Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1885 — INDIANA LEGISLATURE. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA LEGISLATURE.

Mr. Foulke’s civil-service bill came up in the Senate Feb. 25, was read a third time, and defeated by a vote of 23 to 19. Senators Bailey, Hoover. Magee and Peterson were the Democrate voting in favor of the bllL The following bill, were read a third time: Relieving railroads from liability for damages tor animals killed in certain cues, passed; approving a contingent fund of s>,ooo per month to be used by the Supennteudent of the Insane Asylum. for current expenses, passed; prohibiting the employment of children under 12 years of age in mines and lactones. Un the last named measure the vote was, yeas 25, nays 15, so that it failed for lack of a constitutional majority. Mrs. Josephine R. Nichols addressed the House in support of the Stalev bill providing for scientific instruction in the public schools on the effect of alcohol on the human system. She spoke earnestly for fifteen minutes, and was attentively listened to. The Hous?, during the day, passed the measure by a vote ot 54 to 39. The following bills were recommended for passage in the House : Supplemental to an act authorizing the sale of lands ; providing for the construction of bridges over railroadsestablishing the Indiana weather service; providing fire protection at the insane hospital; abolishing all distinctions of race and color made in the laws of the State: creating the Forty-eighth judicial circuit; in relation to assessments for gravel and macadamized roads; providing tor the re-election of a Reporter of the Supreme Court; regulating the incorporation of cities and defining their powers; providing for the erection of fish ladders; authorizing the dissolution of the Eastern Indiana Agricultural, Mechanical and Trotting Park Association; establishing provisions respecting private corporations. Bills prohibiting the employment of children under 12 years of age In mines and factories; extending the benefit of the mechanics' lien law to farm hands: to enable municipal corporations to hold and purchase real estate for sanitary purposes outside city limits; concerning election of Justices of the Peace and their powers; and to amend the drainage laws, were passed by the Senate on the 26th ult. Mr. Youche’s bill to prevent townships from appropriating money to build railroads was defeated. Senator Mayer said there were eighteen east-and-west lines centering in Chicago which crossed Indiana Not six of them were paying affairs, per so they derived their profit by forcing paying roads into a pool. Meanwhile the townships that had taxed themselves to build such roads under the impression that freights would be reduced by competition had been deceived. The joint resolution proposing a woman-suffrage amendment to the constitution was defeated bv a vote of 25 to 22. In the House several new biljs were introduced.. A resolution was introduced, which was adopted, authorizing the appointment of two Representatives and one Senator to call the attention ot the Legislatures of other States to the importance of securing a uniform system of laws on the subject of marriage and divorce, and to consider the propriety ot holding a convention to frame such laws. The legislative apportionment bill passed after a long discussion. The House c> mmittee to investigate the affairs of the Knightstown Soldiers’ Orphans’ Asylum reported officially that the chargee preferred bv Supt. White against John M. Goar, a Trustee of the institution, were true and proven, and recommended the immediate removal of Goar and White.

