The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-16
THE NEWS AND THE SCHOOL ELECTION.
Saws HE Indiananolis News:

line hepuDllcanS lett no stone unrufneQ 10
degrade this election Of school commissioner
to the lowest level of ward politics They be-
gan it when Mr.. Frenzel first stood for this
place three years ago. y y The signal
for drawing party lines in the contest was first
given by the Republicans, who were so deter
mined to beat him that they enlisted in the
work their whole party machinery"
We quite agree with the News, that moth
ing is to be gained by prolonging a contro-
versy over the late school election; but
at the same time something is due
to truth, and it is essential to re-
peat that the assertion by the News
that Mrs. Henry Coburn's candidacy for COM
missioner, three years ago, was partisan"
and that of Mr.. Frenzel mon partisan" is
not only untrue, but is as amazing as the
News's present advocacy of a man whose
principal support then, as now, came from
notorious Democratic ward-workers and the
combined saloon interest. Not a cit
izen of the First school district,
who was alive three years ago when
Mrs. Coburn was voted for, but knows the bald
falsity Of the assertion that she was pushed as
a partisan by partisan methods, and that "the
Republicans enlisted in the work their whole
party machinery" The files Of the party
newspapers Of that time will be searched in
vain for a line or a syllable advocating
Of opposition to Mr.. Frenzel on
any such ground. The columns of
the News of June, 1882, disprove it's present
assertion, for it then said of the contest in the
First district: fThe Republicans refused to
nominate a candidate of their own" After
the election was over it was recorded at the
time, that 9Th saloon element particularly
exerted itself in the fight against Mrs. Coburn,
and several ~well-known Democratic ward
politicians from the outside districts were
called into requisition to aid in the defeat"
This is the truth Of history, as any one who
remembers that contest we'll knows. At the
late election Mr.. Frenzel was opposed hon
estly, earnestly, openly and above board, not
alone by Republicans, but by many Democrats;
but the opposition was again overslaughed by
the same combination that defeated Mrs. Co
burma combination led and engineered by
Mr.. Frenzel, Sim Coy and Sam Dinnin.
These statements cannot and will not be de-
MED. The assertion Of the News that the
Republicans opposed Mr.. Frenzel because they
wanted to point to a reaction" in their
favor, is simply a piece of gratu-
itous impertinence. At least, so far as the
journal is concerned, it never dreamed of such
a thing, but opposed him on precisely the
grounds it opposed Mr.. Beck in the Tenth.
district, saying for both of them that they
were personally greatly better than the in
fuences they represented and the support
upon which they relied. For the News to at
tribute other and lower motives to
the Journal, as one Of the opponents
of Mr.. Frenzel, is a bit of Pharisaic snobbery
worthy only of contempt. For ourselves we
feel quite as honest, and as truthful, and as
bipartisan" respecting the public schools
of the city, whether in advocacy of or in opposi
ton to any particular candidate for commits
sioner, as it is possible for the vain strutting
News to be. Believing the News to be on the
side of the best interests of the city, and opposed
to the prostitution of the school system to the
foul behests of the Democratic whisky alli-
~ance-which distinctively triumphed in the
election of Mr.. Frenzel, according to the boast
of its official head, Mr.. Sim Coy-we ex-
pressed establishment and amazement at its
course, but did not bemean ourselves by at
tributing unworthy motives to it, being con-
tented with deeming it one of the inexplicable
eccentricities of 'independentism," which we
frankly confessed inability to understand.
But we do not care to follow the matter
further than to repel. as strongly as possible,
the palpable untruth that the Republicans
attempted to introduce partisanship into the
school elections three years ago by supporting
Mrs. Henry Coburn, and to add that the slurs
and innuendoes in yesterdays News go far to
prove that it is feeling very uneasy over it's
share in the questionable victory () of Satur-
day.
'1n the present case the man is a Democrat
in politics, and asa police commissioner stood
by the saloons: therefore he must be defeated
as a school commissioner, no matter how
good his record there, and by the same reason
ing should be boycotted and driven out of his
business as a banker. We thus plainly cali
| the attention of the public to things as they
are, or rather as the Republicans tried to Gre
ate them by Saturdays election"
This is another paragraph in the News Of
yesterday respecting the opposition to Mr..
| Frenzel as school commissioner The insinu
alton that the Republicans opposed Mr. Fren.