USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 23
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1. M. Miller, of Millerton Farm, remembers well that as a young boy he came with his father to Marion September 5. 1863. to an im- mense political gathering-Vallandingham day. Thomas A. Hend rieks of Indianapolis was the speaker, and the rally was in a sugar and beech grove-one of the prettiest spots about the country. afterward one of the carly fair grounds. "There was more yelling when the Green township delegation came along, " and the thing that ineited the demonstration was the shell bark hickory pole for a flag staff, held in position by guy ropes and it was raised or lowered at will, and sur passed any other decorations in the parade that day. While the war Democrats were standing by Lincoln, there was a strong sentiment in Grant county opposing the war, and although an Ohio character, Val- landingham then had a great following in Grant county. The Eman- cipation Proclamation had stirred things that year, and Mr. Miller says he never again wants to see a community so divided neighbors against neighbors, and friendships broken never to be restored. Ile av- cepts Gen. W. T. Sherman's definition of war.
J. Frank Charles relates that his first political "barn storming" was at Herbst, where an unoffending populace gave him respectful attention, but his first "empty benches" experience came to him in Washington township, where the schoolhouse door was not even nu locked, saying nothing about the present day "social center" agita
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tion. He was the would be speaker and the entire audience, and in the same campaign George M. Coon was billed for similar effort in a Van Buren schoolhouse. Knowing what had happened to Mr. Charles, Mr. Coon resolved not to attempt to save the country with nobody there to witness his bravery, and he made an invitation affair out of it -- did not wish to speak to empty benches, and knew in advance just how many were coming to hear him. White there is inspiration in num- bers. it is not empty benches.
The Socialist and Prohibition parties are different. "Neither of them is like anything else under the sun," and yet they are part of the religion of their adherents. Socialists and Prohibitionists utilize the Sabbath day in advancing their interests, and J. W. Kelley re- members that he was the first man to publicly present the claims of socialism in Marion on a Sunday afternoon. in the back end of a gro- very store at Washington and Thirtieth streets. Mr. Kelley thinks it was in 1894-a Sunday afternoon in the summer time, but like other beginnings of definite movements, none remember the exact date. Mr. Kelley did not preserve his paper, although now he wishes he had a copy of it. He had just read the book: "Capitalistic Productions." and his mind was full of it, and he thinks he has not since changed his viewpoint on the subject. There were but few socialists in Grant county then, and he presented this paper at the urgent invitation of Christopher Kohllenburg, who had just located in that neighborhood. While Mr. Kohllenburg advocated the principles of socialism, he spoke broken English and was unable to convince others, and from that day Mr. Kelley has been a moving spirit in the socialist party. He says: "If a man over gets a glimpse of the cooperative commonwealth as contemplated by socialism in his mind, he no longer has any patience with the existing order of things. When a socialist once has the vision he never turns back to the beggarly elements of the old parties. They lay the ax at the root of the tree-" and what seems strange. Mr. Kel- ley asserts that he stands ready to make his business a profit sharing institution-that it is built up on monopoly, but his conception is a different order of things.
In a newspaper commun: "Editorials by the Laity. " the Rev. T. C. Neal writes:
"The poet has said coming events cast their shadows before. This seems to he especially true in these days when momentous changes in onr affairs loom up in almost every direction. A list of great questions that now confront ns for settlement would be a long one. The liquor problem, the cigarette curse, the white slave horror, the Mormon and Mexican question, and last but not least the 'votes for women ques- tion,' which is approaching a decision all over our land. He is indeed short-sighted who does not see that in no distant future the women of Indiana will be given the privilege of voting in all our elections. While there are many objections offered, the sentiment of most think- ing people is favorable to this advance movement. As an evidence of this we may well consider the results of five days' voting on this ques- tion at the W. C. T. U. booth in the industrial exposition. Two thon- sand three hundred and ten votes were east by men and women. Of this number 2,142 were in favor of women voting; 918 men voted on the proposition, 820 of these being favorable. This overwhelming ma- jority certainly means something. If "straws show which way the wind blows," certainly this shows that a mighty breeze is blowing toward equal suffrage in these parts. The right of the matter appeals to many. As a prominent lawyer recently said to me. "The women
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have an inherent right to the ballot," though he thought it would not be a wise thing to give them the privilege.
