Decatur Democrat, Volume 42, Number 52, Decatur, Adams County, 9 March 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. MARCH 9. The military court of inquiry is going west to take testimony at the big meat packing establishments, although it would be difficult to say why. The success in advertising comes in keeping everlastingly at it, by advertising what the people want and keeping your written promises therein to the letter. If this is done, no merchant will be out of a newspaper and none of them will be heard to say, •‘advertising don't pay.” Senator Tvrpie has served the people faithfully and well. His term as senator ended March 4. and were we to do justice to his many acts of favor to the people, the same would fill a book. Suffice it to say, he has performed well the service to his countrymen and his acts will be ever remembered and his name revered throughout all time to come. Representative Krick came home Tuesday, being retired to private life by the ending of the legislature. He is much pleased with the life of a legislator, although sixty days is sufficient for one dose. As was expected Representative Krick was conservative and voted conscientiously upon all bills considered. His constituents are well pleased with his conduct in this respect, and the Democrat has no criticism to offer. The minority democrats as a body are being congratulated by their party notwithstanding the Sentinel’s defamation of them. There is much merit in the unanimous condemnation of the Indianapolis Sentinel, but it does not reach the extent of establishing another democratic daily. Such an attempt would be worse than folly itself. It would doubtless prove a failure and be the means of loosing its promoters many thousands of dollars, all of which would not tend to heal the wounds of the injured. To foster such an enenterprise and make it self-sustaining, would take lots of money and a complete knowledge of the newspaper business, and these important provisions are not found every day. The Geneva Herald is again in evidence. It seems that the Herald wants a road improved and wants the commissioners to make road improvements regardless of the fact that these officials are not in the road building business, th? same being contrary to any form of law covering their duties in office. This fact is known to every citizen of southern Adams, except the editor that pres des over the destinies and fathers the misguided statements of the Herald. Regarding the allusions to the Democrat and price of stationery their remarks were as far from the truth as those concerning the commissioners. The sixty-first general assembly of the state of Indiana, closed its session Monday night at midnight. Not much if any legislation was enacted, that will prove beneficial or important to the state at large. \Ve print in full the county and township reform measures. These are considered the most important legislation, hence we hasten to lay them before you. It provides that within thirty days after the act goes into effect the circuit court shall appoint these officers, who shall serve until the next general election in 1900. The acts provides for a county council of seven members, three of whom shall lie elected at large. The township council is composed of five members. The legislative appropriations shows signs of a systematic scheme of high handed grabbing that was simply amazing. Money was seemingly appropriated for every old thing that came along, and in the scramble the people’s interest was only a vision of what might have been. It was a reckless majority that ruled legislation and the people may well feel relieved that the end has come. The extravagant appropriations, more than a billion and a half, made by the fifty-fifth congress, now happilv dead, would a few years ago have been sufficient to drive' any political party from power. Only ten years ago a billion dollar congress drove the republicans out and put the democrats in. But it is easy to educate men into not only condoling public extravagance, but into commending it, especially if some of the money lx* spent in away to give th«n some personal profit. The war is the excuse for the large total of the appropriation. but it is not a valid one. and it should lie the duty of every man opposed to public extravagance to appoint himself a committee of one to see that no man with whom he comes in contact shall accept that excuse for lack of the actual facts. With every appropriation connected with the war deducted, the appropriations made by the Fifty-fifth congress would still lie largely in excess of those made bv any congress in our history. Keep this fact in your own mind and in the minds of others, and a congress and a president may be elected next year to check the era of extravagance into which we have drifted.

