The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-12
AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

The Journal of Saturday gave the main
facts in regard to d suit which has been in
stituted in Dekalb county to test the legal
ity of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS fusion made
by leaders of the two parties in that coun-
ty The Angola Magnet publishes the COM
plant in full. The suit involves important
principles, and if it reaches the Supreme
Court it may become leading case. Brief
Iy. the facts are follows: After the Dem
ocratic and Populist parties had both held
their county conventions and nominated
full county tickets, a committee of three
Democrats, appointed by the chairman of
the county committee. and committee of
three Populists, appointed by the township
committeeman, met and constructed a new
ticket, composed in part of the candidates
of both parties previously nominated. As
part of the deal the chairman and secretary
of the Populist convention refused to GER
tify to the county clerk the names of the
candidates nominated by it, and the eiec-
ton commissioners are preparing to ignore
the tickets nominated by both conventions
and place on the ballot the one concocted
by the two committees. After setting forth
the facts, the complaint says:
And your petitioner further says that all
of said trade, sale and transaction and
each part thereof, was and Is illegal and
void. That the same was calculated TO, and
If carried out will make. election to office
depend upon the corrupt trade and dicker
of few individuals. instead OF the good
judgment and free choice of the Whole peo-
pie That the purpose and result of the
same, if carried out, will be TO make cleo
ton to office depend upon motives of pri-
yate gain and expediency on the part of
private combinations and rings, instead of
q he
ment of the voter. That the said trade,
sale or transaction Was and is against pub
lie policy. That il contrayenes and is con-
trary to the spirit and purpose OF the stat
ute of Indiana. as it tends to give unfair
advantage to some candidates over others.
and makes the suffrages of the citizens,
and the nomination ano election to office a
thing of barter and a subject of merchan-
disc.
The fact that this sort of thing has been
going on all over the State, and that the
State and national tickets are involved in
the dirty business, ought to disgust all de-
cent Democrats and Populists alike In this
case the suit is brought by one of the Pop
uiist nominees, who, after being nominated
by the convention, was displaced by the
committee, and he asks for an order of the
court to compel the chairman and secretary
of the convention to certify the ticket as
missioners from printing the fusion ticket
on the official ballot. The real question is
whether any ticket can be printed on the
official ballot unless it be nominated in one
of the three ways provided by the law, viz:
First, by nominating convention and GER
titled to by the chairman and secretary
thereof; second by a primary election:
third, by petition of a specified number of
voters. Under the Australian ballot law
every step in an election is regulated by
law. and If the manner of nominating can
didates can be changed, so can the manner
of printing, distributing and stamping the
ballots. In short, the whole law can be set
aside by committees and subcommittee
The nominating of candidates for office is
one of the fundamental features of popular
government, and involves a question of the
highest privilege. Fusion committees have
no more right to revise set aside the ac-
ton of a nominating convention than they
have to change the result of an election A
right decision of the DeKalb county case
may invalidate all the mongrel post-con-
vention tickets which have been fixed up
in the State during the last few weeks by
bargain-and-sale committees. The case
should be pushed and decision of the SUI
preme Court obtained soon as possible.