The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-01-09
STATE LEGISLATURES.
Suggestions Of Gov. Foraker as to Election
Laws and White Cappery.


General Assembly met in adjourned session
this afternoon. The message of Governor
Foraker was read, and is pronounced an
able state paper. The Governor, after re-
viewing the financial condition of the State,
the work of the various benevolent and
penal institutions, the Soldiers and Sailors
Home. and other purely local matters,
makes plea for honest elections. He says:
NOn-partisan boards of elections and registra-
uon laws are no longer experiments. Wherever
tr1ed the experience has been such that the
people would not willingly dispense with them.
They not only make elections honest but orderly
They are worth infinitely more than they cost III
time, labor and money. IOu should eAtenu,
with only such notifications as may be neces-
sary to give appropriate application, the pro
visions of the laws of this character now APP
pllcabe to only To the larger cities TO every city
or the state having population at the last CEN
sus of not less than 10000. Honest elections
mot h e chat the ssot %
make complaint on account or any III
creased e,' cost or increase of INCONVENIENCE
that may arise by reason of such legislation. IL
is innaterial what may he the views of others.
In all legislation touching municipal government
you are requested To bear in mind and be gov
erned by the views expressed on the subject In
my former messages as to the necessity for 1Xlng
responsibility, where the power of appointment
should be lodged. etc. There should be also such
cnange in the election laws rs TO require that the
TWO clerks, at each polling place i'll every lown-
ship throughout the State, should be of opposite
politics, as is now required in the cities. An
election should not only he so conducted as to
secure an honest result but also to give every
one confidence in that result. For this reason no
important part of the election machinery should:
in any case, be i'll the hands of only one political
party.
In regard to the recent Outrages by al
legged White Caps, the Governor said:
For number of years past the newspapers
nave from time to time, given accounts or
dpnrPuatiOuS
OF the country, outside OF Ohio, in viOlatonof the
personal rights of citizens, by organized bodies
Caps" etc. During all this period it was graft
Tying to observe that no such outbreaks occurred
III Ohio. No one believed that any such organl-
cations existed in this State, and all law-abidlng
citizens wondered why they should be tolerated
anywhere. 1t was quite surprise, therefore,
when, on the night of Nov. IL, 1883,
of Sardinia, Brown county, near the
line of Highland county, band of
from thirty to fifty persons, wearing masks and
calling themselves White Caps, who proceeded
to the residence of humble citizen by the name
of Adam Berkes, whom they aroused from his
slumbers, took from his bed and house, and
whipped with a number of lashes, because he
mad not, so far as any cause was assigned, In
some particular, real or imaginary, lived as they
claimed he should. 1t was startling crime,
calculated, if allowed to go unchallenged to lead
to rapid spread of such practices, a shameful
disgrace to our State, and, ultimately, to blood
shed and general decentralization and disregard
of the law and the established legal tribunals
and methods for the redress Of grievances.
An investigation was Immediately instituted,
by which ii was disclosed that regular organl-
zatiOn had been formed Of secret, 0ath-bOund
ing in its ranks some prominent, respectable and
responsible citizens; and that they were proceed
ing upon the theory that they would be strong
enough to take the law into their own hands,
defy the local authorities and bring prosecutions
against their members to naught IL attempted.
The declared purpose of the order was to protect
ml9NompanOrS
which, it was alleged, the tedious and expensive
processes of the law afforded no adequate
relief 1t was manifest that the Organiza-
ton must be broken up at once. But it was
difficult TO ascertain who its members Were and to
command the evidence necessary to support
prosecution and secure q conviction: No one
who belonged to the organization could be found
who could be, under any circumstances, actual
or promised induced ,a to give testimony that
over details, it was finally determined to accept
as better than the uncertainty of waiting for tes-
timony, which otherwise might never be OBJ
tanned, and then resOrting to legal proceedings,
with the uncertainties, delays and expenses al
ways attendant thereon, the following agree
ment, which was figned by members 0f the
orders a settlement of the whole matter. viz:
1--WE, the undersigned members of the organiza-
ton known as White Caps, do hereby agree and
bind ourselves to procure the immediate disband-
ing of said organization; and we do further
promise and agree that there shall be no more
terrorizing, or other violation of law, of any kind
whatsoever by said organization or the members
thereof, acting either together or separately; and
we further agree that if this stipulation on our
part be violated by any members of said organ
iZatiOn, who may refuse to be controlled by Us,
we will, in such an event, do all in our power to
give information and to aid the officers of the law
in bringing them to justice.
"TO all who in good faith sign and keep the
above agreement, the State hereby promises i'm
munity from further proceedings against them"
In pursuance of this agreement the organiZa-
ton has been permanently disbanded, and the
State has been put In possession of all the evil
there be any necessity to resort to the courts
The men who have signed this agreement are
sufficiently responsible in character, and finan-
cially, to make their guarantee that its terms
will be observed perfectly satisfactory. Their
names are withheld only because making them
public is not calculated to promote the public
good.
For some time after the whipping of Berkes
there appeared from time to time news
paper accounts of other whippings by White
Caps, but there was no truth in any of
them. Since the Berkes incident there has been
no whipping, no raid and no threatening of any
kind by the White Caps any member of the
organization. AT various places throughout the
State there nave appeared what are popularity
styled "Whte Cap notices" but in every instance
where they have been traced to their origin-and
| in almost every instance this has been done
they have been found to have been the work of
either practical jOkers or evil-minded persons
acting upon their individual responsibility, with
out connection with any kind of an organization,
society order, who had assumed the name of
White Caps only for the purpose of sheltering
| themselves from liability for their Ofienses.
West Virginia.
CHARLESTON, w. Va, Jan. S.-Every
Democratic member of the House went into
caucus tonight j. j. Wood. of Ohio cOun-
ty, was nominated for Speaker, and J. NJ.