INDIANA LAWMAKERS WORK OF HOOSIER STATESMEN AT INDIANAPOLIS. All of the Impertinent Measures Considered and Acted Upon by the General Assembly—Matters of Interest to Our Readers. Indianapolis, March I.—The Indianapolis streetcar bill passed the senate yesterday by a vote of 43 to 3. Senators Corr, Inman and Winfield opposing it. The Hammond harbor bill came before the senate on a divided committee report. Both reports favored the bill with amendments. The bill will probably pass, provided the people of Hammond do not petition to have it killed in view of the amendments, which may prove disagreeable. The Knotts bill providing that the sale of reclaimed swamp lands shall apply to the drainage and improvement of the Kankakee valley was killed by the house. The senate passed the bill for a state fee and salary commission after a long wrangle. Bills were passed by the house as follows: Allowing counties to use voting machines at their option; extending the benefits of parole law to convicts sentenced for stated terms before the enactment of the indeterminate sentence law: for a uniform system of county accounts; declaring null and void all contracts forced in advance bye nployer from employe releasing the employer from liability for damages for all injuries received by the employe; authorizing and providing for a hospital for incurable insane, with an appropriation of $25,000; requiring a $5,000 bond for county commissioners; authorizing the burial of ex-union sailors or soldiers, and the deceased wile or w-idow of soldier or sailor, at the expense of the state, providing the family are indigent. Among the slain in the house the bill to prevent legislators and judges from accepting railroad passes heads the list. MANY BILLS PASSED. The Knotts Kankakee N alley Drainage | Bill Reconsidered and Engrossed. Indianapolis, March 2.—Both houses ground out a large number of bills on third reading yesterday. The vote by which the Knotts bill was killed in the house on Tuesday was reconsidered and the bill engrossed. It provides that the sale of reclaimed swamp lands by the state shall apply to the drainage and improvement of the Kankakee valley. The senate passed the bill providing for the burial at the expense of the state of any honorably discharged ex-union soldier or sador, or the deceased wife or widow of same. The bill for the payment of the Vincennes University claim against the state for .$120,000 was passed by the house. It is understood the governor will veto it. Mr. Stevens' bill, giving farmers constabulary powers in arresting and taking before a justice of the peace any j trespassing hunter on his farm, was I passed by the house. The Burkhardt antitrust bill passed i the house. It provides that any com- . pauy entering into a combination to de- | stroy competition may be prosecuted on ! information. Among the bills passed by the house i arc the following: Ke-euacting the defectiv- Wishurd law of 1805, under which most of the paving of the cit of Indianapolis was done. It v ent through both houses in 1895 without an enacting clause; I a bill legalizing the act- done under the defective law was also passed: fixing the tuition of school children transferred ; from one school corporation to another at $1.50 per month for g’-ades below the high school, aud $3 per month in the high school; prohibiting camping on public highways for more than 14 hours at a time, and making the road supervisors accountable for the enforcement of the law. Among the bills missed by the senate are the following For the inspection of miners' illuminating oil; preventing the organization of trades combinations to restrict competion. aimed especially at the Plumbers’ National association; legalizing the titles to numerous lands in Knox county, where the original papers were destroyed by fire GRINDING OCT BILLS. Usual Rush of Business at Close of the legislature's Session. Indianapolis, March 3. —Both houses of the legislature are grinding out bills on second and third readings in order to get them through in time to be signed by the governor, for which he is allowed three days. No bills, at least of any importance, will be passed after midnight tonight. Between then aud adjournment the members will probably amuse themselves by throwing books, papers and the like at each other, and by passing funny resolutions. The formal adjournment will be reached on Monday, March 6, at midnight. The governor has vetoed the Columbus hospital bill. The house passed the senate bill exempting from taxation property to the amount of any mortgage against it not to exceed S7OO, and not to exceed onehalf of the value of the taxable property, and also the senate bill allowing 50 or more farmers to organ ze a mutual insurance company to insure against losses by cyclone, windstorms, hail, etc., as well as from other causes, provided, however, the organization shall not extend beyond five contiguous co- es. The senate passed the house b ithorizing the state to survey aud sell the swamp lands along the Kankakee river, which have been naturally reclaimed. The Knotts bill to apply the sale of reclaimed swamp lands to the drainage and improvement of the Kandakee valley passed the house. The senate bill to reimburse the officers and soldiers of the Indiana regiments in the Spanish war for being charged full price by the state for old uniforms, went through the house with a rush. Trie house passel the following bills: Providing t)_<t in suits in the supreme and appellate courts notices to nonresidents shall be published in papers iu the

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county where the suit originates, instead of in the Indianapolis papers; amending the law so that one of the jury commissioners of a township shall be selected from a city and the other from the country; providing that where a town or city annexes outlying property in a township where there is a schoolhouse not wholly paid for, the town or city must assume the indebtedness; for the better distribution of state publications; providing that all county warrants unpaid for lack of funds in the county treasury shall bear interest at from 4 to 6 per cent. The senate passed the following bills: Allowing contractors for the construction of roads the right to appropriate any gravel or ether material by condemnation proceedings for use on the road; providing for taxing all legacies in excess of SIO,OOO. ’ SIGNED BY GOVERNOR. County Reform Bill Receives the Approval of the State Executive. Indianapolis, March 4 — Yesterday was the last actual day of business for the Sixty-first general assembly. Bills on third reading were rushed through both branches and hurried to the governor. The general appropriation bill passed the senate and the house concurred in the slight senate amendments. It appropriates $4,015,000 in round numbers. The Goodwine bill passed the house. It is the compromise bill in the state board of education fight, and provides that three more members, to be appointed by the governor, shall be added to the board. The senate passed the Caraway election bill, providing that any man convicted of selling his vote may be disfranchised for from 10 to 20 years. The Roots forestry bill passed the senate. It proposes to encourage forestry in Indiana. Various bills of interest passed both branches. Among those passed by the house are the following: Declaring null and void all contracts forced in advance of employment releasing employer from liability for injuries received through the negligence of the employer by the employe; the senate resolution ceding to the federal government any state land on which the government may decide to station a permanent military post. The senate passed the following bills: Fixing the lowest rate of wages to be paid per hour for unskilled labor on public works at 15 cents per hour; extending the parole law to female prisoners in state penal and reformatory institutions. ANTILYNCHING LAW. The Noel Measure Passes the Senate and Is Sent to the Governor. Indianapolis, March 6.—Both houses spent Saturday in finishing up the small amount of unfinished business, and adjourned until today. Nothing of any ! importance was done in the house, the business transacted being limited to concurring in senate amendments to bills and in receiving a few messages from the governor. The senate passed the Noel antilynching bill. As it was suggested by the governor, it will meet his approval and | become law. It provides that lynchers ' may be prosecuted on information, and declares that when a prisoner is taken | from the sheriff and lynched it shall be j prima facie evidence that the sheriff was negligent of his duty, aud the attorney general shall institute proceedings to remove him from office. The Glossbrcnner primary election bill failed to pass the senate. The senate also refused to pass the Columbus hospital bill appropriating $120,009, over the governor's veto. The bill regulating the salaries of the county officers of the state was killed.

