Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1920 — SUB-COMMITTEE FAVORS BILL [ARTICLE]

SUB-COMMITTEE FAVORS BILL

WAR MEMORIAL BLL MAY BE SUBJECTED TO REFERENDUM VOTE. Representative W. L. Wood, of this city, is a member of the subcommittee to/ whom has been referred the War Memorial Bills. He writes the Republican that he is in favor of the Soldiers’ Memorial but is very much opposed to the location named on account of the expenses of ridding the site of building now located upon the same. After having caucussed late Friday afternoon at the state house, when they failed to reach an agreement on the form of war memorial bills. Republicans in the house of the Indiana general assembly appointed a subcommittee to draft recommendations on the question for Submission to another caucus to meet early Saturday. This subcommittee, composed of the congressional districts, conferred most of the. night, and after wrestling with’ the problem until the small hours of the morning, decided to recommend that the three war memorial bills be passed with a few minor changes, with a provision that the whole. project be submitted to the voters by referendum before the’ money appropriated becomes available. One of the bills relates to the pro-posed $5 x OOO,OOO to be spent by the state for the memorial, and the other two bills provide for Indianapolis and Marion county to add another $5,000,000, making a total of $10,000,000 to be provided for the memorial. The subcommittee of the caucus was composed of the following representatives from the various districts: First district, Anderson; Second, Laughlin; Third, Gaesser; Fourth, Gordon; Fifth, Wimmer; Eighth, Williamson; Ninth, Lowe; Tenth, Wood; Eleventh, Winseburg; Twelfth, Willis, of DeKalb; and Thirteenth, Yoder. The Marion county delegation in the caucus asked to be excused from having a member serve on the committee. Decision Reached In Conference. This was the decision, which, it is said, the subcommittee reached in a conference on the bill which continued into the early hours of

the morning. The subcommittee was appointed at a caucus Friday afternoon to consider the bill and make recommendations "at today’s caucus. The subcommittee gave scant consideration to passing the bill unchanged. Only two or three of the committee were in favor of this plan. Next in favor to the plan for a referendum, which passed, was a plan to reduce the appropriation from $5,000,000, .as the bill ariginally provided, to $1,500,000. A few of the members of the committee favored deferring all, action on the memorial bills for this session; but they gained no support for their plan. , . Another plan which received some favor in the caucus at first was to pass the “city” and “county” memorial bills, which would authorize Indianapolis and Morion county to enter into a contract and build a city and county war memorial, but drop the “state” bill, which would withdraw all state support from the project. Members of the committee argued that the memorial building wilh benefit Indianapolis far more than any other part of the state, and that the city and county should, therefore, stand all the expense. Bill Attacked and Defended. “It’s a fine thing for Indianapolis that we have the national headquarters of the American Legian,” asserted one speaker, “but the rest of the state gets no benefit from it.” ' Another member of the committee attacked the bill, declaring that the cofltractors are backing it, because they hope to reap considerable profits from the work on the project. Other speakers, however, defended the bill, as originally drafted, saying that “$10,000,000 is a small sum for. the state to as a memorial to her sons who offered their lives for their country.” They said that the ex-service men of the state unite in believing the memorial as planned would be the most fitting tribute the state could pay. Republican leaders have been considering the political side of the memorial question and some of the members in the caucus touched on the political phase. One asserted the party would “certainly go down in defeat in November, if we don’t pass this bill.” Others feared the effect the bill would have on their constituents, who might object to helping pay for the memorial. z American Legion posts throughout the state were working the wires overtime Friday evening in behalf of the bill. Each local post sent a telegram to the senator and representative from its county, urging “favorable action on the memorial bilk” Members of the subcommittee read telegram which they had received. ...