The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-08-19


declaration in behalf OF the down |
trodden taxpayer. The Republican
legislature of 1895 wiped out the fee
system as private perquisite. If the |
Democratic fee and salary law OF 1891 |
had not been displaced by such a mea-
sure, State Auditor Sherrick would |
have drawn i'm fees from the insurance
department alone during the fiscal
years ending Oct. 81, 1908, in addition
TO his salary, $50, o6.4e-1O. per cent
Of the collections in that department.
which the Democratic fee and salary
law provided should go to the state
auditor. In his four years of service
Auditor Sherrick would have derived
personally from this department in
fees, but for the Republican fee and
salary law of 1895, s120.00O Secretary
OF State Storms would have derived
under the law of 1891 last year in per-
sonal fees s13,759SS. or more than
$4,000 in his four years of service.
Instead of this, however. every dollar
of these fees goes into the treasury of
the state of Indiana.
Some Other tissues"
1t was the Republican party which
wrote into the statutes of Indiana the
principle of non-partisan control of
the states penal and benevolent insti-
tutions, and two Republican state ad-
ministrations have established and
| maintained these institutions on sound
business and humanitarian principles.
Nearly half of these institutions to-
day have Democratic superintendent
Three of the four superintendent Of
Indiana hospitals for the insane are
the same men found in charge of these
institutions when the Republican party
came into power in the state nearly
ten years ago. The law provides bi-
partisan boards for every state insti-
tuition in Indiana except one, and that
board has been made bipartisan by the
voluntary act of Governor Durbin.
Within the past three months a Demo
crat of established efficiency has been
chosen superintendent of the Indiana
Institution for Predetermined Youth
at Fort Wayne, and although this &C.
| ton was taken by Republican board
| it was SO much matter Of course that
| the incident attracted no special atten-
! ton or comment. Within the same Pc
riod Governor Durbin has appointed to
Republican vacancy on the board of
| trustees OF the Institution for the Ed
ucation of the Deaf prominent Dem
ocrat of demonstrated business and
educational ability, making that board
Democratic, and this has surprised no
one. Yet Democratic leadership in In
diana Is as active in denouncing Re-
publican administration for prostitute
ing these institutions to partisan ends"
as it was few years ago in making
party spoils of the hospitals for the
insane, course in which some of the
men now dominant in Indiana Dem.
acrocy persisted until they raised a
cry of righteous protest even from the
Democratic state organ. The wide va
rance between the facts and the allie
| cations makes no difference either to
these partlsans or their allies of the
mugwump press, which seeks to dis
credit every official it cannot control.
Republican leadership in Indiana
courts investigation for every state in
stitution within the confines of the
commonwealth. The insincerity Of the
| trainers of the platform under consid-
GRAFTON is shown by the declaration
they make elsewhere to the effect that
the board of state charities has de-
! monstrated it's value by making our
penal and benevolent system a model
that has attracted approval and imita-
ton from other states" Every mem
Der Of that board is an appointee of the
present state administration. It's SER
vice has been of great value to the
state, but it's function is purely an ad-
visory one, SO that the declaration of
the Democratic platform to the effect
that our penal and benevolent system
has become a model is an unintention-
al tribute to those who have exercised
the legislative and executive power
necessary to effect such consumma-
ton.
Tho Peanut Pianks.
This weird platform contains some
planks of incomprehensible littleness
For instance, there is the declaration
that Governor Durbin is responsible
for the smallpox epidemic of 1908, and
he is denounced for employing the
"cheese-paring" methods which are so
unpopular with gentlemen seized with
an uncomfortable desire to follow the
example of the presiding officer of this
state convention and ram their arms
up to the elbows in the public treasury
Three hundred bound copies of a rail-
road map of Indiana, provided for the
governor as a member of the state
tax board in accordance with long
standing custom are considered Of suf-
ficient Importance to receive attention
in this platform, the price OF these doc
uments being multiplied by hundred
in an effort to dignity this specimen of
peanut politics. The indianapolis
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