Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1888 — Page 3

REVENUE REFORM.

Meeting of the Massachusetts Tariff Reform League at Boston. 'The Evils of Protection and the Necessity for Reduced Taxation Set Forth. Speeches by James Russell Lowell anti Other Notables Cleveland’s Views Indorsed. [Boston special.] The meeting and banquet of the Massachusetts Tariff-Reform League at the Brunswick were highly successful, the arrangements being carried out upon a most elaborate scale. There were present a large number of prominent politicians and Government officials, both from Massachusetts and elsewhere, among the number being James Russell Lowell, Gen. John M. Corse, Patrick A. Collins, Congressman W. C. P. Breckinridge of Kentucky, W. L. Wilson of West Virginia, and Senator John T. Morgan of Alabama. Resolutions indoising the message of President Cleveland were unanimously adopted. Officers were then elected, after which the party proceeded to the banquet hall. After the banquet James Russell Lowell rapped the meeting to order. In the course of his address Mr. Lowell said : “One of the reasons that chiefly suggested the opportuneness of ojir coming together here has been the President’s message at the opening of the present Congress. Personally I confess that I feel myself strongly attracted to Mr. Cleveland as the best representative of the higher type of Americanism that we have seen since Lincoln was snatched from us. But we are not here to thank him as the head of a party. We are here to felicitate each other that the Presidential cnair has a man in it, and this means that every word he says is weighted with what he is. We are here to felicitate each other that this man understands politics to mean business, not chicanery, plain speaking, not paltering with ns in a double sense; that he has had the courage to tell the truth to the country without regard to personal or party consequences, and thus to remind us that a country not worth telling the truth to is not worth living in; nay, deserves to have lies told to it and to take the inevitable consequences in calamity. Our politics call loudly for a broom. Mr. Cleveland, I think has found the broom and begun to ply it. But gentlemen, the President has set us the example not only of courage but of good sense and moderation. He has kept strictly to his text and his purpose. He has shown us that there was such a thing as being protected too much, and that we had protected our shipping interests so effectually that they had ceased to be protected by ceasing to exist. In thus limiting the field of his warning and his counsels he has done wisely, and we shall do wisely in example. His facts and his figures will work all the more effectually. But we must be patient with them that expect them to work slow. Enormous interests are involved and must be treated tenderly.” “Mr. Lowell was interrupted frequently by storms of applause. At his first reference to President Cleveland Dr. William Everett, Jr., proposed three cheers for Cleveland, which were given with a will.

Upon concluding his speech Mr. Lowell introduced Senator John T. Morgan, of Alabama. The Senator said: “I believe we are now about to relieve our country of some of the fatuous enterprises which have injured her and crippled our wealth. To me it is a pleasant tiring that the men of the South and North are to-day conferring upon a question which is of interest to all of us. We find now and will find forever that there is no reason why the two sections should be embroiled. Sectional lines of distinction no longer exist and we are at last one people. I object to that system which wrings money from the people to bestow it upon political aspirants, be they friends or otherwise. The system of taxation for tariff has outgrown itself. The question is, shall we •cut down the revenue to our wants, or shall we keep this revenue year after year, or shall we dry up the sources of this revenue aud stop this wrong to the country?”

Congressman Breckinridge, of Kentucky, after speaking of the grave importance of the tariff question and the pressing need of Congressional action, said: “Protection is never healthy, nor, in the long run, profitable, any more than the feverish strength and restlessness produced by stimulants are evidences of health. The present rates of taxation are unequal, onerous, and hurtful to the mass of employed in the industries professedly sought to be protected; and so far as taxation is unnecessary for the necessities of the Government, economically administered, it is unjustly imposed and illegally gathered from the people. The reduction of taxation and the revision of the tariff, to which both the great political parlies are pledged, must be made gradually :nd cautiously, with a constant remembrance that systems long established cannot readily be changed, and that grave and practical difficulties lie in the path of any reform. In the nature of the case all protective tariffs must have an element of instability arid uncertainty. There are a few to whom this system is indeed a bonanza; to all others it is an injury and a wrong.” Congressman Wilson of West Virginia, Congressman Rogers of Arkansas, and others, followed in brief addresses. It was past midnight when the gathering broke up.

Farm Mortgages and the Tariff.

