Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1885 — IMPORTANT DECISION. [ARTICLE]

IMPORTANT DECISION.

The Supreme Court of Indiana Affirms the Constitutionality of the School Tax Law. [lndianapolis telegram.] The Supreme Court to-day rendered a decision in a case of much importance, holding that the present statute, authorizing the vnrious public school corporations of the State to levy taxes for tuition purposes, is constitutional and valid. The suit was originally brought in Switzerland County to enjoin the Treasurer from collecting such a tax. and the injunction was granted This decision was reversed in the Supreme Court to-day, Judge Elliott writing the decision, which was concurred in by all the other Judges. A great number of cases are reviewed in the opinion, showing ihut tho case of Greencastle Township vs. Black, 5 Indiana, Itep. 537, was, in principle, long since overruled in so far ns it decides that the law delegating to local school officers the power to levy taxes for tuition purposes is in conflict with the provision of the Constitution which requires the Legislature to establish “a general nnd uniform system of common schools. ” The decision overruled is the one whioh, in 1854, overthrew the school system. In the opinion great stress is placed upon the purpose of the Constitution and the Court says: “With the plainly declared purpose of the people before us, and with the knowledge that the system which has prevailed for eighteen years has carried our schools to a high state of prosperity and usefulness, we should do a great wrong, if, without the strongest reasons, we should overwhelm that system and compel the adoption of another which would shatter into inefficiency the whole common school system.” Much weight is also given to the long line of decisions, beginning in 1857, which held that taxes may be levied by local officers to bnildand equip schoolhouses, and it islield that there is no difference between taxation for that purpose and for the purposo of paying teachers, the Court using this illustration: “If the teacher of a private school were to send to the father of one of his pupils an account for tuitiou and afterward a bill for use of the place where the school was conducted, the position of the teacher would, on principle, be precisely tho same as that occupied by those who affirm that the power to levy a tax to erect school-houses may be delegated, but the power to levy a tax to pay teachers cannot be." It is further said, in the course of the opinion, that “a system whioh grants to all the various subdivisions of the State equal and uniform rights and privileges, leaving only to the local authorities the right to govern tho local affairs, is a general and uniform system.”

Postmasters’ Salaries. Washington apeolal.l The salaries of Postmasters at all offices of the first, second, and third classes have been readjusted for the next fiscal year. This is the first readjustment based on the returns from the ‘2-cant letter rate of postage for nn entire year. The following is a list of all tho offices of the grades named in Indiana, where there is a change in sa'nry. At offices notin this list the salaries remain as at present. The salary for next year is given in the first column and tho present salary in the second coluihn: New Old salary, salary. Angola 11,200 $1,300 Auburn 1,000 1,400 Aurora 1,101 1,700 Bedford 1.000 1,400 Bloomington 1,500 l,l!00 Bluffton 1,400 1,500 Broolcville 4th class 1,000 Butler 1,000 1,100 Cambridge City 1,000 1,300 Covington 1,000 1,100 Crown Point 1,100 1,200 Decatur 1,200 1,300 Fort W ayne 2, 800 2, »H) Fowler 4th class 1,000 Goshen.. 2,100 2,200 Greencastle 1,900 1,800 Greensburg 1,000 J,7IK) Hartford City 1,000 1,100 Huntingburg 1,000 .... Jasper 4th class 1,100 Jeflersonvlllo 1,700 I,HOO Kentland 4th class . 1,000 Knightstown 1,200 1,300 Kokomo 1,800 1,900 Lafayette ;... 2,600 'A 700 La Grange 1,200 1,300 Lawrenceburg ;. 1,400 1,500 Lebanon 1,300 1,400 .Liberty 1.100 1,200 Marlon 1,700 l.soo Martinsville 1.100 1,200 Mlsbawka 1,400 1,500 Mitchell I*,ooo 1,100 Monticello 1,200 1,300 Mount Vernon 1,400 1,500 Muncie l.soo 1,900 New Castle 1,400 l.coo Noblesville 1,500 1,410 North Vernon 1,100 1,2(0 Notre Dame 1,600 1,600 Plymouth 1,500 1,000 Portland...., 1,400 1,600 Rensselaer 1,000 1,100 Rochester 1,400 1,500 Rockville 1,200 1,300 Seymour 1,600 1,700 Spencer 4th class 1,100 Sullivan 1,200 1,300 Thornton. 4thclass 1,100 Valparaiso 2,100 2,200 Warsaw 1,800 1,700 Washington 1,500 1,000 Waterloo 4th class 1,000 Winchester 1,400 1,500 Winamac 4th clais 1,000 State Items. —W. J. Kiplinger, grocer at Loogootee, has failed. —Among the cadets at Annapolis Naval Academy who will graduate this year is Arthur H. Dutton, of Indiana. —At Wabash, the passenger depot of the Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railroad at that point was destroyed by fire, which originated in the lunch-room adjoining. Tne ice-house of William Collins, adjoining, was also partially consumed. —A farmer living in Oregon Township, Clark County, thought the cold winter had killed all of his peach trees. He cut most of them down in tho spring, but those he left standing bear fruit. The mistake has caused him much loss, as his orchard was a valuable one, and would have yielded a big crop. The cold weather did not injure peaches in Clark County. —Mr. Jonas G. Howard, of Jefferson-' ville, has announced his intention of building a wagon and street-car bridge connecting Louisville and Jeffersonville. He has had this project in view for Borne time, and has interested some of the capitalists of Jeffersonville in the scheme. If he can accomplish as much with the moneyed men of Louisville plans will be matured immediately looking to the building of the bridge.

