Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 February 1887 — Page 2
1 1
o THE IHDIAITAPCML1S JOTTKHAt, TTJI2SDAY. FEBBUAHY 1, 1887.
thro wine several hundred operatives out of work,
and it ia feared that all the carpet works there will be forced to stop. , Thefreieht steamer -City of Brocton, of the OJd Cwbny liue, which has Iwen lying at her dock at Fall River, loaded with freight for the past three days, left to-night for Newport,' there o await farther orders. The delay was owing to the freight-handlers' strike in New York. The company has notified shippers that it will decline any freight for New York until farther notice. Demands of Railway Freight-Handlers. New York, Jan. 31. The strike took a new phase to-day. It involves not only the addi tional 'longshoremen whose intention to go out was related in these dispatches last night, and who went out this morning; but also the freighthandlers of the railroads, thus tightening the "blockade on transportation and adding other thousands to the thousands already idle. Apparently by preconcerted action, committees of the freight handlers of a number of the roads to-day presented formulated demands on managers, and it is understood th&t similar demands will be made on the managers of all the railroads leading into this city. The freieht-hand-lers of the Pennsylvania road employed on the company's North-river piers to-day notified the managers that unless the rate of wages was increased from 17 cents to 20 eents per hour a - general strike wonld follow all along the company's docks. The company wa3 given nntil to-morrow noon to consider the demand. Their demands are 20 cents per hour from 7 A. M. to G p. m., with an hour for dinner; all overtime to be paid at the rate of 25 cents an hour. At present the men have no regular hour for dinner. The freight-handlers of the company .are in sympathy with the strikers. There are about 2,000 men employed on the piers. Demands were also made by the freight-handlers employed by the Central Railroad of New Jersey and by the We w York, Lake Erie & Western for increase of wages, and threatening to immediately quit work if their demands were not complied with. The concessions asked for were refused absolutely. The traffic manager of -the Erie said that a committee from the company's laborers called upon him this morning and asked for an increase of pay from 17 to 20 cents per hour on ordinary time, and from 20 to 25 cents . per Lour on extra time. They asked for a reply by to-morrow morning, at which time they would strike unless their demands were complied with. The company have decided not to concede anything, but, as the traffic manager . laid, "will stand firm as a rock, and the other sompanies will stand withns." At the office of thel New Jersey Central it was ascertained that a committee of five waited on the receivers this morning, and presented a demand for increased waes for freight-handlers and other employes, and insisting on an answer at or before 3 o'clock this afternoon. The receivers met them again -nt that hour, and gave them a written reply, ip which they declined to comply with the demands C xf the employes. The committee took their departure and immediately afterwards thefreighthandlers of the company on Pier 14 went out on strike. The demands of the men were as follows: " ; Fraigbfc-handlers to receive 20 cents per hour and 23 cents for overtime; checkers to receive $60 a month; receiving clerks, $G5; delivery clerks, ?G0; weighers. $45; tracing clerks, $70; notice clerks, $40; checkers, tip-stairs, $00; general clerks, $G0; register clerks or book-keepers, $70; float captains, $55: watchmen, $60; ferry agents. $70; gatemen, $55; deck-hands. $50; way-bill clerks, $G5; each and every man employed in 'any of the above positions to receive equal pay fit the same positions. They further demand an investigation into the cause of the discharge of two captains of floats, and, if they were discharged without cause, their reinstatement; that a certain pier foreman give up his position as foreman, or stop keeping a boarding-house, and refrain from levying assessments on Italians for hiring them in place of discharged men. They declare that they will not handle "scab" freight The document concludes as follows: "We also demand that the coal strike, so far as the Central railroad of New Jersey is concerned, be settled in twenty -four hours after presenting this petition." The reply of Receivers Kennedy and Harris covered the following points: 4,We are now paying, and always exoect to pay, current rates of wages to our employes of all classes. , If any of them think they are inadequately compensated, they have simply to app'y to their superior officer, and if he cannot concede the advances asked, we admit their right to retire from our employment on such reasonable notice as they would expect and we would give them should we desire to dispense with their services. We shouid not consider ourselves justified in dismissing our whole force of men at twenty-four hours' notice, nor do we recognize the justice of a reply being demanded from us. in matters of this importance, upon