We commend to the farmers of Michigan, and especially to those who are paying interest on farm mortgages, the foilowig from our esteemed contemporary, the Ann Arbor Democrat: “The report of the Commissioner of Labor shows that more than half of the farms of Washtenaw County are mortgaged today at an average rate of interest of over seven per cent. It is estimated that the mortgage indebtedness of this county is over $4,000,000. Never in the history of the county has the farming interest, as a whole, been more depressed than it is today. The causes of this Btate of things are two fold. First—The construction of the Suez canal and the vast extension of railroads in Southern Russia, Central Asia and India has brought those great wheatpiodneing regions into direct and easy

competition with the American wheatgrower. Second— A high tariff has checked and ruined our foreign trade. All trade is really barter. And foreign consumers of wheat buy their wheat where they can sell their goods. Under free trade England has been made the workshop of the world. Free trade has also given her control of the worid’s ocean commerce, and when her ships carry out her manufactured goods to Russia, India, Australia and other graingrowing countries, they don't go back empty and come empty to this country to procure wheat, but carry back wheat from the country where they sell their goods. We have lived under a high protective tariff for a quarter of a century, and the result is our commerce is driven from the ocean, and half of our farmers are on the verge of bankruptcy. And in the meantime England, under free trade, has usurped the commerce of the world, and the machinery and manufacturing industries of the little island do the work and secure to England the profits of 200,000,000 of laborers! When will the farmer realize that a tariff is nothing but a tax upon everything he buys, giviDg him absolutely nothing in return.” —Detroit Free Press.

An Inconsistent Moralizer.

The Philadelphia Press, ultra-protection of the Pennsylvania sort, devotes considerable space to a lament over “The Boy and the Cigarette,” It calls attention to the death of several young boys addicted to the habit of cigarette smoking, It qnotes one medical authority to the effect that there are no less than 3,000 cases of impaired health in New York City growing out of this dangerous habit, and another to the effect that cigarette smoKing stuhts the growth of boys and sows the seeds of diseases which develop in later years—such as throat ailments, lung tioubles and dyspepsia. It preaches the parents a touching sermon about their duties in the premises, and launches its invectives at the tobacconists, and particularly the proprietors of school stores, who deal in cigarettes of the cheap sort along with slates, pencils, stationery and colored candies. It grows virtuous and demands the passage of a stringent law which shall forbid the sale of cigarettes or tobacco jn any form to minors, except upon a written order from their parents or guardians. Finally it produces some appaling statistics as an argument against “The Boy and the Cigarette,” and says: “According to the reports of the Revenue Department of the Government there were manufactured last year 1,200,000,000 cigarettes, and as an equal number* probably, were made by the smokers themselves, there were at least 2,400,000,000 cigarettes consumed, and even this total does not include the 50,000,000 or more imported from foreign countries. This would give about 100 cigarettes to every male, and as the larger part of them are smoked by youths under 15 years of age the total for each smoker is largely increased. These figures may possibly impress parents with the enormity of an evil which has already done a vast amount of harm and is destined to much more unless promptly checked. ” The paper which indulges in all this lamentation is an organ of the war-tariff-tax advocates, who argue that, as tobacco is a necessary of life, the tax should be removed; and the Press is in favor of its removal in order that the tax ou such superfluous articles of luxury as clothing, wool* salt, sugar, glass, iron, steel, household and farming implements may not be disturbed. But if tobacco is a necessary of life, why should it produce such alarming physioal results, especially among boys, who have more vitality and stronger health than men? —Chicago Tribune.

Farmers, Read This.

“I am very anxious,” said Congressman McDonald, of Minnesota, to the Chicago Herald Washington correspondent, “that this Congress shonld do something with the tariff. My people are for tariff reform, and on that issue the whole State is aroused. There are many Scandinavians in my district, and throughout the State some thirty thousand, I believe, and it is their custom to vote solidly for what they want. In the old country they enjoy free trade. While they have affiliated in our State for twenty-five years with the Republican party, they are becoming wear.v and feel the party doctrine of protection somewhat irksome. When I was on the 6tump a year ago a great, tall, stalwart Scandinavian came up to me and said he had just been home to the old country to see his relatives and the old farm which gave him not only his birthplace but his name, after the custom of his people. He said: * I bought a pitchfork to-day, and. do you know, I bought the same make bf fork for my old father in Christiana six weeks ago for just a third less than this fork cost me to-day. Now, why is that? We are plain country folks here, and when we vote for something we would like to know what it is and why we do not get it.’ Tbe man told the truth. It was possille for him to go to Christiana and buy American manufactured things for less money than he could do it here at home. It was the most powerful argument that I met with in the whole course of my campaign in favor of a lower tariff. A little fact like that will travel faster and accomplish more than the most powerful speech that will be made this session, and if I go home next summer I want to be able to tell my people that they can buy pitchforks just as cheap in Minnesota as they can in Christiana.”

