The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-09-25

| No. That the Democratic boss system
may continue to rule them, and work
Ing out it's purposes. And the Repub-
lican political bosses that come to you
| Republican voters and say Stand by
the old party; save the party; go
fight your Democratic neighbors and
friends?" What for? Who for?-saye
the party? Themselves For good
laws? No, but for the supremacy of
the Republican bosses. And what do
| they do when the sham battle Is over?
They get together, both of them, in a
back room, laugh at the fools they
have made of the people, and there
lay out and agree upon that plan of
| legislation or lack of it which will
serve their masters, the banded spec
ial interests. I am going to show you
people, all of you, just exactly what
it is that the boss system does to ev-
cry man, woman and child here in
Wayne County, in Indiana, and in the
| Nation. And before I go further,
want to say this, and 1 want to make
| it very clear: If there is anybody here
who feels that any statement I make
is not accurate, you must do yourself
the justice and me the justice, and
your friends here, to respectfully rise
and point out where l am wrong, and
/ will thank you for it, and correct
my statements; and if, perchance, you
are wrong, why, then you thank me
for giving you light. Or, if there is
anybody here who feels that any
point I make is not clear, you are urg-
ed-you are not only welcome, but
urge you to ask me any question you
please. No one Is barred do that be-
cause my idea of a political meeting
is not that it is a gathering of clans
men to shout for somebody without
understanding things. My idea of
political meeting is a gathering of
friends or neighbors, all at heart
equally honest, equally patriotic, and
every one equally. earnestly anxious
to get the best thingse for all, for our
homes and for our country
Let us go ON and see just what
the boss system has done to us here in
/ Indiana. You kept me in Washington
/ for twelve years. greatly appreciated
it. I was there to look after your ma
tional affairs. l did it the best that
could, but 1 took it for granted that
everything was going, on reasonably
well out here in Indiana. | might have
known better, because l might have
known that the two machines that
ran the two old parties would do the
same things here that they had done
ho b,
me their candidate for Governor, it be-
came my duty to look after Indiana
affairs. The first thing 1 looked at
was roads. I went over some of the
worst roads last week outside of Rus
STA, in this state, and yet we have
got the best materials for road max
| ing of any state in this Union, and
nearly the worst road laws, and that
led me to look over the tax laws. Ey-
rest unequally upon the owners, the
property owners. The chief evil of
these bad road laws. is provision OF
the law which admits of and legalizes
great system that cannot be called
| by any other name except dishonest.
will give you an illustration of it.
All the corporations, the railroads and
all lines, are required by this law to
pay or work out road tax. Take the
railroads. They are supposed, under
the law to pay or work out million
dollars Of taxes on your roads every
year. What happens? Bunching them
all together for convenience, the rail
roads hire a big contractor-the big
contractors being parts of the bi-parti-
san machine that rules the two parties
to do that million dollars worth of
work for them for $S5O.000, so at the
very beginning the railroads put in
their pockets every year $15O,000 that
belongs to the people. Then what hap
that contract. sub1et it, for six hun
dred thousand dollars, and so they
put into their pockets $25O,000 every
year, without leaving their Offices, out
of that million that ought to go to
your roads, and then it is sublet again
into every county of the state, to men
whom with few honorable excep-
tions, are powerful politicians; in a
Democratic county, Democratic politi-
clans; in a Republican county, to Re-
publican politicians. Out of the mil
| lion dollars of railway road tax, you
people get less than s150,000 worth of
work done on your roads, and that
work is poor work, for, mark you, the
! final slick provision of this law is
that there is nothing requiring any
body to show how much work has
been done or what kind. What put
book? The bipartisan boss system in
Indiana politics. Every time the peo-