The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-19
The State debt has increased
$1,16O,OOO.OO.
rs YoUR VOTE WORTH ANYTHING?

SAAoo "HoAcDy VAo Palty B0tS lAo OoVe0A VI
another. If it were only that the scheme
would result in giving the Democrats ma
jority in the next Assembly of this State it
were bad enough but it will not and cannot
end there. Unless the people of this State
pronounce against this kind of thing, it will
grow, just as it has in the South. In many
of the Southern States such thing as an
honest and free election is unknown. No one
pretends to deny this any more, and there are
many honest men who consent to il rather
than have "trouble' about it, preferring dis
honorable peace to respect for the law and the
institutions Of the country. This cannot go
on forever without inviting disaster. It is
impossible that the rights of the people shall
be denied without mourning the gravest perils
and precipitating trouble that will not be
easily settled. Insidiously this thing has
the State of Indiana, while similar crimes
against free elections have been perpetrated
in other Northern States, until now it is next
to impossible to get anything like an honest
expression through the ballot-box. At Chicago
gigantic frauds were perpetrated days after
the election, in the hope that the result might
be changed and a man sent to the United
States Senate who had no title to the office
Luckily the trick was exposed and defeated,
but twas only one chance in hundred that
it did not succeed. At Cincinnati and Column
bus the same object was attempted in little
different manner, by changing the tally
sheets. And so it seems to be the rule that
no vilainy is too infamous to be attempted if
there be any chance of success. In Indiana the
same spirit of fraud is expressed in the pass
age of an infamous Acknowledgement law.
The people of Indiana cannot afford to be-
come party to such things. The old rule,
and the only honest one, that the majority shall
govern in matters affecting the interest of the
public, should be and must be respected, if it
is desired that this government shall be per-
petuated. Free and honest elections are the
foundation on which the American Republic
is builded. Let these be destroyed or in any
manner seriously impaired and the super
structure is endangered. 1t cannot stand. In
Indiana there are some four parties more or
less thoroughly organized Each of them en-
braces good and true men, intent on that
which they deem for the best interest of the
people as whole 1t is but fair that each of
these men be given an equal chance in the
business of saying what shall be done. 1t is
infamous that Democrat should ask or ex-
poet that his vote shall count for more than
that Of his Republican, or Prohibition, or Ma
tional neighbor. No thoroughly honest man
will demand an unfair advantage over his fell
lowcitizen. When anything of the kind is
attempted without exception there is some
thing at the bottom that will not bear investi-
CATION, and it is so in this instance. There
are several things that the last Legislature re-
allied could not be looked into without bring
ing trouble to Democratic officials. Then
there was the Liquor League with its
demands. 1t had to be respected, and to
do so it was necessary that the next Legisla-
ture be one that will not modest the liouo.
traffic nor compel it to bear its just share of
the burden Of taxation. For years the people
of Indiana have been paying taxes that should
have been paid by the saloon-keepers, their
business having created an expense that would
not otherwise have been incurred. These are
two of the reasons why the dishonest and dis
franchising gerrymander was devised, where
by the probable majority was to be robbed of
the right to vote and to have its vote counted
on all equality with that Of the minority.
There is another reason why that gerry
rnander was arranged It seems incredibles
but it is a shameless fact none the less, that
the inmates of the charitable institutions of
the State of Indiana have been made the vic
tins of spectators. Men intent on becoming
rich without regard to the means have fed
the unfortunates in tho Indiana Hospital for the
Insane on diseased pork and on grease butter,
that the vendors might put money in their
purse. 1t is a shameless confession, but one
that has to be made, and will continue to be
true until such time as the people of Indiana
demand change, and by such numbers that
the gerrymander will not avail those who plot
ted it.
There must be an opening of the books, and
the sooner the better. If this thing succeeds
this time, it will be repeated Ia the future,
and the abuses that have been practiced be-
hind it will be enlarged upon, while the spec
ulators will be embroidered to go to greater
lengths. The prime duty of honest Indianians