Just Look at This.

The beautieß of “protection to infant industry” are well exemplified in the case of castor-oil, the imports on which by the United States are taxed 190 per cent. In 1880 there were eight establishments in this country engaged in the castor-oil business which earned a total of $225,000 on an invested capital of $474,000, while they paid out only $44,714 to the 107 men and one boy that constituted the working force. The profits of the business amounted to five times the wages paid. During last year we imported 13,644 gallons of tbe oil, the foreign value of which was $5,766, and on which $10,915 in duties was paid into the National Treasury. The duties amounted to one-quarter of the wages and to only one-twentieth of the profits realized by the manufacturers, who use the law as a fence behind which to feather their own nests at the expense of the great public that pays for the oil.

The Wool Tariff Must Go.

It is quite certain that the wool tariff is raining the woolen manufacturing industry of this country. The woolen manufacturers are demanding relief of some kind. Thousands of operatives have been thrown out of employment lately. Isn’t the wool tariff rather costly protection?— Savanah Neics.

YOORHEES.

The Indiana Statesman's Reply to the Buckeye Demagogue. s An Able Defense of the President from Gross Misrepresentation by Republicans. Unjust Taxation Denounced as Robbery and a Crime Against Every Home. Mr. Cleveland’s Premises, Arguments, and Conclusions Alike Impregnable. In the United States Senate, on Wednesday, the 4th iust., Hon. D. W. Voorheea made a vigorous reply to John Sherman’s weak speech upon the President’s message. The Indiana Senator denounced the statements of Messrs. Sherman, Teller, and other Republicans, in criticism of the President's message, as insincere and misleading, and asserted that by way of preparation for the coming Presidential election, Republican legislators and journals were endeavoring by gross misrepresentations to put the President and the Democratic party in an attitude of hostility to American manufacturing interests. Nothing could be more unjust or unfair. Under the leadership or Grover Cleveland the Democratic party demanded such revision of the tariff, such reduction of revenue and surplus, and such administration of the powers of government as was most beneficial to all interests and most fully in harmony with the general welfare. The President’s message would bear the light of discussion, analysis'and debate. The frosts of next November would blight Republican misrepresentations and rebuke the Republican Senators who characterized as a “humbug" the fearless, sound and statesmanlike ’message of the President. The contraction of the volume of the currency, he said, had always been a policy marked by disaster and suffering and accursed by every friend of the general welfare of the country. But when that abominable policy was still further aided and executed, by suatching, as it were, the money of the people from their very hands at the rate of $10,000,000 a month, without necessity, excuse or palliation, every honest mind had to revolt against such wanton robbery. It was a crime against every home, every fireside, and every living man and woman in the United i-tates. It Is a crime national in its proportions, gigantic In its strength, omnipresent in its visitations, and brutal in its rapacity. And yet the day before the recess the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Teller) sneerod at the idea of the surplus being of any consequence. And the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Sherman) also declared (not by cable from Paris, but on the floor of the Senate) that it was fortunate for the country that there was a surplus of $55,000,00) in the Treasury. It will be for that Senator, if he becomes the Republican candidate for the Presidency next summer, to. explain to the people why it is fortunate that their money is gathered into the Treasury in excess of all the uses, prescriptions, and wants of the Government, instead of remaining in the pockets of the people. There Is in the Republican press, and among Republican politicians, a determined, persistent and brazen campaign of mendacity on this subject; and it will continue in the councils and field-work of the Republican party day by day, morning, noon and night, until the frosts of next November come to wither and blast alike their falsehoods and their hopes. I deny that the President has departed one jot or tittle from the declaration of* the last Democratic platform on the subject of taxation. That declaration was bold, explicit and peremptory. I rejoice in every element of American