Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1908 — AN OPEN LETTER TO THE VOTERS OF INDIANA [ARTICLE]

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE VOTERS OF INDIANA

The Republican State Committee of Indiana sincerely deprecates personalities in political controversies. This rule was well established years ago, and it has been rigidly adhered to at all times. Therefore it was with much satisfaction that this committee received the declaration of the Hon. Thomas R. Marshall, made in a formal speech early in the summer, expressing the hope that the campaign in Indiana this yeAr-*hould be devoid of personalities. Mr. Marshall took the position that this committee holds, that political contests should be dignified. This committee was then and is now In perfect sympathy with Mr. Marshall’s appeal for a clean campaign. In fact, Mr. Marshall's words on this subject were made the basis of many complimentary comments in the Republican newspapers, allot them, we believe, speaking in approval of his position. Following its fixed custom and mindful of the appeal of Mr. Marshall favoring a campaign from which personalities should bo rigorously excluded, the Republican State Committee has religiously trained from any and all acts in the campaign that might be Interpreted to be a violation of the implied understanding that the contest should be conducted along the lines laid down in Mr. Marshall’s speech on the subject of personalities, in politics. In so far as the knowledge of- this committee extends, the Republican newspapers of the state and the Republican speakers, without exception, have treated Mr. Marshall and all the candidates on the Democratic ticket with consideration and uniform kindness. No effort has been made, by in-, direction or otherwise, to cpst an unpleasant reflection on the personal character of any man the Democrats es Indiana have-named for office. In Mr. Marshall's own case, we believe, the utmost care has been taken to follow his suggestion that personalities should not become a part of this partisan controversy. Consequently it is with deep regret and no little humiliation that we observe that Mr. Marshall’s partisans, in many instances, have not followed the rule he set down. We do not assert that these things have been done with Mr. Marshall’s knowledge or by his consent. Nor -de we charge that the. Democratic state organization has set to work deliberately to stain the personal character of- the Hon. James E.Watson, the Republican nominee for governor. It is a fact, though, that certain persons in this state manifestly have entered into a conspiracy to defame Mr. Watson by the circulation of false and malicious stories derogatory to him as a man and a citizen. As we have said, this committee canhot make Itself believe that the Democratic organization is an accomplice in this conspiracy to injure the character es the Republican nominee, although justification for this belief might be urged in a number of instances where the Democratic press bureau of the state has been the vehicle for the dis•emination of these libels.

“Who steals my purse steals trash; "Twas mine; 'tls his, and has been slave to thousands. But he who filches from me my good name Takes that which enrlcheth him not And makes me poor indeed.” It Is true that Mr. Watson for months now in this campaign has been • target for all the personal slanders that- vindictive malice could Invent. Nothing has been too scurrilous for these harpies to concoct and spread in erder to discredit Mr. Watson and to build up against him a prejudice that might operate to his disadvantage In the election. These libels had their origin In the dens of vice In Indiana whose owners and patrons are perturbed and indignant because Mr. Watson has dared to proclaim his faith in the platform adopted by the Republican party of Indiana, one plank of which advocates a local option law with the county as the unit. Furthermore, Mr. Watson, when the legislature was called into extraordinary session, used his influence to cause to be written into the statutes the identical law proposed by his party. When Mr. Watson took his decided stand as a candidate for governor on the platform of principles laid down by his party, he did so as a Republican. It was not a personal matter with him. He accepted the nomination of the Republican party for governor, and in so doing he obligated himself to support that which the Republican party' believed to be right tn this campaign, ttad he done less, he would not be entitled to the respect and the con

fidence of the people of Indiana generally, to say nothing of the members *#his own party who had signally honored him by choosing him to lead their ticket this year. This being the case what Mr. Watson says and does on this-'subject is not on his own motion and by his own initiative; it Is the expression of the congregate opinion of his party as well as reflection of his own view of the question. To make him the object of violent slander because of this is nek. their logical nor just. The platform declaration on the so-called temperance issue is the voice of the Republican party of Indiana, not simply the voice of James E. Watson, except in that Mr. Watson is one of some 400,000 Republican voters in the state of Indiana. James' E. Watson is an average man, a normal man. He belongs in that element of the AmeHcan people which may be said to represent with exactness the best character of American citizenship. In every act of his life he has-shown that he appreciates deeply the responsibilities which properly should rest on every normal citisen of the republic. He has shirked no share of the burdens which society lays upon its members. He has evaded no duty that the normal American owes to the state. When he came to manhood’s estate he- took unto himself a wife, and he is bringing up a family after the manner of the normal American citizen. He it ft member of one of the leading churches of his home town. He has been associated more or less prominently with many of the leading secret societies of his state. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and one. of the leaders of the Indiana Knights of Pythias, besides holding membership in numerous other orders. He has been a candidate for six times, and he has been elected rich time. Both his public and'his private life have been as an open book to the people of his congressional district for the last dozen years. When rumors attacking his personal character reached the people of his' own home town, the ministers of the churches of that town, acting with the bankers, the judge of the circuit court, the superintendent of the public schools and other citizens, voluntarily Issued a formal statement setting forth that Mr. Watson’s home life is ideal; that in his association with his neighbors “his character never has been questioned for a moment," and that “his reputation for sobriety and morality Is untarnished.” Furthermore this positive recommendation by the ministers of Mr. Watson’s town says with emphasis: “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." This approval of Mr. W’atson’s personal character comes from men divided in political belief, from ministers of the Protestant church and of the Catholic church. It Is unspeakable to suggest that men of this kind may be procured to give public approval of one they know is not worthy. And to a man’s own neighbors, among whom his life /s passed, we must go for the * truest estimate of his personal qualifications.

Those who know Mr. Watson realize how utterly groundless are all these libels that are passed around from saloon to bawdy house and back again, to be scattered over the state of Indiana by the agents of a combination of interests representing an element in society that does not exist for society’s good. Mr. Watson has been slandered, grossly slandered, at the instance of the confederation of liquor interests which seeks to defeat him for governor because he has dared to speak before the people in support of a law that will give the people of any county of Indiana the right to say for themselves whether the saloons shall be excluded from that particular county. For this reason, and for none other, Mr. Watson has been villifled from end of the state to the other. It seems to us that it is right and proper that the people of Indiana should understand that these vituperative assaults upon Mr. Watson’s personal character have been made simply because of his attitude in upholding the Republican state convention’s expression favoring the enactment of a rational law in restriction of the retail liquor traffic. It Is with regret that the Republican State Committee takes th|y method of calling the people’s attention to the attacks upon Mr. Watson by anonymous cowards who are running over this state in the interests of the brewers’ combine. But the committee feels that it is its duty so to inform the citizens of Indiana of the authorship of these slanderous inuendoes. The sum and substance of Mr. Watson’s offense against the alliance of the liquor interests is that he has protested against the rule of Indiana politics by the brewers. Believing in the justness of our position and having confidence that the people of Indiana are no constituted that they cannot be ufafalr to any man who appears before them as a candidate for public office, we respectfully submit this statement of facts. JAMES F. GOODRICH, Chairman. For the Indiana Republican State Committee. Indianapolis, Oct 17, 1901.