"But now the question is, will the women, by following the fool doings of our English cousins, ruin the cause that bids fair to win? Nothing but disaster can come from violence in this land of ours in the effort to gain what is truly a right. Let the friends of equal suf frage frown down all talk of the gaining the ballot by militant meth ods. It can not be so accomplished."
The following quotation relative to "Cleaning up Marion" is from The Kokomo Tribune-a 1913 issue-and adds emphasis to statements made in the chapter: "Temperance Movements." Lord Byron says that "seeing ourselves as others see us would from many a blunder free us, and foolish notion." and with that view of the matter the ref crence is quoted :
"The splendid victory won in our neighboring city of Marion, ex- eluding saloons by a very decisive majority, is being followed up by a Very sweeping and radical cleaning up of the city.
"The first step taken after the people had spoken was the an nonneement of the mayor that he accepted the result as a command of the people to enforce the laws, and he gave notice and pledges that he would do that very thing. He ordered the police to go after the blind tigers and exterminate them, and he has begun to do his duty by lin ing and jailing the blind tiger keepers as fast as they are brought before him.
"The latest development in this, most righteous crusade for the proper enforcement of the laws is the retirement of the old board of metropolitan police commissioners and the appointment of an entirely new board, whose members were pronounced aggressive workers in the recein fight against the return of saloons. This board is as strong and as dry as could be picked from the citizenship of Marion.
"Nor is this all. The mayor has chosen and appointed an advis- ory board of seven of the most prominent representative workers in the dry cause who are to co-operate with the police board and assist in the aggressive enforcement of the laws. The Marion Chronicle thus characterizes the men who now constitute the police board and the advisory board :
" "The men who have been appointed are all pronouncedly dry, and are among the most substantial and worthy citizens of Marion. There is not one of them in whom the whole community has not the utmost confidence. They are men with strength of character, sincerity of purpose and dircetness and force of action. With men of this type co-operating with the mayor in the enforcement of law, it seems certain that the law will be enforced in so far as it is possible for law to be enforced. As these men are not of the type that can be tritled with, the people of Marion can rest assured that a very different condition of things will prevail in Marion in the future than has been the case in the past. It is hardly believed that any man or any set of men will care to take any chances in violating the law when the execution of the law is in the hands of the men who have been put on the police board and selected for this advisory committee.'
"The people of Kokomo are just now entering upon the same tight which was so splendidly victorious in Marion. The magnificent tri- umph in Marion can not l'ail to inspire and encourage the people here. What Marion has done Kokomo can do. Indeed the battle was a lit- tle harder in Marion than it can be here, because of the presence of the big brewery there, with its strong financial connection and inter-
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
ests. The fight was won in Marion by organization. Patiently and zealonsly and wisely, the people went about detecting and defeating contemplated frands of all kinds and inspiring their own forces 10 eternal vigilance for a clean, fair fight and an honest vote. The Marion drys won because they beat down fraud at every torn and succeeded in getting an honest expression of the sentiment of the legally quali- fied voters. They won by getting out their own vote and keeping out all fraud. That was what won in Marion."
There are Grant county citizens, A. D. 1913, who wish everything Were as roseate as it appears to Howard county neighbors.
"We have no contention with the mayor and none with the police board," said members of the city advisory board when tendering their resignations, July 21. 1913. but later followed the statement: "We were being criticised because law was not being enforced, and at the same time we had no power to enforce it. Our body existed in merely an advisory capacity, and we had no authority. We were tired of sac- rificing our reputation." And the fact that one member had previously resigned and one was absent from the city explains why only five names-Andrew Jackson, C. HI. Wardwell, G. A. Southall, Henry L. Erlewine and G. A. Morris-were attached to the resignation. The other advisory board members were: G. A. Osborn and G. P. Butter- worth. J. B. MeGuffin had already resigned from the police board, leaving only Dr. M. M. Wall and J. C. Haswell in that capacity -- the history of law and order in local city government. Mayor JJ. O. Will- son stated through the public press that in appointing the above ad- ministrative board he thought he had selected the "driest " men in town. Empty honor is not sufficient when criticism is part of it.
