, and his reputation for Sobriety and morality is untarnished. His manly stand for temperance is recognized as characteristic of the man and is in harmony with the private life he has led among us, and the utterances he made as a citizen, long before his present candidacy. W. J. Cronin, pastor Roman Catholic church. Virgil W. Tevis, pastor St Paul’s M. B. church. \ W. H. Clark, pastor United Presbyterian church. J. F. Cowling, pastor First Presbyterian church. Richard W. Abberley, pastor Main Street Christian church. We have read the foregoing testimonial and hereby endorse the same as being tme. Will M. Sparks, Judge Rush Circuit oourt. Lari H. Payne, president People’s National bank. Theodore Abercrombie, president Rushville National bank. L. Link, president Rush County National bank. A. B. Irvin, cashier Farmers Banking company. J. H. Scholl, superintendent of olty schools.

Mr. Bryan may now be expected to accuse John D. Rockefeller of stealing his thunder. The oil man In the first of his serlea of autobiographical articles. Just published, makes some remarks on corporations that are quite Bryanlc. Could W. J. B. have been asked to revise the proofs of J. D. R.'s first essay in literature, or did that friend of Standard Oil, the treasurer of the Democratic national committee, lend bis aid? After his defeat for governor four years ago, John W. Kern said: "I am proud of the fact that I did not receive a single negro vote. I was elected by the white vote, but defeated hy the ignorant nigger vote." s And now Kern and Bryan are trying their best to capture the negro vote. The colored brother la not so short of Memory or shortsighted as to be deceived by the “nigger haters.”