The Schulenburg Sticker (Schulenburg, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 41, Ed. 1 Friday, June 23, 1911 Page: 6 of 12
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GOVERNOR JUDSON
HARMON OF OHIO
-By A. V. ADE'RFETHY
c
OLUMBDS, O.— [Special.]— ; pockets. There followed in rapid order
When' the bribery charges ! suits against the estate and bondsmen
against members of the Ohio
general assembly exploded with
the suddenness and force of a bomb
and sent scores on a hunt for lawyers
Governor Judson Harmon took the
same view of the personality of guilt
that he did when he reported to Pres-
ident Roosevelt that Paul Morton, a
member of his cabinet, had been guilty
of granting rebates while an officer
of the Santa Pe railroad. "Guilt is
always personal," said Harmon to
Roosevelt, and he resigned his com-
mission to investigate rebating be-
cause Teddy was inclined to shield
Morton.
A few hours after the bribery charges
were filed the Ohio executive sent out
an order that no man should be spared
in the legislative boodiing investiga
tion. Party and even personal friend-
ships must ie set aside, the governor
said, and the entire situation cleaned
up.
Throughout nineteen years yot con-
tinuous' cohtrol Republican state ad-
ministrations. when charges of irreg-
ularities were made involving members j
of their party, assumed the attitude. •
"They are our thieves, and we must j
defend them." There is an Ohio stat- J
ate which grants immunity to every j
one who testifies before a - legislative j
committee, and this law, together with |
a whitewash brush,- had'prevented any j
Republican law violator from being j
haled before a court of justice.
Naturally there was a great rush by j
distraught members for legislative !
immunity. But Governor Harmon j
promptly pulled the plug of the im- I
; muuity bathtub and prevented any I
one bathing in its soothing waters by |
insisting that no legislative ii^vestigat- J
ing committee be appointed and that j
the inquest of thV grand jury be the i
only probe. j
indictments were* returned against j
seten members of the general assem- i
bly and the sergeant-at-arms of the i
senate, and these cases will take the j
same course as that of the most hum- i
ble citizen who becomes involved in j
criminal charges. A coterie of Damo- j
crats'who iiad been fighting the gov- j
ernor's bills were among the members J
indicted.
In less than three years of his ad-
ministration Governor Harmon has
made a record of accomplishment un-
paralleled i'. the history of Ohio poli-
tics. He has wrought more progress
for the people than was accomplished
in the forty years that preceded him.
♦There has been written into the stat-
utes legislation that the enlightened
citizens had been demanding and plead-
ing for in vain for decades.
The supremely important achieve-
ments of the Ohio Democracy under
the leadership of Governor Harmon
may be divided into transactions and
legislations, first, for the elimination
of graft; second, such reform in the
tax system as will protect the tax
payer from the tax spender and will
compel corporations to stop dodging
taxes and pay along with all indi-
vidual property owners; third, the ap-
plication of. business methods and
economy in public expenditures, and,
fourth, the enactment of purely non-
partisan laws for the benefit of the
entire^ people, irrespective political
parties, and designed to make rule by
Interest, seeking corporations extreme-
ly difficult and rule by Ihe people easy.
After he became governor two years
go Mr. Harmon quietly began his in-
vestigation of the methods by which
public money had been loaned by Re-
publican state treasurers. He learned
they put interest earnings In their
of W. S. McKinnon, former state treas-
urer, for $116,785 and interest thereon;
against former State Treasurer I. B.
Cameron and his bondsmen for $211,-
721 and interest thereon. They were
Republicans. Another graft investi-
gation brought forth the exposure,
prosecution and conviction of Mark
Slater, former Republican state print-
er, on graft charges in lesser "degrees;
the settlement of an interest claim of
over $5,700 on funds carried in the
bank for former Republican State Au-
ditor Walter D. Guilbert and the 'filing:
dfjing the will of the people." One of
the committee suggested the Oregon
plan was undemocratic. The executive
replied, "It's the very essence of De-
mocracy to put the government back
into the hands of the people and let
Jhem say whom they want for United
States senator."
Governor Harmon took a new tack
and had a similar measure offered in
the house, the Wyman bill. That
body passed it and sent it to the sen-
ate, where the governor finally got
sufficient Republican votes to save it.
Ohioans had demonstrations recent-
ly that their judiciary, one of the most
sacred institutions of a free govern-
ment, had been invaded by party boss-
es in their inordinate thirst for power.
Instead of being places where the peo-
ple could turn to invoke the penalties
of the criminal statutes on those who
had offended certain courts were be-
ing used, in cases where men of vast
political power were concerned, to
shield violators from the vengeance of
the law.
But the general assembly took a long
step forward from boss domination of
the courts by enacting a bill provid-
ing in the future that all Ohio judges.