In discussing the political outlook. Dr. F. A. Priest declared he liked the game, but did not always appreciate the way it is played. and he objects to a campaign made on promises when a man's life has been spent in a community. When a man "shies his castor" into the political ring, all kinds of opportunities confront bim. A man who has been mayor of Marion said to his friends that he did not eniov having bribes offered to him, and retired to private life -- choice, poli- ticians given too much to intrigue. It is urged that the foundation principles of political organization demand the honest performance and the unrestricted fulfillment of party agreement, and that rather emphasizes the thought: "The purification of polities is an iridescent dream." The winner is not always an example of "The survival of the fittest." and the "battle of the ballots" is usually a war waged for supremacy. There is nothing in polities that does not already exist in the human heart, and the corrupt politician is corrupt wherever one finds him. It has been said: 'The flowers that bloom over the garden walls of party polities are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the gardens of this world, and where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy their fragrance. it is many and delightful to do so," although there is a great deal of political skullduggery, dishonesty and intrigue unearthed in high places, and without partienlar geograph- ical boundaries-Grant county like the rest of the world. "We should vote for measures and not for men. No stream can rise higher than its fountain source, and the man should stand for principles who would enlist our suffrage. It is better to displease than to deceive one's constituency. People like to count a man honest even though he may
be guided by mistaken judgment. . . If you would know men and their weaknesses, it has been urged. go into politics."
Is the lawyer any more likely to legislate in the interests of the people than are men who are taken from the counting room, the
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workshop or the plow, is the question that has stirred Grant county of late, and there has been a change of sentiment -political favors dis- tributed to all classes-the plums and pies not given out without due investigation as to merit. There is a growing sentiment in favor of universal suffrage, based on intelligence and character. Wise men and women are addressing themselves to the problem of seeuring the ascendeney in public affairs, and the confliet is on between right and wrong-between those who would make of the government an agency for good on the one hand, and the individuals on the other hand who would make of it a machine to work alone in their own interests. An ignorant suffrage is the bulwark of the boodler, and the watchword of those seeking to bring about reform in the administration of govern- mental affairs is education. The time to inculcate citizenship is yonth, while the mind is susceptible, and the character of life yet to be de- termined. Tax-payers have a right to make certain demands on poli- tieians-capability, and a faithful discharge of duty. When the polit- ical standard is raised and the office seeks the man, good government will be assured. There is always talk about rings and combinations, and the community is awaiting the citizen willing to sacrifice his own personal interests by breaking them, and rendering honest service. Sometimes it seems that he has already arrived, and there are good men in local politics.
When William Jennings Bryan visited Marion in the 1908 presi- dential campaign, one feature of the street parade was a father and ten sons, all Democratie voters, riding on a tallyho and carrying flags. The "Renbarger wing of the Democratic party" was not limited to eleven voters, but eleven voters in one household was an unusual cam- paign incident, and while having dinner at the home of H C. Ren- barger a few days earlier, the "plow editor" of The Leader suggested to Mr. Renbarger that he and his sons do it. The idea pleased him, and the most noticeable feature of the parade was eleven voters in one family-father and ten sons, and their acquaintance reached many households. Mr. Renbarger-they call him "Clint"-looked like a king surrounded by his court, and it seemed that he might hold the balance of power. The Renbarger sons are: L. E., L. F., I. E., D. E .. G. M., A. O., O. C., B. O., F. S. and W. E. Renbarger, and their one sister, Mrs. Martha Ann Elizabeth Albright, who lives in Ohio, is the wife of a Democratic voter-a great showing for the Renbarger fam- ily. When Mr. Bryan arrived at the speaker's stand, the father and sons were introduced and Mrs. Bryan, who accompanied her husband. gave the senior Mr. Renbarger the stick pin she was wearing. a Bryan monogram as a souvenir of the occasion, saying she had never wit- nessed such a spectacle-so many Bryan voters in one family. "Bert" Renbarger is the only member of the family who has ever sought polit- ical preferment, and he is connected with the sheriff's office, but the Renbarger vote is always undivided-eleven votes always, and all cast for the same candidates.