success. I am proud of the inventive genius of the country and of its vast establishments where skilled labor abounds. I look with delight on the cotton mills, the coal mines, the blast furnaces, and rolling mills of tho South, as well as on those of New England, Pennsylvania, and many Western States. I would encourago them in their gigantic career of development and usefulness, and I hold that the policy of the Democratic party has been always ample for their prosperity and progress. That is the only safe policy for American manufacturers themselves. If it is once clearly understood that the manufacturers, as a class, demand that they be enriched by means of fraudulent taxes, that they accept the guidance of the leaders of tho Republican party and join in their praise, then, indeed, perils will environ the manufactur.ng interests of the country such as were never known before. If the Democratic party, with its record of more than fifty years in the administration of the Government, and its trank and constant declaration of principles, was to be charged with the folly of free trade every time an attempt was made to modify the tariff, the people would very soon and very clearly find out that such assaults were only made to divert public attention from the evil designs and schemes of plunder of which they were the victims. He could not believe, however, that the sagacious and patriotic business men of the country who controlled manufacturing industries would permit themselves, for political purposes, to be put in an attitude of unjust, Belfish, overweening avarice and of unfairness toward the great mass of their countrymen. Proceeding to discuss the message of the President, he said that it was a pleasure to him to declare that this remarkable state paper was true to the principles and teachings of the Democratic party from Its foundation by Jefferson, and that the thanks of the laboring and business classes of the country were due to the Executive for seizing on that vital issue, with the grasp of a strong, honest man, and for presenting it to his countrymen in such a shape and light that it never would disappear until the wrongs therein presented were exposed and redressed, and until the outrages of over-taxation ceased. In the present age of swollen pretenses, of shallow aristocracy, and of gilded vulgarity, the Bplendid utterances of the President’s message fell on the minds of the people as a token, as a promise of relief, reform, and redemption from one who had never broken a pledge or forgot a public duty. The President had declared for the lowly and oppressed. Since the matchless and immortal inaugural of Jefferson on the 4th of March, 18jj, no communication had ever emanated from the Chief Magistrate of this Government more able, more elevated in statesmanship, more humane and benevolent in its purpose, or more conducive to the general welfare and good government than the message under consideration. Coming down to the practical question o 1 taxation, he was aware, he said, that there were many objections to internal taxes, but on grounds far different from a desire to perpetuate enormous and unjust tariff taxes on the necessaries of life. He appreciated the fact that for many years, and especially in several States, the whole system bad been used as a powerful instrument of partisian political warfare and had been rendered odious to every free-minded citizen. He was also often reminded that it was a war tax ami it should pass away in time ol peace. All these opinions had their weight with hun. But, while heavy taxes which had been laid by a war tariff on every article entering into the wants and necessities of the people were not reduced at all, he submitted that the work of reform and reduction should be pursued in that fie d and the internal revenue system left to staud yet awhile, subject to certain modifications. As to tobacco, he suggested that the tax on cigars and snuff—producing sl2,sJo,«oo—might flt> retained, and the rest of the tax—producing sl7,ooo,ooo—abolished. But this, however, was a feat re o, detail, and perhaps a matter of compromise. The great bulk of abatement in the present total nnn cessary taxation of the people would have to take p’ace in a careful aud prudent review of the tariff, and we would have to leave to the future what might seem the best means and arrangements by which to attain that end. As a choice between reducing internal revenue or tariff taxes, he would labor to cheapen woolens, licens, cot on fabr cs, salt, lumber, coal, iron, steel, and all other staple commodities, rather than such articles as were indulged in from acquired habits or luxurious modes of living.

CEASE ROBBING THE PEOPLE.

