Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-09-19
EVERYBODY INTERESTED.
FORAKER, CAMPBELL AND HELWG
DISCUSSED.

An Able Review by an Independent Dem
ocratic Newspaper that Favors Honest
Elections and Enforcement Of the Laws.
The Evening Penny Post of Cincin-
natl is credited with large and infuen-
tial circulation in that city, and, while
independent it has always heretofore
been known to lean strongly toward the
Democracy.
The Post is one of the Scripps' syndi-
cate of newspapers, and when it is
known that one of the Scripps brothers
of Cincinnati was delegate at the late
Democratic state convention, the fol-
lowing editorial from that paper of Sep
tember 10 will be read with interest:
SHALL WE GO BACKl
A Piqua correspondent in letter to the
editor of The Post asks these two questions:
What reason have you foI believing that
B. Foraker, if elected, will be more ex-
ecutive," as you express it, than J. e. Camp
bell or DIR. Helwig, if either of them should
be electedl Or why should you say: 'The
Post believes that if, on the contrary, he
Foraker) shall fail of reelection much of
the advance made in the last four years will
be lostf'
Really the two questions are in essence
one. The Post has not said anywhere that
Governor Foraker if elected will be more ex-
ecutive than J. E. Campbell or DIR. Helwig,
if either of them should be elected. What
The Post did say is: The Post believes that
if Governor Foraker shall be reelected, and
if his life shall be spared, be will carry for
ward the work and will contribute to the
complete rehabilitation of the executive de-
partment to the lasting good of the state,
and by example to the lasting good of the
nation.
The Post believes that if, on the contrary,
he shall fail of reelection, much of the ad
vance made in the past four years will be
lost.
The question then resolves itself into this:
Why does The Post believe that if Governor
Foraker shall fail of election much of the
advance made in the last four years will be
lostl
Because, in the first place, there is no
human possibility of the election of DIR. Hell
wig. The Prohibs of Ohio have in the field
this fall the strongest ticket they have ever
produced. They are making campaign of
phenomenal vigor and enthusiasm and seem
Their vote last fall was q, $50 and the fall
before 29,7OO. To win this year they will
have to increase that vote to more than 2S0,-
900, and there is no human probability of so
great an increase as that.
The race, then, lies between Mr.. Campbell
and Governor Foraker. If Governor For
aker shall fail of reelection, Mr.. Campbell
will be elected 1t is his chief complaint
against Governor Foraker that he has been
too executive. For a single illustration, Mr..
Campbell, i'll his speech at Batavia, COM
planned that The (Foraker) can come down
to the city Of Hamilton; he can make me
register before / can vote, although | was
born and raised in Butler county,
1t was the people of Ohio, through their
general assembly, who made that Ia W which
requires registration in all the large cities in
Ohio The law was passed in the interest of
good government and honest elections. Gov
ernor Foraker is no more nor less required
to see that that law shall be faithfully exc
cuted" than he is required to see that all of
Ohio's laws ''are faithfully executed 1t is
the constitution of Ohio which requires that
of him.
MI. Campbell seems to think that Gov
ernor Foraker does wrong in seeing that the
law of Ohio shall be faithfully executed. n
His notion seems to be that if any citizen of
Ohio residing in Hamilton don't want to
register, even though the law does require
it, he ought not to be ''made" to do it. He
should be allowed to vote without register
ing, especially if ''born and raised in Butler
county" 1t is none of the governors bust
ness. Mr.. Campbelps notion seems to be
that Governor Foraker makes himself "a
lord and ruler.n as Mr. Campbell calls him,
because as governor of Ohio he sees that this |
law shall be faithfully executed.
His notion seems to be, and he is running |
the campaign on that line, that if any con-
siderable part of the people of any Ohio |
county dislike any state law, and if they can |
get the sheriff to disregard open infractions |
of it, it is all right. The local preference |
must decide. The governor has no business |
to ''come down" to that county ''and maken |
his subordinate executives in and for that |
county do their duty and tosee that the laws |
of Ohio shall be faithfully executed in that |
county.
His chief complaint against Governor |
Foraker is that when the general assembly |
has required the governor of Ohio to do |
some duty he, Governor Foraker, has
done it, and so has made himself "a lord |
and ruler"
Governor Foraker has done no more than
to ''see that the laws are faithfully exc
cuted.n In fact he has not done that
thoroughly till within the last few months,
and then after good deal of rather vehe-
ment newspaper exhortation, of which The
Post has probably done as much as any
other paper in Ohio.
Governor Foraker of late has well re-
sponded to these exhortations to executive
fidelity, and it is precisely because of this
response-it is precisely because he has ad-
yanced to higher and truer conceptions of
executive responsibility that he is now criti-
cized by his gubernatorial opponent, Mr..
Mr.. Campbell.
In word, then, Governor Foraker has
done no more than to ''see that the laws are
faithfully executed" as the constitution of
Ohio requires him to do. For this Mr..
Campbell severely criticizes him. Is it not
a fair inference that if Mr.. Campbell him
self shall be elected, he will refuse to 'see
that the laws be faithfully executed" " lest
he, too, become "a lord and ruler,n lest he,
too, shall 'come down" to some city land
make" its residents obey the laws passed by
the general assembly of Ohio? Is it not a
fair inference that ''much of the advance
aoIa in fha Ioc h., l.