Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1884 — Supplement. A SCHOOL FUND SWINDLE! [ARTICLE]

Supplement.

A SCHOOL FUND SWINDLE!

The Republican Candidate for Governor Obtains Money from the School Fund and Fails to Pay the Debt. The Taxpayers Settle the Interest Annually. WHAT THE RECORDS SAY. (From the LaPorte Argus.) The following history of a common school fund loan made "by Major Wm. H. Calkins, the Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana, is presented to the voters of the State for their personal consideration, believing it to be a matter of great importance to them at this time. The accuracy of the statements made will not be seriously questioned, and they cannot be set aside by special pleading or by the common remark that “the story is a campaign lie.” To prevent all cavil, the dates and pages of the records are given so that the complete official history of this transaction may be easily verified. Those who doubt may investigate for themselves, and they will find that we “set down naught in malice” but that the official records are stronger than we make them appear : In the fall of 1874 Wm. H. Calkins made application to the Auditor of LaPorte county for a loan of S3OO from the common school fund of the State, offering as security a mortgage on a piece of land located in Johnson township, some eighteen miles frcm the city of LaPorte. The record shows that H. C. Brown, D. L. Brown and I. D. Phelps, all residents of the city of LaPorte and close personal and political friends of Calkins, were appointed appraisers. It also shows that these appraisers reported under oath that the land was “worth S7OO, in specie, at the common selling rate in the county.” On this report the money was loaned to Calkins, he giving the following note which still stands unpaid : I, W. H. Calkins, promise to pay the State of Indiana, on or before the twenty-eighth (28th) day of October, 1879 the sum of Three Hundred Dollars, with interest thereon, at the rate of eight per cent per annum in advance, commencing on the 28th day of October, 1874, and do agree that, in case of failure to pay an installment of said interest when the same shall become due, the principal sum shall become due and payable, together with all arrears of interest, and on failure to pay such principal or interest when due, two per cent damages shall be collected, with costs, and the premises mortgaged may be forthwith sold by the County Auditor for the payment of such principal sum, interest, damages and costs, for the use of the common school fund. 8300. W. H, Calkins. As security he executed a mortgage on the land. The full record of this transaction will be found on page 480, Vol. 2, School Fund Mortgage Record in the Recorder’s office of LaPorte county. The interest that was due for the next year was paid, but on the following year it was defaulted, and Calkins was notified that he was in default to the school fund and a speedy settlement was requested. No settlement was made, although it was repeatedly urged by the authorities. Under the terms of the mortgage, the entire amount became due on failure to pay the interest on the 28th day qf October. The interest not being paid according to the contract, and no satisfaction being given to the officials, on the following March the Auditor offered the land for sale.

The following is a copy of an official advertisement that appeared in The Argus three weeks in succession: PUBLIC SALE OF LANDS IN LAPORTE COUNTY, INDIANA, Mortgaged to the State of Indiana. ON MONDAY, the 29th day of March, 1877 between the hours of of 10 o’clock a. m and 4 o’clock p. m., at the dooi of the Court House of said county, the following tracts of land will be sold, or offered for sale, to the highest bidder for cash, default having been made in the payment of the principal or Interest due thereon, viz: ********* LOAN NO. 2,289. —The southeast quarter of section thirty-one (31) township thirtylive (35) north of range one (1) west, containing 180 acres, more or less, In LaPorte county lP d A? na A Mortgaged by W. H. Calkins and Hattie Calkins, his wife, October 23, 1874 P r , incl P a l. interest and penalty due, $315.93 and the costs thereon. The above mentioned property will be sold (unless the same be previously settled) on the day above mentioned, to pay the principal, interest and penalty, together with all the costs and damages on the same. EDWARD J. CHURCH, T „ . „ . , Au dit° r LaPorte County. LaPorte, March 1, 1877. Notices of the sale were posted in the township, but there were no buyers, and the Auditor took the property for the State, as the law directs. See Revised Statute Section 4393. Under the statute the Auditor then had the land re-apprais-ed to enable him to reimburse the loss to the school fund by a private sale of the property. Three wellknown and disinterested free-holders of the township where the land is situated, Messrs. B. F. Place, George Henry and Patrick Flaherty, were appointed to appraise the property. Their report made under oath says : “Having made personal examination of the premises, do upon our oath say that the same is of the value of two hundred dollars, at the common selling rate in this county.” The complete record of this re-appraisement and offer of sale may be found on Commissioners’ Record “1.,” pages 41 and 96. The report of the second appraisers

opened the eyes of the authorities to the fact that the Common School Fund, instead of having a piece of land worth, as they supposed, seven hundred dollars, in reality, had some comparatively worthless Kankakee swamp. On the 18th day of June, 1877, the land was offered for sale for S2OO, the appraised value, on five years’ time for the whole amount; but there were no takers. It has since remained continuously in the market but no purchaser can be found at that price, and the land still remains the property of the State. It represents all that the State has for the original S3OO school fund loan and the interest accumulated thereon for nearly eight years. Time and again during the pro ceedings noted above the county officials urged upon Calkins the necessity for the settlement of this matter, but they were always put off with various excuses and liberal promises, and it still stands unsettled. Under the law, the Commissioners have been obliged from year to year to appropriate money collected from the people by taxation to make good to the school fund the interest due on Wm. H. Calkins’ note and mortgage. See Commissioners’ Record “J.,” page 544, in the County Auditor’s office; also, see Article 8, Section 187 State Constitution, and Sections 4326, 4392, 4398 and 4399 Revised Statutes. The defaulted interest, as will be seen by the reader, amounts to nearly two hundred dollars, and the cost of the proceedings up to this time makes the total amount due over SSOO. To summarize the above facts, so they may be easily understood by the people of Indiana, we will say: Ten years ago this fall Wm. H. Calkins secured a loan from the Common School Fund on land that is practically a worthless swamp. With the assistance of intimate personaland party friends, who probably never saw the land, he obtained money from the school fund to full twice the amount of the value of the swamp. He has failed to pay the interest on the debt, and for eight years the taxpayers have been obliged by law to pay it for him. He has failed to pay either the interest or the principal of this honest debt to the school fund, although repeatedly urged to do so. He is a lawyer and knows that the money cannot be collected on his note by suit until the land is sold, and he has the best of reasons for believing that the land cannot be sold at the appraised value, which is only two-thirds of the amount he received from the school fund. He knows that the people who pay the taxes have for nearly eight years been laying the interest that was* due from lim to the school fund. Is this an lonest transaction, or is it a swindle on the school fund, that should be sacred to every citizen of Indiana? Is such a man worthy to be made Chief Executive of the State? Is he the right kind of a man to guard the interests of the children of the State, and to look after the welfare of the taxpayers? We leave the voters to answer these timely questions at the ballot box m November.