Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1908 — Makes a Weak Defense. [ARTICLE]

Makes a Weak Defense.

Endeavoring to justify its false attack on three companies of American soldiers, consisting of 180 enlisted men and 9 officers,' by claiming that five or six of them tried to get liquor at a Rensselaer drug store, the Jasper County Democrat, the paper that “knocks”, called the writer a tin soldier and a bruiser. These terms we are perfectly willing to have used about us if it will spare the gallant men who have enlisted in the ' United States army and are prepared any day, should it be some necessary, ; to sacrifice their lives on the altar of their country. | .The writer’s investigation which included, an interview wl h all the druggists and all the drug clerks, elici ed the response that there were hut two men traveling; with the battalicn of soldiers that tried to get whiskey, and that these two were civilian wagoners and not soldiers at all. But the Democrat says that there were five or six according to one druggist. But the Democrat, the “expose” ne.vspap r, does not mention who this druggist was, aud as each one told the Republican that only two apphca’ions we:e made to them, it is probable that the Democrat has Ted about this and just leaves the reader to gue.s*wliich of the six it was. And then this newspaper that “knocks” said it did not mention the doc or that wrote the prescriptions because it did not know which one it was and it impugned all, the doctors in Rensselaer by saying that one of them did all in his power “to satisfy their thirst.” But the Jasper County Democrat has its own ideas about who should be “exposed,” and democrats of the “true 1 faith” have never been known to be ' among the number. There are two or three t 1 ings in the Democrat that deserve refutation. 1 Chief of these is the lie that William Howard Taft in his Decoration Day address said anything about General Grant that deserved criticism. He reviewed the life of General Grant, telling of the days wnen he was an officer in the army and was stationed i California and when be became addicted to the drink habit and lost his commission in tlie army in consequence. He told of those days when ... he—luted tin ‘ hard-scrabble” LiXIHL. near St. Louis and when t 1.6 drink habit s'ill controlled him, and then ! in a fine eulogy of the grand general he said that he had ilie power to overcome his vveakne s and that he became the grand citizen (hat he ■&id because of his ability to control his habit. And thus he held out to all men the hope that it is never j time to give;,tip. The life of a public ' man is public property and any one , who has ever read the life of Gen- 1 eral Grant knows that he was for some years addicted to the liquor habit, and it is not doing his memory an injury I to mention it. And no man who his ' read the words of Pre'id nt Taft can take offense at them, but the lies and distorted language that democratic papers of the caljjffiL of the Jasper County Democrat nave used with the hope of turning the grand old veteran against him, brand those papers as cowardly and contemptible. We have men in Rensselaer who have wasted parts of their lives at the flowing bowl, but who have overcome the habit and are now rated among their townspeople as the very best of men. And they are deserving great credit because they overcame these habits and came out from under the load and succeeded in life. The writer is the captain of the local militia company, and it Is n6t uncommon nor objectionable to have the term “tin” soldier applied to the national guard. And yet the local militia company might be called out at any time, and it would go and defend the rights under the constitution of such mushroom citizens as comprise the Democratic force. The editor of the Republican did assault Merle Tyler, and in his anger at an insult thrash him quite soundly. No person could engage in a thing of this sort without some personal regret, anil we refer to It with some remorse, but when that gentlemen told me that he was glad that he was causing my aged mother trouble, I resented the Insult’' gs any man with a particle of backbone would have done. 1 did not follow the Frank E. Babcock plan of running like a cor, as will be remembered he did when Bruce Hardy on one occasion and George E. Marshall on another ...

occasion took him to personal task for his cowardly newspaper attacks: Then the writer had a fig/ht with two or three or four of Strickfaden’s bar tenders, the ibsult- of having printed the truth about the vigorous closiug cf S rick's siloon, and wo have nothing to regret aboyt that. There are times when a fellow has to fight or run and there are people not so quick at. running as Babcock is. And now a word about the writer’s Spanish-Ame: ican war connection. I was elected the first lieutenant of the company that went out from Monticello, and 4 practically enlisted theentire company, moblized them at the Monticello fair grounds, got them shelter, clothing and food, and spent several days at Indianapolis trying to have the company accepted. John Ward, of that city, filed with the government a roster of names,- claiming ito have a company at the same ' place, and the result was that John i Ward was given a commission in the 1 company against the will of the men and after an election was held that i had not included him. 1 could never blame Governor Mount for it, because the governor's office at the time was being run largely by Chas. Wilson, his private eecre a: y, and be was induced to do this by Judge Palmer, Henry VanVoorst and Cloyd Lougnry, of Men icello, whose zeal to commission Ward exceeded their fairness. Well, Ward got a commission, and I was left out, after taking the company to Indianapolis, aud yet a petition was circulated and signed by practically eveiy enlisted member of the company refusing to go unless I was given a commission. This pe itioii 1 myself took up and dostr. yed because the plans for the organization had, been affected before the company left Monticello, and by its terms, exacted at the demand of a democratic lieutenant colonel, John Ward was given a commission. John Ward afterward became adjutant-general of the state of Indiana, and was let out by Governor- Hanly, charged with malfeasance in office. And now this same John Ward is in charge of the brewery trust of Indiana, and is giving his support to the democratic party, one of its -converts since- the republican party adop'ed county option. The Democrat has followed its old plan of lying in its personal attack, and has made a pretty mers of trying to justify its insult to the American soldier by saying tlfat five or six soldiers tried to get whiskey, and that had they succeeded the ho pi al ambulance would not have been onetenth large enough to have held the~e “defenders of the country,” could they have got all the whiskey they wanted. And we wonder if the worst of these soldiers isn’t about as good as there men who lie about them, and if they would not come a great deal nearer fulfilling the ideal “defender of the country” than these men who have not ti e manhood to acknowledge that they defamed this band cf sol-diers;-bttF-fcpy-to justify themoelvoa by saying that all boozers because two or as they say five or six tried to get whiskey. By this same theory of reasoning all democrats would be liars and slanderers and “knockers” because Jessen and Babcock have become experts in that role, but fortunately most democrats do not approve of the contemptible tilings that paper does, and most soldiers are above doing (he thing - that hat paper alleges they are, berause two or “five or six” tried to get liquor, “many gallons in the aggregate.” This concludes the discussion so far as the Republican is concerned, even though the Democrat follows its ready method of lying when it responds. Gradually the people are ’earning that the sycophant at the mast-head of that paper is “knocker,” “blufer,” policy “exposer” and coward. The last term needs no quotation marks.