The Democrats have a chance to win the senatorial elections in Indiana. That fact, of some national consequence, was recognized last week by the press of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans. Concerning candidates for the Indiana Senate, Senator James E. ("Big Jim") Watson, a Republican opportunist, might well, it was conceded, be beaten by young Albert Stump, whose personality reminded older citizens of how Albert J. Beveridge had looked, and behaved at his age. Evans Woollen, an Indianapolis banker of 62, whose intellectual integrity had hitherto been considered a handicap, appeared to have some chance of beating his opponent, Republican Senator Arthur R. Robinson. So stated, the situation is simple enough, but there are reasons behind even so simple "a thing as a State's dissatisfaction with the party in power. Responsible for the hope of the Democrats in Indiana, is a story filled like a cinema with incredible wild flashes . . . a searchlight fumbling over an army of marchers in white hoods . . . an airplane with a gilded nose tilting out of a cloud . . . a bed in a poor house, something dead on the bed . . . old checks, thumb-marked, rubber-stamped, checks for enormous sums made out in furtive or in precise or pompous or illiterate calligraphies to a person named "Stephenson". . . . A man hissing through the disinfected bars of a prison cell a word so soft that his listener could hardly hear him. "The swine . . . the swine . . ."
Thomas H. Adams, a venerable, harmless-looking newspaperman living in Vincennes, Indiana, had known certain things for a long time. He has gone about getting documents and putting them into a black brief case. One David Curtis Stephenson was tried in Indianapolis for murdering a girl. While the trial went on, Mr. Adams's brief case grew fatter. He asked Governor Jackson to investigate some charges in support of which he, Mr. Adams, would be very glad to bring forward documents. The Governor did not seem to think an investigation was necessary. Mr. Adams then got himself appointed head of a special investigating committee of the Indiana Republican Editors Association. As a hint of what was coming he supplied the press last week with a copy of an ungrammatical letter:
"In return for the political support of D. C. Stephenson, in the event I am elected mayor of Indianapolis, Ind., I promise not to appoint any person as member of the board of public works without they first have the indorsement of D. C. Stephenson. . . .
"I also agree and promise to appoint Claude Worley as chief of police and Earl Klenck as captain.
"Signed by me, this 12th day of Feb., 1925."