I • -
■yXifi
HON. JUDSON HARMON, GOVERNOR OF OHIO.
of a claim Tor over $31,000 with the re-
ceiver of a defunct bank at Columbus
as an interest charge on funds carried
in that bank by Mr. Guilbert as au-
ditor.
These revelations during the gover-
nor's first term awakened the civic
conscience and paved the way for his
subsequent re-election. The Democrats
captured the general assembly at the
tame time. -v
Then Governor Harmon renewed his
efforts in behalf of certain hills two
Republican general assemblies denied
him. o
The most notable achievement ac-
complished by the executive during the
legislative session was the enactment
of the Wyman bill, including the Ore-
gon plan of nominating and electing
United States senators.
A conference committee was appoint-
ed to frame a compromise senatorial
nomination and election bill. "I would
Tote for & Republican for United
States senator if the people by their
votes declared for a Republican." the
governor told this committee dur-
ing the conference. "I would be
proud to do it. I would simply be
from the dignified gowned (Justices of
the supreme court down to the humble
laymen who sit as justices of the
peace, shall be elected on tickets ab-
solutely free from party emblem or
device. Nominations may be made by
conventions, but the power of bosses
to control nominations was broken by
a clause in the bill which says that
nominations may be made by peti-
tions. There is not another such law
in the United States.
Ohio has been hampered by the
crude. Unwieldy machinery of a con-
stitution which was adopted in 1851,
and the subject of making a new or-
ganic law is the biggest and most Im-
portant proposition 'that has come be-
fore a Buckeye general assembly in
many years. Selfish hands were being
outstretched to get control of the con-
stitutional convention to be held in
1912 when Governor Harmon took*
charge of the arrangements for it and
succeeded in getting through the gen-
eral assembly a bill which will remove
the delegates from political influence
and make them responsible to the peo-
ple only. So well did he manage the
campaign that Ohio will set a prece
dent for all other states to foRow when
they come to rewrite their organic laws.
Nominations of delegates wil be
made by \ petition only, and nominees
will be elected on ballots absolutely
free from party device or emblem or
any form of party designation. The
liquor question, which has been a sore
spot in Ohio for sixty years, will be
finally settled when the new constitu
tion is adopted.
The state when Governor Harmon
grasped the reins of government had
nineteen penal, reformatory and benev-
olent institutions, with the responsibil-
ity •or' governing them divided among
nineteen separate boards of trustees,
three members to a board. They were"
so conducted as to secure neither ec-on
omy nor best results.
These trusteeships, all honorable
positions and eagerly sought after, had
been used as a sort of currency to pur-
chase nominations and to repay the
boys who had delivered votes in con-
ventions. The trustees appointed su-
perintendents and all subordinates,
and these combined to furnish the
dynamic power for the steam roller
which the late Mark HaUna and Boss
George B. JDox used to crush the life
out of rebellions against the rule of
the G. O. P. machine.
GovernQr Harmon's idea was that
"the establishments which a Christian
state maintains for charity are sacred
and that every selfish purpose should
perish at their doors."
Acting on this principle, the governor
framed and forced through tl^e general
assembly a bill placing all employees
of the institutions ranking below su-
perintendent under civil service rules.
The nineteen separate boards of trus-
tees and Nineteen stewards under this
law were legislated-out of office, and
the duties of the' fifty-seven trustees
^ v
fcCVSKNOH HAKMON CATCHES FISH AS WEIiIt
AS VOTES.
Were placed in a single board of four.
While a single fiscal agent replaced; the
nineteen stewards.
The advantage of purchasing sup-
plies for *all institutions in bulk and
the reduction in employees will save
the state $000,000 a year. This law
makes it possible to utilize the work
of prisoners and also creates a market
for their manufactured products' by
compelling all Ohio political divisions
to purchase such supplies as tbey
need from the penal institutions.
Employers and employees locked in.
a struggle over a workingmen's com-
pensation act, and when it seemed
there would, be no bill passed Gov-
ernor Harmon stepped in and acted as
arbitrator. A bill was framed and
drafted that has been approved by
both employees and employers.
The compulsory provisions which
made the New York act unconstitu-
tional were not incorporated into the
Ohio act. Instead the employer could
elect either to pay into the compensa-
tion fund or not to pay. If he should
not avail himself of the law, however,
the employee may sue for damages for
injuries, or his legal representative in
case of death may maintain the action.
And in such suits the employer is de-
prived of the common law defenses of
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Winfree, Raymond. The Schulenburg Sticker (Schulenburg, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 41, Ed. 1 Friday, June 23, 1911, newspaper, June 23, 1911; Schulenburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth189442/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Schulenburg Public Library.