"To the victor belongs the spoils," is a saying as old as politics itself. When the name of J. W. Anthony of Mount Olive Place was announced as successor to the late James Dicken, who died in June, 1913, as a member of the county council, JJudge Hiram Brownlee forth- with declared his intention of going before that august body at its first session with Mr. Anthony as a member, and with all due solemnity demanding an appropriation of $500 beeanse a long time ago he had saved Mr. Anthony's life when he was a young man and wore low shoes-that he was once waterbound and Mr. Brownlee carried him to safety. Now that Mr. Anthony is in politics. Mr. Brownlee would
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claim remmeration, and then he said he favored clean polities and re- garded Mr. Anthony in that class, and yet there was one serious oh- jection-he is a Democrat.
Since straws indicate the way the wind is blowing, the following is quoted from Mrs. Helen Travis Loop on the suffrage question : "The whole question of woman's suffrage has undergone a change in the last few years in the minds of both those who favor it as a national meas- ure and of those opposed to it. Those who have hitherto favored it merely as a right are now becoming aroused to its dire necessity as a remedy for the many evils now existent, which present man-made laws seem to foster and encourage. Everywhere we look, in the papers, magazines, etc., we find articles about suffrage. A year or two ago, when I had occasion to write an article on the subject of suffrage. I could find but little material except what was in The Union Signal, The Message and what came out of my own head, but now there is a wealth of material to draw from, for if the papers are not chronicling a demonstration of the suffragettes in England, they are fortelling a victory for equal suffrage in one of the United States of America. or illustrating some other phase of the suffrage question. There is a vast amount of material to draw from, and one scarcely knows what is best to select. This is in itself one of the victories for suffrage, showing the minds of the people all over the world." And after reviewing general conditions, the writer says: "And poor old Indiana. There seems to be less hope for her doing her duty toward her women than ahnost any other state. But those in opposition are beginning to realize that the women mean business, and that they are organizing themselves and a new constitution for Indiana should be the battle ery- the slogan of Indiana women until the legislature convenes again."
Some scattered sentiments from The Economic Intelligencer are: "Curbstone polities is running high. All sorts of subterfuge are re- sorted to in order to perpetuate the machine rule for four years more." and then it speaks of other Marion newspapers with "political standing unknown or questionable," and then methods are discussed from the Socialist viewpoint: "There's a nigger in the woodpile." and the line: "Maybe the powers that be are afraid a municipal coal yard will be established where the entire population can buy its winter sup- ply at cost." In the same issue the candidate is discussed as follows : "In case he should be elected and fail to do his duty. his resignation will be acted upon, and while we do not have the recall in the state of Indiana, that official will be thrown out of the party." every candi- date on the ticket having signed a resignation blank in advance of his election in order to protect the community. Miss Florence Wattles, who was a student in the Marion high school, was one of the speakers at the 1913 Socialist pienie, and "it was the universal expression that Miss Wattles's effort was a masterly handling of a subject dealing with the problems of today, as well as those looking to the future."
Perhaps after all polities isn't much changed at the end of the first century in local history. When the Whigs used to be the dominant party in Grant county they would throw their ballots into a hat and there was no secreey about the voting. In 1852 Daniel Malott, whose blacksmith shop stood at the side of the Coliseum. Jater a garage, on Adams street, was a candidate for Grant county recorder, and he thought to employ a little strategy-would influence the delegates through their stomachs, and invited them to enjoy a turkey dinner at his home. While eighteen men accepted his invitation only ton of them voted for him, and he always wondered why certain delegates should enjoy his hospitality with malice in their hearts. While it may have
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been a politie movement-some men do things when feeling no gas- tronomie pangs, yet poftage was not sufficient inducement for all of them to sell their birthrights. Mr. Malott was disturbed over results. and there have been monetary mouvements since that time that re sulted just as disastrously. Again there are politicians who have "stumped" in the interests of certain candidates, and have met their own campaign expenses cheerfully because they believed in the cause and had confidence in the candidate. Sometimes politicians have the wrong political henchmen about them, and the wise voter always looks through any effort at strategy. The old saying about politics making strange bed fellows has been exemplified a good many times in Grant county.