The Democratic pai ty comes before the country with the straightout proposition that the Government has no right to take from the pockets of the people $100,000,000 a year more money than it has any legitimate nse for. Those who oppose the Democratic party would have the Government continue the policy by which this vast umouut of money is annually taken from the pockets of the people. The Democratic party declares against a policy whioh, look at it as you will, is unmitigated robbery. There is no amount of sophistry; there is no amount of political chicane; there is no amount of demagogism that can, by any means, obscure such political scoundrelism. Those who oppose the Democratic policy place themselves on record as favoring a policy of downright robbery. There is a large element in the Republican party that will not follow the freebooting flag of the Republican bosses who advocate robbing the people of $100,000,000 a year. Already the most influential Republican organs in the country indorse the Democratic policy as mapped out by President Cleveland. The Republican blatherskite press contend that protecting the industries of tho country can only be accomplished by robbing the people of $100,000,000 a year. They say, in effect, protection und robbery mast be maintained at all hazards; that they go hand in hand; and they say this thing of robbing the people of SIOO,000,000 a year, $1,000,000,000 every ten years, don’t amount to anything—the people can stand it, have stood it under Republican rule for many years—and (hey point with pride to the colossal fortunes that have been built up under a policy of robbery. This blatherskite, robbery Republican press tells the people that to rob them of $100,000,000 ft year, $1,000,000,000 every ten years, is good for them; that robbing them makes them richer, just as bleeding makes them stronger. But the people are no longer to be gulled by such clap-trap. They say taxes to the extent of the absolute needsfof the Government economically administered—not one dollar more—that is the Democratic policy. Upon that policy Democrats are united, harmonious, in splendid fighting trim. The Republican party is split, demoralized. The honest and intelligent element —vide the Chicago Tribune and tne New York Times— are with the Democratic policy.—lndianapolis Sentinel.

Chinese Dread of the Wet.

In Western lands it is a proverbial saying of one who is peculiarly stupid that he does not “know enough to go in when it rains.” In China, on the contrary, the saying would be altered so as to read: “He does not know enough to stay in when it rains, ” and to a Chinese the idea that a human being has any functions which can be harmonized with the rapid precipitation of moisture can only be introduced by trepanning. They truly say of the streets and the people in them, “When wind blows, one half; rainfall, none at all. ” Ab the Chinese, in their way, are a particularly practical people—not less so thun the Anglo-Saxon, though less energetic—there must be some good reason for their persistent refusal for centuries to encounter rain. Of the fact there can be no manner of doubt. The Tientsin massacre of 1870 might have been quadrupled in atrocity but for a timely rain, which deterred the rowdies already on their way to the settlement. A portable shower would be one of the most perfect defenses a traveler fn the hostile sections of China could desire. We are confident that a steady stream of cold water, delivered from a two-inch nozzle, would disperse the most violent mob ever seen by a foreigner in China in five minutes of solar time. Grapeshot would be much less effectual, for many would stop to gather up the spent shot, while cold water is something for which every Chinese, from the Han dynasty downward, entertains tbe same aversion as a cat. Externally or internally administered, he regards it as alike fatal. The remote causes of their deepseated antipathy to wet weather lie imbedded in the Chinese constitution, hut the proximate causes, in our view, are twoiold—the porosity of cotton cloth and the absolute scarcity of dirt. To our readers the reasons will, no doubt, appear inadequate, not to say frivolousbut this, we believe, is because they have not reflected profoundly on the subject. Why the Chinese shonld persist in wearing cloth shoes we do not pretend to say, but wear them they certainly do. Damp feet are not only uncomfortable, they are dangerous to health. Oiled boots are luxuries for the few, and in seven cases out of eight he who goes abroad when it rains will do it in cotton cloth shoes, which will be ruined. He has no light sandals. He never washes his feet. Hence it is easier and more philosophical to stay at home—which he does.— Tientsin Chinese Times.

The Democratic idea to reduce taxation to an extent that will put a stop to raising surplus revenue Las evidently secured popular favor. The Republican monopolist idea that taxing a man makes him richer, more prosperous and contented, and, if a w orkingman, advances his wages, has had. its day and must go. It will go with the Republican land-stealing policy, with the bloody shirt and other Republican “great moral, ideas.” But the Republican idea is free whisky and taxed sugar, iron, blankets, hats and shoe's, rice and salt, and other things of prime necessity. The Democratic idea is tax whisky and beer, and make the necessities of life cheap. Exchange.