ihe four hours' notice that we have received. "We expect to give equal pay to clerks and others who are employed in similar positions, " provided they are equally qualified to fill their positions, but we cannot reoognize the propriety of paying all alike without regard to experience ; or efficiency. - "If any man in our service has cause to complain of injustice or oppression of any kind, he can always obtain a hearing by making personal application to his superior officers, and if his jom plaint is well founded he will receive prompt redress. . "You state that you will not handle any freight that has been previously handled by non-union men. As receivers of a company that is a common carrier, it is our duty to handle any freight presented to us, whether the same has been previously handled by non-union men or otherwise. We shall do our utmost to perform this duty. "You demand that the coal strike be settled, as far as our railroad is concerned, in twentyfour hours. This strike does not exist among oar employes. It is for others, not for us, to . settle. We recognize no connection between . the men engaged in handling our freight and the men engaged in handling coal, who are not jn our employ, but in the employ of persons sbipping by our lines. We shall deal with the men in our service, and the coal-handlers must deal with their employers." . The freight-handlers of all ih$ railroad companies terminating in Jersey City and Hoboken lave demanded an increase of pay. If their demands are not conceded by the companies the Handlers will go out on strike at noon to-morrow, rheir present wages are 17 cents an hour and 20 :ents for overtime. They demand 20 cents an bour, or $12 per week, and 25 cents for overtime, rhe custom-house officials on all the piers in Jersey City went out on strike this afternoon. Their grievances are not known. At a meeting af the Jersey City police commissioners to-night resolution was offered to rescind the special police power granted the 101 Pinkerton men engaged ia- protecting the Delaware, Lackawanna Ss Western Company's yards. The resolution, after a spirited discussion, was lost by a tie vote. The freight-handlers of the Pennsylvania & New Jersey Central railroad companies held large meetings together to-night A new ultimatum was presented to the companies declaring that unless an increase of wages was granted before 11 a. M. to-morrow all hands would quit work at noon. The Programme for To-Day. New York. Jan. 31. The Star says that there will he added to the list of strikers, to-morrow, the brakemen, trainmen, track-men, machinists, carpenters, painters and other mechanics employed on the Pennsylvania railroad New York division), and the New Jersey Central' railroad, belonging to District Assembly 49, K. of L. On the same divisions of these roads no men will be at work except the conductors, engineers and firemen. It is stated that two newspapers in this city wiil be visited to-morrow and requested not to use steam furnished by non-union men. If the request is not granted, it is possible that the union men employed on these papers will b sailed out on strike. , HISTORY OF THE STRIKE. Onjrln of What Promises To Be One of the Great Movements of the Times. New York Special to Louisville Courier-Journal. This coal strike has ceased to be a merely local er temporary quarrel between capitalists and a lew hundred laborers. At least a fortnight ago the effects of the stoppage of the flow of coal "began to be seriously felt in the homes of the -people, and so seriously in the work-shops that many of them have already shut down. Yet, up
to within a day or two, all who have understood the situation have seen that, serious as the state of affairs is, it is a trifle compared with what would result from putting the strikers into a more angry and belligerent temper than they are. The men have all along said they expected the companies to treat with them, and that they were willing to compromise. But they have at the same time persistently threatened that if the companies choose to fight them, instead of meeting them half way, they would transform this comparatively little trouble into one of the greatest strikes of modern times. They say th t they have the means at hand to absolutely arret i all work upon coal between the mines and the cellars of the consumers, and to block the wheels of industry in two-thirds of the manufacturing interests that rely upon coal in the section of the country east of the AHeghaniea They not only claim that, as Knights of Labor, they can paralyze t he coal industry, but that if the coal companies force the fight and attempt to put new men at work upon the coal in any of its stages of movements trom the mines to the seaboard, that they will then boycott everybody who uses any of the coal thus marketed against their will, including engineers, firemen, carmen, steve