It is undoubtedly true that the 1913 mayoralty election in Marion, and the general elections throughout Grant county, was one time when people eut loose from their political moorings of the past. and when the pulpit had more to do with shaping public sentiment in the com- munity than the press-a condition that seldom prevails, and people were inclined to rebuke some of the methods in force. In what proved to be a four-cornered contest with the fifth ticket in the ring, James O. Batchelor, Bull Moose candidate, was elected by a plurality of lot votes, 1,722 voles being his showing, with W. A. Mckown, Socialist. coming second, with 1,256 votes; A. E. Gibson, Democrat, third. with 1,202 votes; Joli O. Wilson, Republican, fourth with 1.032 votes; Jantes Rowan. on the one-man independent ticket, carrying 162 voles, and those who had dared a forecast had not correctly predicted results The rapid gain of the Socialsts and the relative position of the third and fourth men surprised the oldest inhabitants. While all interest centered on the head of the ticket, the rest of the patronage was well distributed and a precedent was established that shows the people to be inclined to independent thought and action -- to be actuated from principle. The Leader-Tribune said: "Marion voters have just com- pleted one of the most bitterly contested municipal elections ever known in the history of the city. With five candidates in the field. and the issue reaching in a hundred directions, with the law and order people demanding reforms that every human being in the city needed, with the liberal and law-abiding clement faithful by its colors, with th evil and vicious waging a bold and brazen, illegal and disgusting con test to keep the foothold it has so freely secured in our city, an chor mous vote was east, and the warmest local campaign ever known is brought to a close. The election of yesterday . November 1. 1913) will go down in the history of Marion as the most uncertain politieal contest ever waged in the city. At no time were the politi- cians able to forceast a result, and the results have furnished many surprises."
There is party distmetion, and there are partisans who do not under stand their own political platforms. There are plenty of women who would bring more intelligence to bear in polities than many men, and some joker delined a Democrat as a man who would liek Republicans oftener if he were not too busy lining up other Democrats, and a Re publican as a man who worries a great deal more about what is going to happen to the country when he is ont of office than while he is filling it. This same joker likens a Democratic president to a century plant -- blooms once in a hundred years. He says the Progressive is a man who thinks public office a great temptation to the weak, and that he is the only man who is strong, and that Socialists and Prohibitionists are different from "anything under the sun." Some one advocating the higher age limit of voters, says: "Young men are absolutely inca
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pable of political wisdom," although the young man has sometimes made himself felt in local polities. It is urged that graft has made honest men fear to tread where rascals rush in and despoil, and that people often meet in polities and work hand and glove with each other -- political tricksters and well meaning citizens, and that it is the cont- mon ground where morality and scullduggery play together. While some political leaders would not soil their hands-pollute their garments in polities at all, they are unprincipled vultures and wirepullers, and the honest voter should beware of them.
While national political issues used to be all consuming, the twentieth century idea is more attention to local affairs- - vote for the man who stands for the community's best interest regardless of party affiha- tions. It is a significant fact in local as well as general American polities that random and shipshod methods are being investigated, and the common people are becoming a voice in community affairs. The recent result in Marion is in harmony with the growing demand that the government of American ejties be taken out of national politics. and that voters control the situation. The system of spoils -- to the victor belongs the spoils, has prevailed too long in the community. . 1 broken-down politician is a sad spectacle, although a familiar sight in every community, and aninicipal goverment should be from the busi- ness rather than political standpoint. It is said that political resolu- tions so often resolve themselves into further resolutions that refor mation is a long time coming, and business acumten is necessary in govern ing cities. Fly-bob polities is a recent brand-came in locally with the wet and dry issues, and the fly-bob, here, there and everywhere. is too often in leagne with dives, blind figers and graft, and the sacred name of Lincoln is dragged down-think of Lincoln and Hy-bobs. Quick change artists is a new political expression and gumshoe or still-hunt methods prevail when men love darkness rather than light. The old saying about politics making strange bedfellows is too often exemplified when the lion and the lamb having common interests peace fully lie down together.
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