The present administration has been subjected to a great deal of abuse for what its opponents term its unfriendly attitude •toward old soldiers, but it appears that the pension list goes on increasing at a wonderful rate all the same. On Nov. 1, 1886, there were 369,551 pensioners on the rolls, and this nnmber had grown to 416,648 by Nov. 1, 1887. The net increase for the first four months of the present fiscal year was 6,873 in ezoess of the net increase for the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.—Chicago Times.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—The officers of tbe northern prison have filed their annual reports with tho Governor. Tbe condition of the prison is, in the customary language, represented as being in every way perfect. ’I he directors state that solitary confinement is the most severe mode of punishment now nsed, and the warden, in speaking of the same matter, snys: “Since my last report I have abolished the nse of the ‘cats’ as a means of pnnishment. After a long experience, I have become convinced that it i 3 lowering in its tendencies, and is not eondneive to good discipline, and degrading in its effects, and is wholly unnecessary in controlling convicts. I think better results come from ft more humane system of treatment, with a judicious use of milder disciplinary measures. As the years go by I am more strengthened in my opinion that a classification of the inmates of our prisons into different grades is imperatively necessary, if we hope to decrease crime and place uufortunntes under our charge on the road to reformation. The promiscuous herding of the young in age and crime with the old and hardened criminals is a relic of the past. This age demands better methods, and every effort Bhould be brought to bear in onr Legislature to bring about a change in this respect." The number of convicts in the prison at the beginning of tbe year w.es 61)7, and at the close 634. The number discharged was 314, against 290 received, whilo sixteen were parolled by tho Governor and thirteen died. The Warden paid to tbe State Treasurer dnriug the year $110,245.56 and received from the State $lO2, 245.56. His receipts and enrnings amounted to $105,635.42. He now has $10,107.59 due the State and $3,270.98 due the convict?! Tho sides to prisoners amounted to s\-5‘).03. The average cost of feeding each prisoner iB 3 5-6 oents per meal; of clothing, 2 oents n day, and fnel, lift day. Including everything, the average cost of maintaining each prisoner is 37 9-10 cents per day.

—A serious accident occurred at Martin's ico house, two mile* north of Crawfordsville. Preparations wore being made to put in a new stock of ico; the old ico left over from last season was being removed, and in doing this work dynamite cartridges were frequently used. Charles Coombs laid one of the cartridges on a stove in a small room adjoining. When the cartridge became sufficiently hot it exploded with disasterous effect, the occupantß of tho room being ignorant of the facl.that such a thing was upon the stove. The following persons were injured; Perry Endicott, frightfully cut about the bond and face, having thirtoen gashes; B F Snyder, severely cut about the head; Will Martin, hit in the face and one cheek badly injured, also one eye. Three other men wore also more or less injured. —The press dispatch sent out from Louisville to the effect thpt there is n great scarcity of coal in the Ohio Valley does not apply to tho lower Ohio Valley, of which Evansville is tho center. T’hore is no scarcity of coal there, there being sixty coal shafts within twenty miles, six of which ore within the city limits, Evansville being situated over two heavy veins of rich bituminous coal. Higher prices elsewhere never affect Evansville materially, the average price for coal for steammaking purposes being 75 cents per ton the year round. —While boring for gas, one mile west of Edinburg on S. C. Thompson's farm, coal was struck in paying quantities at the depth of sixty feet, which was tested and pronounced equal to Cannelton coal. A company wos organized with a capital stock of SIO,OOO, with the following officers: S. Cutsinger, President; H. Maily, Vice President; S. C. Thompson, Treasurer; H. W. Schooler, Manager. Preparations will bo begun at once to work the mine.

—John W Vaughn, an employe at the Ohio Falls car works, Jeffersonville, was killed while assisting to raise a new coal car in one of the setting-up shops. The iron “jack'’ Vaughn was using being out of repair, the catch slipped, allowing the car to topple over on him. The main sill on the side of the car on which he was working caught Vaughn across the chest, pinioning him to the ground and crushing out his life in an instant. —Mrs. Hannah Ellis, of Bockport, met a horrible death by fire. She was more than 70 years old and a helpless paralytic, and was left in her room by the family sitting in an arm-chair by the fire. No oho visited her room for half an hour, and when she was discovered her clothing was all burned up. She was speechless, and her suffering was terrible. She died within an hour without regaining consciousness. —Postmaster John E. Bhnta. of Muncie, issued an order which provides that no minor can get mail at the office without an order from his or her parents or guardian. The moral effect of the proclamation, is working good results, as the schemes of many young ladies who have been carrying on correspondence with young men, for no good cause, has been checked altogether. —ln the number of pensioners on its list the Indiana pension agency ranks third in the counter. During the month of December there was a decrease of 116 and a net gain of 286, making the number on the list 36,081. The last quarterly disbursement amounted to a million and a quarter. —At Columbus, Berne Springer and wife were driving in a single buggy, when the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing them violently to the frozen ground. Both were dangerously hurt Mrs. Springer is in a delicate condition, and it is feared she cannot withstand the shock.