Decatur Democrat, Volume 42, Number 50, Decatur, Adams County, 23 February 1899 — Page 4

THE DEMOCRAT EVERY THURSDAY MORNING BY LEW 0. ELLINGHAM, Publisher. 11 50 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE. Entered at the Postoffice at Decatur. Indiana as Second-Class Mail Matter. OFFICIAL PAPER OF ADAMS COUNTY. THURSDAY, FEB. 23. It is said that President McKinley and Mark Hanna already fear Miles as a presidential possibility. There are few democrats in congress who are opposed to our paying the §20,000,000 to Spain which the treaty of peace calls for, bitt most of them recognize it as a treaty obligation which must be paid. Advertising in season and and out of season is a safe policy to be pursued by every business man who is looking'for new trade and lots of it. Might as well try to live on weakened water as to do business without advertising. Representative Bonham of Hart ford City, manages to miss roll call about everv time there is a vote on any important measure. It is a cheap way of not going on record, but his constituents should ever remember his fidelity to their interests. The name of Charles E. Sturgis has been somewhat mentioned for the nomination of judge of the V\ ellsBlackford circuit. Such honor could not be better conferred, as Mr. Sturgis is a young, bright and talented lawyer and deserving as well. Decatur will be assessed not to exceed So for a membership into the United Municipal League, which was recently organized, an account of which will lie found in our local columns. The object of the organization is indeed a worthy one, and should receive a united encouragement from those who favor peace, law and order. It will lie a long stride in the direction of apprehending criminals, an advancement that is necessary to the preservation of life and property. Hon. C. V. Holman, a prominent Maine democrat, who has been looking over the political field in Vt ashington, said among other interesting things: “It would not surprise me to see a permanent rupture among the republicans in the near future, as an outcome of which general Miles. Senator H <ar an 1 Speiker Reed will be found lined up in vigorous opposition to the President. Secretary Alger and Senator Hanna. In such a schism would lie the democratic opportunity."

Many republican newspapers are now busy reading Boss Hernlev's title clear t< • mansions in the ■-kies, owing to his persistency in championing county and township reform, which reform entertains features not in the least calculated to breed any semblance to reform. The aforementioned chairman is alluded to in terms not endearing. The bills have passed the senate and are now in the house, where efforts are I wing made to make them caucus measures, but up to the present time all such efforts have been unsuccessful. Fob high-handed journalistic impudence the editor of the Geneva Herald is certainly entitled to and accorded the belt. Last week he dipped his pen in the mire of personal slush, and as a consequence the members of the board of commissioners were the object of an attack in which spleen, and nothing but unadulterated spleen, rolled thick and fast. If the Herald has a grievance and will state it in any manner of decency, credit will be accorded him for his honest and outspoken convictions. Otherwise hie tirade of personal ranting wil] be accepted as a labored effort to get funny with himselt. Eb other Lockwood, of the Republican, is disposed to kick over the traces a little at the republican state chairman’s efforts to “reform” nearly everything in sight. The Republican, line many others, is beginning to have suspicions that the so-called county and township reform oil! is a delusion and a snare that will bob up later on and be a source of trouble to the republican partv. The Sentinel favors any and all true reforms, but it fails to see how there can be any good come of a law that will create an army of seven thousand office holders, a greater or less number of whom will certainly be far from first-class men. Such a law is the one which a few politicians and the Indianapolis papers are trving to force down the throats of the people of Indiana.— Miami County Sentinel. We guess the condemnation of Gen. Eagan by the administration is not very alarming. The General will still retain all the emoluments of his armv connection, and that will heal much wounded pride. The South Bend Times well says that “to an unprejudiced and wholly impartial mind it would appear as if Gen. Eagan were virtually getting' a premium for his outrageous denunciation of Gen. Miles. His “punishment” is a travesty on justice. It amounts to no punishment at all. The Times is of the opinion that President McKinley made a great mistake in doing what he did in the Eagan case. Its effects is likely to prove hurtful to army discipline. The finding of the military court ought to have been fully affirmed by the president.