THEIR WORK IS OVER. Sixty-First General Assembly Has Adjourned Without Day. Indianapolis, March 7. —Both branches of the Sixty-first general assembly adjourned last night without day, after completing practically all of its business. Yesterday was a day of hilarity in the house. Humorous resolutions too numerous to mention were adopted to pass away the time. At one stage of the afternoon the house looked as though the roof had been taken off and the snow thrown in, so thick were the bills, papers, books and calendars which hailed from all parts of the room. This undignified species of amusement contin- j ued for an hour, when Mr. Shideler, the | corpulent chairman of the ways and | means committee, arose and stopped it. The effort, however, cost him many raps 1 c.n the head by books and other articles j thrown from all parts of the hall. In the evening the members had varied ' amusement byway of speeches, songs | and jokes. The senate maintained its dignity, i The bill to allow the claim of Vincennes University against the state for $120,001 failed to pass over the governor's veto. The bill to create a state railroad commission was killed. Before adjouning the senate took another chance to show its enmity for the I Indianapolis Sentinel, the Democratic state organ. A resolution was introduced by a Democrat to exonerate the paper for its attack on Senator Drummond (Dem). The resolution was tabled, however, only two members, both Democrats, voting for it. Senator Drummond added another to his list of bitter speeches against The Sentinel. The debate revealed the fact that a plan is already on foot, headed by a large number of Democratic legislators and backed by considerable capital, to establish a new Democratic morning daily in this city to be the state organ of Democracy. The governor signed the Noel antilynching law. Memorial services of ex-Governor Matthews were held in the house. The speakers were Mr. Eichhorn and Mr, Whitcomb of Marion. Ten Per Cent Increase. Bellaire, 0., March 6.—The wages of 3,000 employes of the Riverside iron works will be increased 10 per cent commencing today. Against Expansion. We have not taken up the crusade against expansion without the most careful thought. We are not to be driven from our position by intemperate criticism nor the cry, “Stop my paper. ’ Me are proud to differ with people so weak that they will not hear but one side of a question. A review of our editortai comment will show the reason upon which we found our argument, but we shall enumerate them again. The reasons for continued American occupancy and subjugation of the Philippines must be selfish or altruistic. As selfish motives have been the only ones that heretofore have changed human populations on the earth we shall consider that horn of the dilemma first, our children might displace the islanders, as we have displaced the Indians. But the Philippines are in the tropics, where the white man, as an animal, has not and never will flourish. Our commerce mav be increased. and again it may not. and even if it is increased it will not pav for the armament. A few may receive benefit from certain lines of trade, but all of us must pav the taxes of a chronic state of war. Men will not enlist for tropic fevers at the wages of military service in the temperate zone any more than a Chicago clerk would take a Manila job at his home salary. The daily published

death rolls are a poor encouragement to military service, and the miserable wrecked soldiers are a damper on brass band military ardor. From the viewpoint of selfishness, personal or aggregate, now or hereafter, we can see. no excuse or reason for our holding the Philippines. Nor has the experience of any other nation justified us in the hope that we might ever expect to “‘make anything" out of such tenure. On the side of altruism. Be it said at the outset that it was well that Spanish dominion of the islands was ended, for the people were maltreated beyond endurance and their many struggles have shown thhm possessed of a spirit to deserve autonomy, liberty, self-government or whatever they choose to inflict upon themslves. Indeed, if we did not in our supercilious way claim the love of liberty as purely a white man's possession we might make bold enough to say that seemingly what the yellow people have been fighting and dying for possessing at last a shadow of an imitation of a desire tor that copyrighted Caucausain commodity. What can we do for them ? Carry them the gospel? We helped them to overthrow the domination of the largest branch of the Christian church. Carry them civilization? They would accept it as they needed it more readily in the forms of civilization than in the garb of barbarism war. Who are we to say that their civilization does not fit them as well as ours would do? They are not barbarians by any means, except when fighting. Are we civilizing them now? If we talk of teaching them the art of self-govern-ment. would it not be well to rule ourselves justly and decently before i “taking them." Which of our great cities shall we take as a model upon which to mold the government of distant