dores, freight-handlers, mill operators, in fact, J a list appalling ia its ramifications. Curiously enough, while the man have shown at least some disposition to make a treaty with their employers, there has been so much of the same disposition on the part of the employing companies that it said that only a few of the leading men in the leading companies are now responsible for the continuance of the strike. These employers take various grounds to account for their attitude. Their principal argument is the very familiar one that they fear that it is not politic to allow a committee of Knights of Labor to step is between them and their employes. Others assume that it would not be commercially safe to grant the increase of pay demanded by the men, partly because the consumers would protest against it, and partly because they say they suspect that the only employers who favor the increase are bankrupt, and consequently indifferent to the result. But apart from all that, the situation is already so serious that it is said that if the strike were to end immediately, coal would not be plenty again until the middle of spring, and between now and then the manufacturing and other concerns that depend upon it could not get enough to carry on their works, and wonld be obliged to suspend operations. A review of the history of the work from the beginning, calmly and dispassionately made, wiJl be helpful to the public, if the predictions that are made as to what is to come shall prove true. Thirty-three million tons of coal are mined annually in the United States, and twothirds of this output passes through the coal ports that face the harbor of New York. A million tons a month are required to satisfy New York and its close surroundings. The strikers are the men who unload the coal from the railroad cars and load it into the boats, and they are divided into two classes trimmers and top-men. These are mainly Irishmen of a grade above that of the unskilled laborer, and among them the trimmers are the most influential because they are the most intelligent and best paid. Their power in this altercation with their employers i3 seen in the fact that they handle twothirds of the out-put of the coal-mines in the country, and all that is used around New York and through the Eastern States. The railroads have found it impossible to supply the East by rail, because of the necessity of great arrears of yard-room, and so centering the trade at New York and distributing the coal by boats has been found to be the most economical way. The topmen, who handle the coal, dump and wheel it under the boat by the hour. The trimmers trim or level it in the vessel into which it is loaded, and are paid by the ton, at from 1 to 8 cents a ton, in prices varying .according to the class of vessels that they are loading. These workmen live in the settlements back of the piers, and at Coramunipaw, and Elizabeth port, and South and Perth Amboys, and large proportions of them own their owu homes. Their habitations, their excellent physique, and their behavior up to to-day, show them to be an uncommon lot of men. The trimmers, who make the most money, and dominate the rest by their intelligence, are, however, engaged in a very unhealthy business. The average working career of a trimmer is only eighteen years. One of them, in addressing District Assembly 49 the other day, said that eighteen years ago he worked with 250 other men, of whom only three are alive to-day. The trimmer's duty is to stand in the hold of a vessel while the coal is toured into it through chutes from the trestles on the pier. As the coal falls around him he shovels it right and left, and levels it all over the vessel until he and his companions find themselves waist deep m the material, when they knock with their shovels upon the deck of the vessel, to give notice to their comrades to shut off the supply. During all the time that they are thus at work, they breathe an atmosphere so chocked with coal dust that the air can almost be cot with their shovels. The consequence is, that their lungs are kept in a constant state of irritation, and it is said that no matter of what ailment a trimmer is taken sick, he always dies of pneumonia These trimmers form a guild and work in a peculiar way, and upon this peculiarity hangs part of the present contention. Each set of trimmers appoints its own boss, who is at once their time-keeper and paymaster. He keeps the time of the men, and at the end of the month divides their earnings among them. They, on their part, guarantee either to remain regularly at work, or in case of enforced absence to appoint a substitute so that the number at work always remains the same. Although they scarcely average $3 a day, they always pay substitutes $4 a day, a custom only to be explained as an old one that has never been changed. Such things are often noticed in the habits of workingmen, and one equally strange custom among these workmen has led up to their present strike; this was the custom of allowing their bosses to grow rich at their expense, but the story of the strike will lead up to that Last spring demands were made at all shipping points, including Port Richmond, a Philadelphia and Reading depot, on the Delaware, for an increase of hour rates and trimmers' rates. The men asked for 25 cents an hour, though really wanting only 22 cents and a half, and an increase