Mr. Atkins’ bill to divorce the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home from the Institute for Feeble-Minded Chilren, and appropriating $50,000 for the erection of a new building, was defeated in the Senate on the 27th ult, by the close vote of 23 to 22. The following bills were passed: The militia bill, appropriating SIO,OOO lor uniforms and equipments and putting the militia on a satisfactory basis; to reorganize the State Board ot Health, adding one member. Empowering cities and towns to levy taxes for building bridges. The bill appropriating SIO,OOO to Mrs. Sarah May, for services rendered by her late husband as architect of the new State House, was defeated by a vote of 22 to 26. Subsequently, however, the vote was reconsidered and the bill passed. The special committee apt ointed to investigate the accounts of Senate officials reported that Secretary Kelly and Assistant Hofstetter had been carrying on the pay-rolls more employes than were allowed by law, and that they have overdrawn the amount of the money due them for the entire session. Mrs. Josephine Nichols addressed the Senate (by Invitation) on the necessity of the passage ot the bill for the education of school children on the effects of alcohol and other stimulants. In the House the special order was the second reading of the Senate bills, and the reports of the House committees on them were cone urred in without opposit on. A large number were in this manner advanced to third reading, the only important amendment to any being that of Mr. smith, of Tippecanoe, which incr ases the pay ot court stenogra hers from $5 to $6 a day. The Committee on Ways and Means made a majority report favoring the passage of Senator Magee's bill ior the continuance of the work on the three new insane hospitals, and appropriating $z50,000 for the current year, $338,000 for 1886. and $40,100 for their maintenance up to F eb. 1, 1887. Mr. Gooding, from the committee, made a very long minority report. In which he recommended a continuance of the work on the Evansville asylum and an appropriation of $190,000 therefor, and that the work on the Richmond and Logansport buildings be stopped at once, the mater.als sold, and the contractors indemnified for anv loss they might sustain. The minority report was laid on the table by a vote of 46 to 22, Mr. Shively's bill for the regulation of the practice ot medicine was discussed, and various amendments were offered, but all were laid on the table at the request of tne supporters of the bill, who urged the fa t that it would never become a law if amended this late In the session. The following Senate bills were indefinitely postpon'd: Amending the common schools act ; providing for the probating of wills or recording copies thereof in other counties; providing funds for the expenses ot county Institutes. Mr. Magee's bill authorizing fore ign surety companies to do business in the State on the same terms as insurance companies, ana empowering State and county officials to accept such surety as bonds, passed the Senate on the 28th ult. Huffstetter, Assistant Secretary of the Senate, resigned, and John D. Carter, ot Orange County, was unanimously elected to fill the vacancy. Gen. Manson then said he regretted exceedingly that he had signed the warrants for pay in advance of some of the clerks and officers whose conduct had been the subject of inquiry. Senator Smith, of Jennings, presented an illadvised resolution, to the effect that the Senate exonerated Lieut. Gov. Manson from all complicity in the irregular pt actives which had become common, but Foulke and Youche for the Republicans, and Magee and a halt a dozen other Democrats at once rejected it. “Exoneration,” they said, “implies suspicion, and the Senate has the most implicit confidence in its presiding offlesr.” A resolution was introduced instructing the Attorney General to take steps for the recovery ot all moneys illegally drawn by employes of the Senate. The Democratic caucus bill for Congressional and Legislative apportionment were introduced. The Senate bill regulating the public printing of the S.ate was brought up, and witn it was read the message from Gov. Gray on the subject. The bill and message were referred to a committee. Senator Hilligass’ bill allowing municipalities to purchase lands for sanitary purposes outside of the corporate limits, and legalizing all such purchases already made, was read a first time and referred, the House refusing to suspend the rules to finally dispose of it. This bill is general in its operation, but is thought to have especial reference to legalizing the purchase of the Sellars farm by the city of Indianapolis. The House th< n took up bills on third reading. The most important of them was one providing that when a person is acquitted on any criminal charge on the sole ground of insanity, that fact should be set forth in the verdict, and the court should upon this finding order him to be sent to the insane asylum and kept there until further orders, without any formal insanity proceedings, and also providing punishment for persons who are accessory to the fact, after .the crimes bill has passed. The insane hospital bill was passed, appropriating $225,000 for next year, and $285,0u0 for th • following year. There were only two votes in the negative. Mr. Helms introduced a bill prohibiting street railway com- ] anies from working their employes more than twelve hours a day. The British drink bill for 1883 foots up $628,386,375. Tho quantity aggregates 1,032,142,158 gallons. This would make a lake a mile long and a mile wide, with a depth of thirty-five feet, or sufficient to float men-of-war. The highest-priced clock in America is owned by a Wall street broker in New York. It cost $34,000, and was made in that city. Canon Farbab will visit the United States next autumn.