SWEATING BLOOD Chairman Hernly Endeavoring tc Pull ths Republicans Together on Reform Measures.

House Majority Kills the Two-Cent Fare Bill — Indianapolis Streetcar Bill May Result In Barring Interurban Electric Hoads Entering the City—Republicans Enable to Realize Their Finish In State Government. Stoner-Cregor Contest Settled. [From Our Indianapolis Correspondent.] These are day - when Charles Hernly, chairman of the Republican state committee. is sweating blood. It is “all along of this beautiful “reform" job he has on hand. Hernly is one of those fellows occasionally found in politics, who shoots with a loud report and scatters wide, but when it comes to bitting anything in particular be is not in it. Some fellow comes along and presents a proposition to him. “Sure!" says Hernly. “That's a good thing. Go ahead and doit and I'll see you through. The proposer goes ahead apd all Hernly does toward seeing him tlirough is to let go an interview and tell people what they ought to do. When the officers of the state board of commerce, who were pushing the notion of a reform in local government, asked him to put a resolution favoring their idea in the state platform, he gave the subject almost a minute's thought and told them tc prelate their resolution and it should go in. It went in. Then, after election, when they went and asked him to form a commission to get up the bills, he gave it another minute of thought and ap- j pointed the c< immission they suggested. He committed the party to action good and hard. Then the reformers got Harry New to look after the thing in | the senate and suggested to Hernly that he take care of the house. “Sure! ” \ says Hernly. “The house will be all right' Just leave that tome." Then he let ont an interview, telling the members of the house to pass the bills, and thought the whole thing was settled. Newspapers throughout the state, both Democratic and Republican, took exceptions to the bills and members of the house began to have views. Hernly never knew it. but went along in serene ; confidence that the house would do his bidding. The reformers saw how things were going and have spent most of their . time building fires under Hernly to keep him moving. He had a rude awakening when the first of the bills passed by the senate was ruthlessly slaughtered in the house. Then he endeavored to apply the caucus whip and a caucus was called for last Friday night. About one-third of the Republican members failed to show up and those that did come kept slipping away, one by one. until the meeting peter- d out. Then the reformers got after Hernly again and Hernly took his faithful partner, the “Only Jim” Watson and established himself on Friday m thspeaker's room. There he sat all day while his friends in the house pleadel with, persuaded ami bulldozed the "fly-the-tracks" to go and see him singly ami in pairs. Hernly and Watson pleaded and threatened and cajoled and threatened again. After adjournment there was another caucus and this time they mustered 45 members out of the 60 that compose the majority. Since then they have been on their knees to every Democrat in the house trying to steal, purchase. beg or borrow the other six votes necessary to carry the two remaining bills through. In his management of the bills in the senate. New was a good deal smarter. He would not hear to the notion of making them a caucus measure and frankly said that he wanted all the Democratic votes he could get. With the partisan notion thus removed, the senators voted as they individually saw fit and all three of the bills went through without much trouble. 111. A few days ago the house held its first night session and the Republican majority did its biennial job of killing the 2-cent fare bill at the dictation of the railroad corporations. It was the same old story over again. The bill had been smothered in committee as long as possible, and when it finally was pulled out the railroad lobby had had time to “see” enough of the members to be serene about the matter. The Democrats, as usual, talked to deaf ears in trying to get for the common people the same concession on fares that is given voluntarily by the railroads to people wealthy enough to buy 1,000 miles of transportation at a time. The Republican “leaders, " who can play the demagogue to beat the band when there is nothing at stake, had little or nothing to say, but calmly voted to kill the bill. The Morgan county wonder. Quincy Adams Blankenship, who is always howling at the top of his voice the assertion that he “represents nothing on earth but the common people,” buried his head down in his arms and voted against the bill in a voice so low that none but the clerk could hear him. I I I It seems likely that these last two weeks of the session are to be consumed in a discussion of the awful streetcar question, local to Indianapolis. But there is “pork in the pot" in this question for a good many people, and the Republicans will, of course, give it the right of way. A new company has bought up both the old concerns, the one that had the lines and the one that existed on paper only, and now wants the legislature to repeal the legislation that was put through two years ago after so much fighting and corruption. The new concern is making beautiful promise.-. and tLe people of Indianapolis arc

