Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1892 — ALL LAWS VOID. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALL LAWS VOID.

®neli Would Follow the Success of the Republican Revolution. If the supreme court, affirms the decison of Judge Bundy, and thereby declare void the legislative apportioi unentr of 1885 and 1891, what will bee >me of the acts of the sessions of 1889 and 1891 An apportionment under the constitution is a law that creates offices. This is so because the constitution does not fix the exact number of members ol representatives and senators. It simply provides, that the senate “shall not exceed fifty, nor the house one hundred members.” The legislature, by an apportionment act, can reduce the number of senators to thirty, or twenty-five, or even below that number, and the house to fifty or thirty members. So when the legislature creates a district, it creates an office. Now if the supreme court decides that the districts in which themembers of the legislature elected in 1888 and 1890 did not exist in the eyes of the law, then we had no legislature in 1889 and 1891. And the acts of two illegal assemblies are also illegal. This condition of affairs would no doubt be hailed with delight by certain corporations besides the Republican politicians, because in those two sessions there were important bills enacted in the interest of the people. Take the reform session of 1889, and see how many good laws would be wiped from the statute books, if the Republican program was carried out to its conclusions. Here are a few of the laws that would be annulled: The Australian ballot law. The School book law. The law prohibiting the employment of Pinkertons.

The eight-hour labor law. The law providing for a state board of charities. The law prohibiting blacklisting of discharged employes by corporations or other employers. The law to protect coal miners from the coal operators, prohibiting the payment of wages in store orders, known as the “anti-pluck-me-store.” The law to protect fish and game. The law to prohibit the wasting of natural gas. The law reducing the interest on school money loaned out to farmers and lot owners, in sums not exceeding $2,000, from 8 to 6 per cent. The law providing for the removal of the Momenoe rock in the Kankakee river, in order to obtain an outlet for the drainage for the Kankakee marsh. The mechanics’ lien law. The law for giving additional power to the board of health, to protect the people of the state from epidemic diseases, such as cholera, yellow fever, etc. The law authorizing the township trustees to pay the funeral expenses of ex-soldiers. The law authorizing the governor, auditor and treasurer to make temporary loans. The law authorizing the sale of certain state lands. The law accepting the state house from, the board of state house commissioners. The law authorizing the purchase of toll roads by townships. The act repealing what is known as the conspiracy law of 1881, which made it a criminal offense for workmen to band themselves into unions.

These are only a few of the acts of the legislature of 1889 that would be nullified, if the supreme court carried out the program laid out for them by the Republican state committee. There are numerous laws legalizing the acts of town boards, incorporating cities and towns; legalizing the titles of the owners of the Beaver Lake lands, and various other acts which would directly affect the people. The acts of 1891 comprise some of the most important laws in our statute books. Among the number being the following laws for the protection of labor regulating the weighing of coal, to protect the miners from under weighing and for the better protection of the miners from injury; also, providing for better ventilation of the mines; prohibiting the employment of children and providing for speaking tubes to be used in case of danger; providing for a firemen’s pension fund which requires the fire insurance companies to contribute a certain per cent .of their gross earnings to this fund for the purpose of disabled or retired firemen or their widows; providing for the inspection of mines by expert inspectors; requiring corporations, firms and persons employed in mining or manufacturing. to pay their employes once every two weeks with lawful money of the United States and prohibiting the issue or circulation of script or store checks; providing for the protection of trade marks or trade unions; requiring persons or corporations employing women or girls in manufacturing or mercantile establishments; to proride suitable seats for the use of female employee when not necessarily engaged in active duty; making Labor Day a legal holiday. The tax law and the fee and salary bill would also be wiped out No doubt the railroad corporations would be delighted to see the tax law annulled, for With it would go down the tax commissioners and the $91,000,000 increase of railroad property, upon which Mr. Fairbanks and other railroad magnates would not have to pay taxes. The criminal class would also rejoice and this vote will be solid for the Republican ticket as usual. The appellate court created by the last legislature would have to be dissolved, and all the decisions rendered by this court would have np force.

Governor Porter on tlie Defensive. Governor Porter has resigned his $12,000 position as minister to Italy to take the stump in Indiana. The Indianapolis Journal, General Harrison’s organ, has been making a great howl about the state debt when it well knew that Governor Porter gave the state debt its first boom. It was fully aware of the fact that in 1883 the legislature authorized the construction of three insane hospitals and limited the cost to $600,000; and it also knew that Governor Porter appointed the members of the board of construction, and by virtue of his office was president of the board. It also knew that Governor Porter and his board adopted plans for the new hospitals which has made them cost $1,500,000, and that he let the contracts when there was not a dime in the treasury to pay for them. It also knew that every cent of this vast sum had to be borrowed when pay day came around, and that the state debt was increased one million and a half by the notion of Governor Porter and his board. Why the organ of General Harrison should have made the state debt so prominent is now apparent. Governor Porter was the party who gave it the big boom and The Journal knew this fact would be disclosed by the discussion, an<j Governor Porter would thus be placed on the defensive to the delight of the Harrison wing of the party. A good part of Governor Porter’s speeches will be devoted to an explanation of the building of the three new insane hospitals, and his excuses for sticking one of them in the clay mud of Wayne county and another three miles from a water supply. Let all the facts come out.

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