The Indianapolis journal., 1903-10-05
SENATOR pEvERrDGE,s SPEECH.

Senator Deveridge's speech Saturday
night was fully up to his reputation. for
while the occasion and the theme were not
great as some he has dealt with he
showed his usual mastery of both. A
United States senator speaking In a munic-
ipal campaign is expected to take a higher
and broader view OF the situation than the
average speaker who is perhaps in the thick
OF the fray. His view must correspond with
his point of view. He is not expected to
trail along in the mud and mre of local
politics, to indulge in low personalities. to
handy epithets or to repeat and retail the
vituperative vaporings OF partisan news
papers By avoiding these things Senator
Beveridge was able to present the subject
of the municipal campaign in a light that
was pleasing to his audience and very ef-
fective. His speech was a plea for fair
play, for reasonableness in politics and for
party fealty. 1t was protest against hit
ting below the belt, against vituperation
and abuse. against demanding impossible
ties In politics and against party desertion
for trivial causes. Yet he did not ignore
local politics, and his comparison of the
present administration with the last pre-
ceding Democratic administration and of
present conditions with former ones, was
very effective. He said:
Everybody knows, or may know that our
streets are better cared for public i'm
provements more intelligently and ener-
geucally pushed and all the necessities and
conveniences Of our municipal living more
haxy vl1..rl
the indianapolis Tammany, which the Re-
publican administration succeeded conduct
ed the city government And. finally, every
Dody knows, or may know, that in the all
important moral questions which so yitally
affect city's life, the present conditions
are improvements over those conditions
wnlcn our Republican mayor found on his
hands when the Indianapolis Tammany was
driven from power.
The bitterest enemy of Mr.. Bookwalter
cannot successfully deny the truth of these
statements. The fact is Mr.. Bookwalter
is being attacked not for what he has done.
but for what he has been unable to do. His
objectionable sin in the eyes of his ira
ducers is not that he has not made any
improvements in the administration of city
affairs. but that he has not reformed every
thing in one administration. To quote again
from Senator Beveridge:
Go to Chicago and learn to appreciate
Indianapolis; go to Pittsburg and learn to
appreciate Indianapolis; go to Philadelphia
and learn to appreciate Indianapolis; go to
ST. Louis and learn to appreciate Indian
apolis And yet good citizens in the fever
of political battle would have us believe
that Indianapolis Is as bad as st. Louis has
been, although even a st. Louis detective,
trained to ferret out and expose St. Louis
corruption, could not discover single pub
lie wrong in indianapolis; though. in the
work of discovery, he went to limits which
even ir-minded men of the Citizens
League could not indorse. Go to any Amer
lean city. large or small; walk on its streets
by day or night, ride on its street cars, eX-
anime it as you will, and then come home,
as you will come home. proud OF Indian
apolis and convinced that Indiana's capital
city Is the peer of any American city in all
the conditions for which good citizens
everywhere strive and hope, and that In
dianapolis thus the peer OF any American
city Is in these respects far and away
above and beyond many greater American
cities.
The senator's plea for party fealty was as
strong as his appeal for fair play and mod
| Grafton, and his arguments came with spe-
| ciaI force from whose business it is tc
| study the larger currents of politics. II
| was an appeal to Republicans not to con
tribute towards Democratic victory thai
would probably return to plague them with
| the loss of the county. the State and per-
| haps the Nation. when in doubt" said
the senator, resolve that doubt in favor
of your own party"