of two cents a ton in trimmers' wages, though they only wanted one cent The topmen were getting seventeen and a half oentB an hour, and the trimmers a running scale from one to eight cents per ton; they also demanded that the discriminations in favor of the company's boats be abolished. This discrimination was required by the companies that enforced it as an offset to the cash percentage taken from the trimmers' earning at Perth and South Amboy. Years ago the bosses, appointed by the trimmers from among their own number, used to collect a percentage varying from 25 to 40 per cent for collecting and dividing the men's wages. It must be understood that these men do not work for a coal company, their pay is considered a charge on the vessels they load, but because the captains did not always have the money to pay the trimmers the companies assumed the payment and charged that as cash advanced in the bill of lading and took the percentage for themselves At first the bosses made collections from the captains, and the men allowed them to take from 25 to 40 per cent for their trouble. Mr. Frederick A. Potts said the other day that when he investigated this question he found one boss making SoVWO a year, and he thought the com pany might as well take that profit to themselves. The companies continued to take this percentage for a few years, and then all stopped the practice except those shipping at the two Amboys. At Perth Amboy the shippers continued taking 25 per cent, and at South Amboy 20 per cent Up to last October, all the other companies got an eauivalent by requiring the trimmers to trim the company's boats at smaller prices than other boats. The difference in favor of the company's boats varied between trimming for nothing and a difference of one cent a ton, but the full gain to the company amounted to an average of 15 per cent by actual calculation, when these de macds were made last spring they were granted at Port Richmond by the Philadelphia & Read ing, and partially granted at Hoboken and some other ports. Last September the demands were again made by the .otn, and the companies all granted an increase on trimmers' charges of half a cent a ton on all classes or boats except open boata This discrimination was made because the companies' boats are open boats, and therefore the increase did a i affect the treasuries of the companies. At the Amboys it was agreed to reduce theeash percentage taken from the men to 15 per cent, a commission amounting to $200 from each laborer, or $17,000 in the companies pockets out of eighty -seven trimmers from the two porta At Bergen Point and Elizabetbport the companies granted an increase from 20 to 22J cents to the topmen, and. also, an increase to wheelmen who wheel by the too from ten to twelve cents; the men at all the other ports had
made similar demands, and the strikers bow make the point that these demands were neither refused nor granted. Everything went on smoothly; the men worked all the fall without expressing dissatisfaction, and at points where no increase had been granted they waited patiently for it and say that they confidently expected it, because it has been an invariable rule in their business that whenever any company granted an increase of trade all the other companies were to follow the example On Monday before Jan. 1 notices were posted at Elizabetbport and Bergen Point that on and after New Year the companies would resume the old rate of waged. This action forms another important point in the strike, for the men say that in posting these notices it was the companies that struck, and not themselves. They say they consider this action an evidence of bad faith on the part of the companies; the consequence was that on the first work day of the new year, no men appeared for work at the places where the notices were posted, and two three days later all the other coal-handlers at all the other coal places were laid off except the soft-coal men at South Amboy, who handle coal by the tou at rates mutually satisfactory to them and the companies. Because they considered themselves deceived, they say they broke their usual custom of treating, with their own companies directly and turned the matter over to their district assemblies, which are Numbers 103. 122 and 48, for all these laborers are Knights of Labor. These district assemblies agreed to surrender ' the negotiations to the arbitration committee of No. 49. This committee wrote a statement of the situation to the company, received no reply from anybody, and there the matter stands. The heads of the great coal companies, such as Mr. Potts and Mr. Tillinghast are of the opinion that the men overestimate their strength and can be brought to terms, if it comes to a trial of strength. The majority of the others appear to take a less hopeful view of the situation from the stand-point The companies are already trying to locate the blame for the present situation. Mr. Potts has been informed, and appears to believe, that when the increase than was granted to the men last fall was made the men were notified that the companies only granted the advance under protest and would return to the old rates as soon as possible. Mr. Tillinghast, of the Lehigh & Wilkesbarre company, is understood to take this view of it Here comes the one point upon which the men and the companies disagree. The men all declare that no uch notification was given them at the time of the increase, and say that they would have struck then if such had been their understanding. They say that the notification to return to old rates came like a thunderbolt upon them; that it was the first instance that appeared to be double-dealing they had met with in their relations to their employers, and that if they had been meditating a strike last fall was the time they would have chosen for it rather than this