ZZ2 ft* —■ An Examination— OF OUR spring and summer line of Piece Goods will convince you of the fact that it is the largest and nobbiest line of Suitings and Trowserings ever placed before the people of Decatur. It you are going to have a suit or pair of pants made, step in and see our line while the assortment is large and. you have plenty of patterns to select from. We guarantee every garment we turn out in fit and workmanship. Our prices are always the lowest. On Saturday, February 25 we will make a Special Sale on Overalls. All 35 cent and 50 cent overalls we will sell at 25c. Remember, this sale is for one day only—Saturday, Feb, 25. Schulte, Falk & Ehinger. The Leading Clothiers and Tailors. — - I

so divided on the matter tha’ in a gathering of 1,000 of them there would probably be 1,000 different views put forward. There is but one point that interests the people of the state at large, and that has regard to the future rather than to present conditions. This concern is asking for a franchise for 34 years. In 10 years or less the business of inter-urban electric roads is likely to see a very great development and it would not surprise me to see the --ate < ■ vered with a network of these roads. If one concern is given the exclusive right to all the streets of I Indianapolis it tan h Id all these enter- ■ prises that wan- terminals in Indiana- ' polls at the edge of the city and either | choke them off altogether or compel ’ them • pay heavily f.-r trackage for | their cars. The l-4r.slature should find I souse way to take care of this phase of I the matter, for the Indianapolis council I hands ;f that body outside roads can 1 ani jay b:_’ for all they get In > It-eems hard fir the Republicans to realize their finish in the control of the! state gtwernment. They have had I things their ■ wn way now since I*l*4 I and are imbued with the notion that they have vested rights of a perpetual nature. They are already figuring hard on the governorship next year. I had occasion sen.- weeks ago to mention the ludicrous ambitions of Haggard in this direction, but there are others in the field. That man Nebeker, who is never happy unless he is "setting up" things, is f< ruling a combination to run Landis for governor and is pulling together such celebrated promoton as John Wingate to help out in the job. It would be lovely politics in the Ninth district and in the statehouse if Landis should get there. Auditor Hart, Dave Coulter and a strong gang of Frankfort politicians have been secretly knifing Landis on all occasions and Landis has had full knowledge of the facts. He is an Indian from away back, and if he ever has the opportunity to get even, there will be a regular snowstorm of razors up in Clinton county. Charlie Griffin has his rod up again, and it is taken as a matter of course that Posey will be a candidate. Posey is like an old fire horse. Whenever he hears the bell tap it is the most natural thing in the world for him to rush out and announce his candidacy. Dodge of Elkhart is another man who will probably be a candidate from force of habit. One blooming boom, however, was nippea by the same wintry frost that swept Beveridge into the senate. Jofin L. Griffiths saw his hopes for the governorship perish when his hated rival captured the senatorial toga. As usual, members of the senate are paying each other empty compliments in the way of favorable “mention" for the nomination and both Hogate and Gilbert are talked about. Hogate is serious about it, just as he is about everything else, but. though he would make a good governor, he has none of the hustling qualities that are essential in the business of capturing a nomination. I I I Notwithstanding the fact that the senate committee on elections is heavily Republican, the job of unseating Cregor and putting Stoner in his place was too much for its stomach. The evidence brought before the committee displayed such a mass of Republican corruption that the majority did not have the nerve to reverse the decision of the election judges. The average Republican senator cau stand a good deal, but the methI ods pursued by Stoner’s managers were I too much for the committee. Cregor | will continue to occupy the seat during I the next session. I I I . The yearning for railroad passes

