Havana, Cuba for three months after which he returned home. Durbin was nominated to run for governor in 1900, and easily won the convention vote. Opinion was strongly against Democrats, and the leading members of the party refused to run for governor that year. The party fielded John Kern to oppose Durbin, but Durbin became the first governor to win by majority in twenty-five years. Durbin's primary goal as governor was to bring efficiency to the state, and reform the government to function more economically, and to enact progressive legislation. Governor White caps His predecessors policy toward white cap organizations had led to an increase of their activities. Although exact numbers are not known, at least sixty-eight lynching had occurred in recent years against suspected criminals, and numerous other types of vigilante justice was being dealt out by the groups. Most of their activity was in the southern part of the state. The General Assembly passed anti-lynching laws in 1899, requiring sheriff's to petition the governor for military assistance when lynchings were threatened and granted the governor power to remove sheriffs from office who refused to turn over prisoners to state custody, and to call out the militia to protect prisoners. Despite the law, lynchings continued until Durbin took office. In 1902 he invoked the law after a lynching, removing from office numerous law enforcement officials and putting the militia on patrol. In 1903, a police officer was killed in Evansville, and the sheriff sent word to the governor, requesting assistance in protecting the suspect in custody. Durbin dispatched a company of militia to protect the jailhouse. A mob of the white caps soon surrounded the jailhouse and the militia and began taunting them for several hours. Someone in the crowd fired a shot at the soldiers, who responded by opening fire on the crowd, wounding eleven and killing one. The mob quickly fled. No more lynchings would occur in Indiana for more another thirty years until the deaths of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Progressive agenda Indiana's industry had grown at a rapid pace over the past decade, and numerous labor unions had begun to form in the state. He advocated additional anti-trust protections for the public, enactment of fines for vote buyers, and the creation of juvenile courts. He conducted statewide audits, and discovered an embezzlement scheme at Indiana University by Monroe County officials. He threatened to move