The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-13
DEMOCRATIC REFORM.

formed the people of Indiana that the infa-
nous business would not cease until every
public charity was prostituted to Democrat
ic party interests This was denied at the
| time, both by Democratic officials and by
the recognized State organ of that party.
How well the prediction of the Journal has
been fulfilled all intelligent readers know.
Every public interest within reach of Demo
cratic spoilers has been made a means
of feeding and feeling Democratic ward
workers. Every thing has been bent twist
ed, turned inside out, in the interest of
partisan advantage Without the slightest
regard to the welfare of the States wards,
the deaf and dumb, the blind and the insane,
they have been given over to hands I'M
skilled and to men who are in no wise quail
fed to intelligently minister to their needs.
Nor have Republican officials alone suffered.
Democrats who, on account of their eff
cheney, were in position to do good service
to the unfortunates under their charge
have been driven out to make room
for new pensioners on the bounty
and gratitude of the party. 1t
may be that, like superintendent of
the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, who could not
tell human ear from ten-cent pocketbook,
they are in no wise qualified for what they
aspire to possess, and know little or nothing
OF what should reasonably be expected of
them-it is all the same the efficient and
tried must go. The latest outrage-and it
cannot be called less-has been consummated
in the management of the Blind Asylum. In
opposition to the welfare of the I'M
happy inmates of that institution,
the trustees, or two of them, have ousted
DR.. Charles E. Wright, Democrat and we'll
| qualified for the place, to make room for
another Democrat, presumably more active
in party service. Literally nothing can be
urged against Dr. Wright, as he is prac
ticed oculist and is recognized as an author
ity in diseases of the eye. His successor,
DR.. Stone has bad no special experience in
this speciality, and cannot, therefore, be as
| efficient in that valuable and important
Office. So impatient were the two partisan
trustees to install their man that
they resorted to extra legal means to do it.
| ignoring well-established rules and defying
all precedent. So much for the infamy of
the party now in charge of the States chart
table institutions Ali Republicans have
been ousted without ceremony, and able
Democrats have been mercilessly beheaded
in order to make places for more jealous
party advocates. The interests of the public
and the personal welfare and comfort of the
unfortunate have been unhesitatingly sacri-
feed. The intelligence of the public has
been insnlted and public opinion defed
! But Democracy is the same everywhere.
Under fair pretenses it gets into power only
to belle its professions and cheat the public.
The last Legislature in this State had every
Democratic characteristic and left an I'M
savory record that will not soon be forgotten.
| What is true of the party in Indiana is true
everywhere. 1t is treacherous and deceitful
in every instinct and practice. In Penn
sylvania the Democratic Legislature, elected
on the loudest protestations of reform
and economy, has made itself a burden
of which the people have vainly tried
to rid themselves. At an enormous Expense
they prolonged the session overlong months,
frttering away valuable time and piling up
costs without any valuable return. The re-
form movement in that State has degenerated
into farce that would be ludicrous were
the interests involved less grave. The same
is largely true in New York and Massachu-
sets, and the people of all these States are
heartily sick Of the whole business, con-
WINGED at last that Democratic re-
form is a fraud in every fiber In
Ohio the party, over-confident of
success at the start, began an internecine
! fight for spoils, revealing the animus of its
campaign. The bitterness has become so
| strong that conceament is abandoned and
/ the campaign has degenerated into regular
! Kilkenny fight. There is not an intelligent
| Democrat in the State who expects success,
and the only effort now seems to be to knife
each other, and a score or more are running
amuck.
This is the party that is laying its
plans to capture the control of the
nation. With all this burden of broken
promises of inherent corruption and insin-
cerity, the Democratic party has the effront-
cry to ask that the vast interests of the
nation be given in to its hands How these
interests would be conserved may be judged
from what the party of reform has done and
is doing in 1883. With characteristic and