among the attaches of the legislature is something pathetic. Realizing this fact, Harry Adams, somewhat celebrated as a wag. distributed among them passes on the “St. Paul and Sou’heastem," which the same is about 400 yards of tramway running into his stone quarry at St. Paul in Shelby county. On its face the pass declares “The Big Four system is tributary to this road.” One of these passes went to Doorkeeper Gibson, and on one of those cold mornings Gibson drove ‘JO miles from his home in Delaware county to strike the Big Four so he might rule to Indianapolis on this pass. There were great frozen gobs of gloom about the station when the pass was refused. I I I The members of the house enjoyed a regular schoolboy picnic the other day when Littleton called Roots to the chair for an hour. Roots is never in his seat when his name is called and always ' comes rushing in at the tailend of a roll.il. with the demand that his vote be - recorded. As soon as he got in the j chair the members began filing out into the lobbies and Roots went crazy. He flourished the gavel about wildly and ordered the doorkeepers to bring in the members. Then they all came in demanding that their votes b ■ recorded. Roots could not see the joke at all and the members proceeded to “play horse” with him in every conceivable way until the speaker returned and assumed the chair. I I I When this legislature takes it place in history, as it will do in a couple of weeks, the place will be a remarkably small one. Three-fourths of its time has been spent in advancing measures to a certain point and then killing them. It.will hold the record for the least accomplished of any- legislature Indiana has had. It has now almost completed j its session and not a single law of any ! general importance has gone to the : governor for his signature. The chie j cause of this failure has bee. i the miserably disorganized state of the i Republican majority in tne house. \ Without leaders and without anybody strong enough to seize the reins of power, it has drifted along accomplishing nothing and frittering away the time in petty quarrels and personal jealousies. Walter Whitcomb. STATE APPROPRIATIONS. The State's Finances Appropriated with a Generous Hand, the Increase Reaching Many Ihousands oj Dollars. The general appropriation committee have completed their considerations. and reported same to the legislature. The total appropriations are largely increased over 1897, as will lye seen in the following: Ad jutant -general’s clerk .? 900 Governor's contingent fund.. 4,000 Auditors office for safe 700 Clerk to state treasurer 1,000 Assistant deputy attorneygeneral ‘ 1,800 Attorney-general’s office safe. 150 Clerk of sup’t of public instruction 900 Stenographer sup’t of public instruction GOO Janitor state library 720 Office expenses of state library 1 000 Second assistant reporter supreme court 1 000 Office expenses reporter of supreme court 150 Clerk reporter supreme court. 1.000 Extra clerk hire bureau of statistics 1.500 Expenses of collecting statistics 2.500 Mine inspector expenses 1,500 Gas supervisor expenses 900 State board of health t;.()00 Custodian'assistants 11.000 Engineer's assistants 4.500

State house specific 5.500 Law librarion 1,000 Circuit judges 145.000 Prosecuting attorneys 29.000 Central hospital 448,0CX) Northern hospital 185,000 Eastern hospat al 172,000 Southern hospital 165,000 Blind institution 32.450 Deaf and dumb institute 74,800 Indiana orphan's home 100.470 Feeble-minded institute 144.350 State prison 128.990 Indiana reformatory 363.770 Boys’ reform school 645.000 Girls'reform school 70.700 Printing 50,000 State board of charities 12,250 Tax commissioners 5,000 Historical society 2,000 Private claims 20,000 Colonies and Commerce. The treasury bureau of statistics has issued an interesting publication on the colonies of the world which throws some valuable light on the question of commerce following the flag. There are on the globe only 125 of what are recognized as colonies, protectorates ir dependencies, which seems like a small number until one starts to count them up. The chief possessor of these is Great Britain. As ' to number, it has forty-eight, or more I than one-third of all.’ As to extent, its colonies include over one-half of the 22.000,003 square miles included in all colonial possessions. As to population, its colonies have 344,000,000 out of a total of 503,000,000 people in this dependent state. Next to Great Britain comes France, which has thirty-two colonies and dependencies, with 3,600,000 square miles of area and 52,600,000 of population. No other country has so many as ten ; colonies. Next to France in extent of I colonial territory comes China, which : has four dependencies, with 2,900.000 ■ square miles of territory, with 16,700,000 of population. Next to France in population is Holland, which has three colonies, with 800.000 square miles of territory and 44.000.000 of people. As a rule, no direct profit comes to the home government from colonies, the revenues being devoted to colonial purposes. Commerce between the sucj eessful colonies and their mother conn- ■ tries is in nearly all cases placed upon practically the same basis as that with other countries, goods from the home countries receiving in the vast majority of cases no advantages over those from other countries in import duties and other exactions of this character. In the more prosperous and progressive colonies the percentage of importation from the mother countries grows somewhat less as the business and prosperity increase. The chief British colonies in North America (Canada and Newfoundland), which in 1871 took 50 per cent, of their importations from the home country, took in 1896 less than 20 percent, from Great Britain; those of South Africa C ? 10n - V and Xatal X which in 18 < 1 took 83 per cent, from the home country, took but 71 percent, in 1896those of Australia and adjacent is-' lands, which in 1876 took 48 per cent, trom the home country, in 1896 took but -10 per eent. The French colonies now take from the home country about o f their total imports, while the British colonies obtain about Percent. °f ‘heir total imports trom the home country. These facts constitute a very conclusive answer to the claim that trade follows the flair. As a matter of fact it is probable that the chief holds of any country ce the commerce of its colonies, aside from advantage offered in terms, are similarity o. language and customs, facili-