Will Fisher and Charley Shafer f under arrest at Monticello, charged wi h t 1 e cowardly assault.on ]). D. Dale, Esq/, have been placed under bonds of *I,OOO each, on a charge of malicious mayhem. Anderson, one of the Louisiana Returning Board manipulators, for-his villainy in Unit transaction rewarded by Hayes with the Deputy Collectorship at the Port of New Orleans, has been kicked out of the position. If the old adage that ‘‘there is honor among thieves” be true, Mr. Hayes should give him a situation in his poultry yard. Anderson, one of the Returning Board Rascals relic of the Louisiana villainy of ’7o —has just been bounced out of a $3,000 position by this adm nistration. Those scoundrels connected with the Returning Board infamy should have been bounced on the day of the inauguration. But as it is we can cheerfully shout Glory! “Turn the rascals out!” Under the law, we believe, the receiver of stolen goods is regarded with no more favor th n the thief, therefore let every recipient of place through the theft of the Presidency be hustled out without ceremony. Keep the enormity of that great crime before the people, that generations hereafter may regard it with the abhorrence and oathing it deserves from honest, >atriotic citizens. L. G. Dennis, one of the Florida lieturning Board swindlers of ’76, ippointed by Hayes to a $1,200 clerkship jn the Treasury Department, as a reward for his villainy, lied a few days ago at Gainesville, Florida, of delirium tremens, the result of a wager he had made tha be could drink two quarts of wliiske at a sitting. One by one the rc s fall.

t makes a vast difference whose o. s gored.” Republican administr done, ever since the advent of tl: t party to power, have I een sevc . ly strict in their methods to kc; ) none but Republicans in pk ce. A sligh heresy or defection from principle, or refusal to do dirty or criminal work in the interest of tha't party, was sufficient to cause the dismissal of the official of independent thought, or the honest, conscientious public servant who refused to perform questionable or criminal work at the demands of the chiefs of departments. Fraud Hayes rewarded dirty work and crime,* as witness his appointment to places of honor, trust and profit of the Returning Board scoundrels of Louisiana and Florida, black and white, even down tojhe wench Lize Pinkston of questionable fame. Just now, however,the Republicans are being frightfully gored, and our neighbor George, of the Rensselaer Republican, hastens to denounce as a “demoralizing and disgraceful doctrine in podtics” that “To the victors belong the spoils.” To test * his sincerity in this direction, we suggest to Sheriff Yeoman, Auditor Robinson, Clerk Irwin, and the other officers that they divide the spoils (legal ads) und r theii control equally between the Sentinel and the Republican, or, what would be better still for interested parties, have all such publications made in the two papers, and divide equally the fe*s. He’ll soon ‘squeal’ on his proposition that it is a “demoralizing and disgraceful doctrine in politics” that “To the s victors belong the spoils”. Try him on; we shan’t object—in fact we should rather enjoy hearing him argue that he didn’t mean it.