by Bashir A. Masoodi
(Editor’s Note: Bashir A. Masoodi is a special education consultant for the Gary, Indiana Community School Corporation. He has experience in education, rehabilitation, camp administration, and coordinating leisure-time, recreation and other services for people who are blind.)
Booth Newton Tarkington is the famous author of “The Gentleman from Indiana” and numerous plays, books and articles. A graduate of Purdue and Princeton universities, Tarkington thought that all good citizens had a duty to run for public office and serve their state and country. He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives on the Republican ticket in 1902. We who are blind may find his activities on behalf of people who were blind particularly interesting and instructive.
Tarkington was admired for his honesty and his outspoken sincerity. He was respected highly by his fellow legislators. “Indianapolis News” gave him high marks for personal integrity and thought that this 33-year-old legislator was bound for higher places.
On Feb. 18, 1903, Booth Tarkington introduced House Bill 382 in the Indiana general assembly. The bill provided training for indigent blind men as broom makers at the Indiana Industrial Home for Men. It further provided that the State Board of Charity would pay $4 per week to the home to train and maintain about 20 blind men, at a total annual cost of $2,080.
Tarkington explained that many blind men had approached the home for training so that they could learn a trade and stay out of the poor house, which would cost taxpayers money. The bill was strongly supported by Helen Keller and many others interested in bettering the life of blind people. It passed the Indiana House of Representatives by a vote of 70-7 and the Indiana Senate by a vote of 26-11.
During the debate on the bill, Tarkington discovered that a local politician known for his pragmatism and reputation for high conscience was working very hard to defeat the measure. When Tarkington asked this legislator for his reason for opposing the bill, the legislator told him that if the bill became law it would be bad for humanity, as it would make blind men prosperous, thus enabling them to marry blind women and produce blind children. Even though Tarkington was exasperated by this logic, he told a friend that he was impressed by this politician’s sincerity. Only then did Tarkington learn the real reason behind this legislator’s forceful opposition: The legislator, his friend explained, owned a broom factory.
On March 10, 1903, Governor Winfield Turbin vetoed the bill, maintaining that although it would be unnatural for anyone to oppose the improvement of afflicted people, such a law would be held as a precedent for establishment of innumerable institutions for similar people, thus imposing a burden on the taxpaying public.
Tarkington blasted the governor’s veto during the spring vacation. He said, “Is it not the helpless who should be helped to stay out of the poor house [if we really want them to help themselves]?”
Too late, Tarkington realized that, rather than introducing the bill in the House himself, he ought to have had one of the governor’s supporters introduce it, with his strong support.
There had been bad feelings between the governor and Tarkington almost from the beginning of his legislative term, dating from the time that Tarkington had opposed the governor’s appointment of his cronies to the Indiana Reformatory at Jeffersonville. Thereafter, the governor and his supporters actively opposed Tarkington. He served only one term in the legislature, after which he entered the acting and literary career for which he was recognized by President Teddy Roosevelt, and the entire country.
Booth Tarkington’s experience can be a guide for local, state and federal legislative efforts during our time. The politics have not changed much in a century, though; one can still use wise strategies to achieve a goal.