ties for transportation and advantapi in banking and exchange facilities. The United States takes nearly as large a per cent, of its imports fnn Great Britain asdothe Britishcolonies, and it exports to Great Britain nearlv as much as all the British colonies combined, although thev hare five times the population of the United States. The fact of a constant m of trade in the British colonies by competitors is well known to the British government and to British merchants. and numerous efforts hire been made to check it. One of tbw, the "merchandise-marks act." a s® of trademark regulation, is said to have increased the demand for foreign goods instead of decreasing it. The British authorities have concluded that the real causes of gain of foreign competition are cheapness of goods, lietter finish, better packing, more accommooating terms, adaption of goods to the market, and commercial enterprise. This is natural and reasonable, and the commercial experience of the world sustains the position. Commerce is not a product of conquest.a these davs. but of business sagacity. Sen t inel. Mr. Eichhorn, leader of the dfflfr cratic forces of the lowt r house of the I legislature, is a shrewd man. Weeao ■ not h“lp but admire the ability ™ which he handles his forces. It is to be regretted that the republican majority is not under as good discipline. ' As it is. Mr. Eichhorn is completes outwitting his opponents, who. although they are in a majority, are » ' unorganized that they are unable pass a bill demanded by the platform and the leaders of the party. It ® republicans would present a unit® ' front for the reform bills the soln array of democratic votes against them would melt away. Mr. Eichhorn kno the party that passes th -e bits 1 strike a popular chord, and. thereto • he will prevent the republicans getting that advantage if he can. jif he sees the republican- are , ae . mined to put the bill through- ■ will see Mr. Eichhorn mid c0D1 I ) , a 1 gettin on the band wagon • glory they can. —Crawfordsville nal i rep.) According to a statement made i member of the court of inquiry '' ... i this week begins the taking 01 i mony on the embalmed beef " ■ the court regads itself as sl,,1 “8 01 < court-martial to try General ■ ■ ■ i the charge of lying, although . authority to pass sentence sn find him guilty. No other eontion can be placed upon tius , e i guage used by i court referred to: "Me look ■ r Miles to prove his allegation’' i have no concern as to the n ’ ltu . s‘;t 5 ‘ ;t j S i to that side of the inquirv. an r incumbent upon Gen. Miw' , and produce before us those ' j n i expects to establish his ea- • i other words, the court belie i Miles guilty, but will g l ' g en , > chance to prove otherwis ■ ; Miles will produce sixty-od< *. g who reported from th-- helu « . the beef issued, including 1 rJO f ; “Teddy” of New York, and l; K e ]yto > will be' made so hot that it <s t scorch Secretary Aj§ er t _„ tra ctors« , officials as well asthebeefo t * T D ow be , According to the test!mo . t here 5 fore the investigating comm > is a musty smell coming j S commissary departmen • t likely to prove a worse sea a))U? e > administration than any ■’ ( . O ir ! vet practiced. The attemp . trodict General Miles , ene dit . beef" story has so far stre-r