Manila? We can find no comfort for the altruistic idea in the superimposing the government of the white man in any case under the sun. Africa is a hideous slaughterhouse, from Khartoum to Congo, and from the Congo to the Cape. Where are the Aztecs, the Incas, the Indians, the Australians? Are the gentle Sandwich Islanders increasing or becoming extinct? The tale of India, inhabited by a closely allied race, is not an altogether pleasing one. Nothing but the unhealthiness of the tropics for the white man has kept those often abused people on the face of the earth. We find no adequate recompense in selfishness for the loss of life and health and treasure, for the awful demoralization of our own soldiers who are enlisted and the evils that haunt the camp and are not confined to any age or period, nor varied with armament nor flag. We can speak with knowledge of the morals of Camp Merritt, whence our boys went to Manila. Me find no altruistic reason for denying these people the right to govern themselves as they see fit. There is another excuse for our occupancy, which is neither selfish nor altruistic, but is erroneosly called patriotic. Me fear that honest people believe that it is patriotic because it is called patriotic and because the flag figures in it. Patriotism is a love of country, but the Philippines are not our country; they are physically inhospitable, and we never bought anything but a right to take Spain's place in conquering them. Our flag is the emblem of government bv the consent of the governed. It does not fit the case of conquest. Blown to the breeze to announce the end of Spanish tvranny it was grand. Hunting yellow men out in the jungle, it is out of place- Our flag was planted bv Grerley in the Arctic ice. we do no't rom sentimental reasons send men to

keep it afloat. It was unfurled on a Mexican island by people who tried to steal Guano, but President Diaz hauled it down. A flag can as easily get out of place as any other article. Patriotism must have solid, sensible reasons back of it or it does not exist. M'e who use our sacred emblem to advertise soap, chewing gum and politics should not rush to the idioev of talking about never “hauling it down." It is patriotism to rescue it from being out of place. It istreason to misuse it in trampling the liberty of others. M’e are asked what we would advise. M’e believe that the United States as a military factor should get out and stay out. England would doubtless join us in saving "Open door and hands off." And so it would be. If any should feel it ineumlient upon them to break the back of a people struggling for liberty, it ought not to be the nation wh -e greatest and best beloved said. "The government of the people, by the pe< pie. and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” It should not be done under a flag, the meaning of which has been made plain by the countless graves in Dixie. Unity. Congress has adjourned, the end coming without anything unusual or dramatic. The total appropriations [ amount to §1,566,890,016.12. In this 1 respect they have surely adopted a ■ policy of reckless extravagance. Mr. I Dockery of Missouri, the rankingdemocratic member of the house appropriations committee, made the following statement, giving the democratic view: "This congress easily surpasses all its predecessors in the stupendous aggregate of its appropriations. It was thought that the Fifty-first congress, commonly known as the “billion dollar congress ' had in [xiint of extravagance of appropriations touched a limit which would not be reached or at least surpassed by any of its successors. This congress, however, has far exceeded the appalling total of appropriations then made and it will be remembered that the “billion dollar congress' was followed by overwhelming disaster to the republican party at the ensuing election. Confronted with a war with Spain, requiring the imposition ot additional taxation, it is obvious that rigid economy should have lieen applied in all other directions to the expenditure of public money. D‘ e people were willing to meet all the demands upon the national treasury made necessary by the Spanish war. but it is fair to presume that they expected their representatives, in new of the cheerful disposition manifested to meet these added burdens, to nnii the ordinary appropriations to t necessities of a wise and economic administration. These expectation’ have not been realized. The resul ’ an actual deficiency in current ues, amounting on the first ot month to §99,109.554.50. This i ficiency. as shown by a recent vative estimate by Chairman t aua U, of the appropriations committee, probablv reach §149,000.000. on J 1 30 next.' It is impossible to estimate with absolute accuracy the treas deficiency for the coming fiscal The secretary of the treasury, in annual report made in Deeenibei nestimated it at about 521.000.00 t. it is now apparent that it will ut less than §100.000.000. It is certain, therefore, that the _g° ment will be compelled during , calendar year 1900 to face an 11 ‘ treasury deficiency. March 15 at Bosse's opera ho* Scott's Minstrels.