Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1885 — THE LATE LEGISLATURE. [ARTICLE]

THE LATE LEGISLATURE.

Senator Campbell a Republican Member, Thinks It Was a Very Respectable Body of Men. We extract the following from a letter of Senator Campbell, a Republican member of the late Legislature, published in the Indianapolis News: If the late General Assembly of Indiana be judged only by what the press of the city of Indianapolis has said of it, it must go into history as a body composed of one hundred and fifty men without ability, honor, or decency. If the members were guilty of the various things charged to them by the city papers, they were destitute of each and every one of the above attributes. The criticisms and imputations have been, in the main, indiscriminate, so that any man who was a member of that body must feel that he himself was one of the worthless lot who were spending time solely for the six dollars a day. In the very funny accounts of the leaving after adjournments, as given by various city reporters, the members are represented as if they were a gang of thieves. A man of judgment and prominence has told me that if he had known nothing of the last Legislature except what he had read of them in the newspapers, he tvould have thought that one hundred and fifty worse men could hardly be found in the State. If the members were as bad as they were represented, they were a disgrace to the whole State. If the press has grossly slandered them, it is a disgrace to the press. I occupied a position in that body which I think enabled me to judge them impartially, having been a republican member, voted for by at least sou thousand democrats, and from mr observation and intercourse wit^

membeas, I am constrained to be: r testimony that the reports published In the city papers have not oniy been greatly exaggerated, hut insome respects libelous, and I believe the effect will be as injurious to the press and the people as to the members of the General Assembly. The day has bng since gone by when the “old woman ’ proved a thing by showing it wa. “printed in the papers.” During; tie ninety days the Senate was in session there was not a werd uttered in debate that had to be apologized for or retracted There was never a breach of decorum.

No member was ever punished or reprimanded, nor, so lar as I know or believe, was any member of either house accused by another of any improper act or motive. No Senator, and, so far as I know, no member o ‘ the House, ever appeared on the floor in a state of intoxication. Every one seemed to he carefully and conscientiously at binding to his Maty. In more than fifty committee meetings I attended the members went about their work industriously and in a spirit of franks ness that would have done credit to any business or church board in the country, and with such propriety that their wives might have attended every meeting. Some of us can recollect Indiana Legislatures for thirty years past, and can recall the orgies in committees of our greatest statesmen when a demijohn of liquor was considered as indispensable as a copy of the statutes. We know how time and money was spent in dissipation by brilliant men of twenty and thirty years ago, and look upon the contrast and improvement as marvelous. As to the flippant newspaper clinrges that the session was prolonged for the sake of the six dollars a day, I have to say that there were more than one thousand different bills and resolutions to be considered, comprehended and acted upon, and every sensible man (except reporters) must know that it ’ could not be done well in sixty nor one hundred

days. Taking the whole body as I saw them, they were in capacity, industry, honor, sobriety and decency far above the average of Indiana Legislatures in the last thirty years and, notwithstanding the humorous allusions in the city papers to the “rural six dollar a day statesman,” it is my opinion that if a man had to hunt among the one hundred and fifty members for ten who were influenced by the pay to lengthen the session, they co’d not be found, but if found at all, five of them wo’d be of the Marion county delegation. More than the whole amount of money paid to that Legislature was left in Indianapolis. You may take any business directory in your city, begin at any point and count one hundred and fifty names in any direction and the men would not compare favorably with the much abused members of the Legislature. Now, this sort of indiscriminate abuse is not only wrong per so, but it is unwise and exceedingly impolitic. Is it any wonder that Marion county can not get the State to pay for the gas, fuel and water used by the Legislature ? Is it strange that citizens of Indianapolis can not "et their j ust dues from the State ? The city press influences the country press to some extent and men in the several counties cl Hie State are not encourag’d to investigate claims and pay debts to their slanderers. If Indianapolis had only known how to treat the other parts of the State with reasonable decency, every publ : c institution of the State might have been located where they ought all to be located, viz: in Marion county, and it is greatly to the credit of the other portions of the State that provision is made to complete the State-house certainly. If Indianapolis endorses her newspapers she does not deserve even to have the capitol completed. H n % # # qt

L. M. CAMPBELL.

Danville, Ind.

A street railway is to be built between South Bend and Mishawaka..