The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-03-11
THE POSITIVE PREREQUISITES.

While there is reason TO believe that a
large number of people are coming more
and more to the belief that character and
ton Of responsible officers, there are yet
many people Of intelligence who seem to
believe that character and capacity rather
%disqualify a man for office than otherwise.
Consequently they are more likely to sup
port a man because he is unfit than be-
cause he is fit. This statement may be
regarded as untrue; but what is one to
think of those who urge the nomination
of men for offices requiring business ca
pacity on the sole ground that they have
not succeeded in whatever they have an
dertaken in private affairs, and must be
given office because they really need it?
Character n fitness being lost sight of,
men become aspirants for office who would
not have thought of being candidates if
positive requirements were set up for such
positions. Unfit men cannot be prevented
from being aspirants. but If, when as
pirants appeared before a meeting to be
addressed by candidates. they or their
friends should be required TO set forth their
qualifications, there would be a thinning
out of aspirants. Instead of this sensible
procedure, character and fitness are rarely
referred to. One aspirant asks support
solely because he has been brought up in
the county and has voted the party ticket
and worked for it. Some place their claims
on the ground that they are poor and live
not in those parts of the city where man
sions are built. Another is reported to have
asked support OF an audience because,
when poor men come into the Criminal
Court. they would have in him an advocate
as well as a judge.
All such appeals are made to class preju-
dice, and therefore are not Republican.
Such appeals involve a d~emagogy as dis
honest and hypocritical as it is disgusting
TO right-mlnded men. They involve an at
tack on thrift and should repel the support
of the Industrious. 1T has always been the
aim of the Republican party to furnish the
conditions which will incite individuals to
activity and thrift. Such being the case,
the man who appeals to class prejudice
assails a fundamental principle of the
party and cannot be a well-informed and
conscientious Republican. The very fact
that a man has not made a mark in forty
or fifty years and appeals to sympathy for
support presents a very good reason why
he should not be given a position requiring
character and capacity.
A prominent Republican editor in another
part of the State recently remarked, after
a brief review OF the achievements of the
Republican party in Indiana since it came
into power in 1895. that the Republicans
must nominate and elect a frst-class ticket
in order to keep up to our blue china" 1t
is true; the Republican party has a blue
china set because it has been fortunate
in nominating and electing men of char
acter and capacity for the prominent Of
fees. That is the secret of Republican sue
cess in Indiana. If the policy of getting the
best should give way TO the selecting of
men for candidates because of sympathy
for their failures in whatever they have
undertaken, or Of taking men of doubtful
reputation, Republican ascendency will
come to a sudden and disgraceful nd. So
long as men of ascertained ability are
elected, and executives select men for
boards and other responsible positions be-
cause of their unquestioned character and
business qualifications. Indiana will be a
Republican State. The same is true of
countless: to be Republican they must take
the measures of fitness for office which
have brought to the state administrator
such signal success.