winter, for then it would have embarrassed the companies most OTHER LABOR NEWS. A Strike at Pensacola Culminates In a Riot . and a Call for Troops. New Orleans, Jan. 3L The Times-Demo crat's Pensacola, Fla., special says: "The strike inaugurated some time ago against Lear & Gonzalese, contracting stevedores, to day assumed a new force. The strikers were out this morning about 2,000 strong. At 7 o'clock, when workmen were in their boats preparing to embark for their labors, representatiyes of the organizations read to them resolutions adopted by the latter. Words ensued which culminated in a row, in which Lear was knocked senseless. John Ward, one of Lar's men, was also knocked down, beaten and hruised. The remainder of the men jumped from their coats and swam to places or satetv amid a shower of stones and other missiles. Upon the landing of several of Lear's crew they were followed and hooted at through the city by a mob. The city commissioner and sheriff of the county have snmrooned the military of the county and about 500 citizens to appear to-morrow morntng and assist in keeping the peace. Threatened Strike at Paterson, N. J. Patekson. N. J., Jan. 31. The announcement is made that 1,700 silk-dyers and helpers em ployed in the great mills here will strike to-mor: row unless their demands for an increase of $1 a week, that fifty hours shall constitute a week's work, and a number of other concessions be granted. The employers state that they will resist all such demands. If the strike should be prolonged it would leave thousands destitute who would be compelled to stop wort by reason of the dyers being out. The United Labor Convention. Cincinnati, 0.,Jan. 3L Chairman Heath, of the national committee of the United Labor party, has written to the committee on arrangements here to secure hotel accommodations for 1,000 delegates to the labor convention. Feb. 22, and a hall that will seat at least 1,500 delegates. John Swinton, Henry George and Grand Master Workman Powderly will be present Music Hall will be secured for the convention. The liorillard Strike Ended. Jersey Crtr, N. J., Jan. 3L About eighteen hundred of the Lorillard strikers returned to work, this morning, on the firm's terms, and the strike is ended. The Lorillards have nil the hands now that they will employ, and every de partment is in operation. Industrial Notes. Philadelphia Record. A German house has started an agent out on a bicycle to sell goods throughout Europe. The Richmond Typographical Union has de cided against the use of stereotype plates. A New York importer of steel has bought 200,000 tons of European steel this season. The New York printers will make a vigorous effort to have a State printing-office established. The Adjutant-general of Texas has officially urged the Legislature to raise a State army for the suppression of the Knights of Labor. The locomotive works throughout the country have been booking large orders for engines to be furnished as soon as they can be built A forgeman in a Connecticut tool works has just discovered how to harden and temper steel. and has received an offer of $7,000 per vear. There are now five concerns making pins in Connecticut Foreign manufacturers hire good makers for $1 per day, while wages here run from $1 to $3. It turns out that Perry & Co. will continue tbrir big etove establishment at Albany, and will build another one in the South to supply their Southern trade. A Belgian textile manufacturer has devised a process for tanning textile fabrics which, renders them water-proof and proof against decay with out increasing their weight The Knights of Maine have adopted a by-law which provides that strides and lock-outs shall be referred to a commissioner, who shall have jurisdiction within prescribed limits. . Locomotive works are to be built at Anniston, Ala. A syndicate representing $20,000,000 cap ital has begun to invest money in that locality, and is building furnaces, mills and factories. Mme. Boucicault, of Paris, has given her employes a pension fund of over $1,000,000, for the benefit of those who have been in her service over twenty years; that is, provided the men are fifty and the women forty-five years old. . The boot and shoe manufacturers say that the labor agitations have had a paralyzing effect on the boot and shoe traffic. They say, however, that superfluous stocks have been gradually worked off, so that when activity is restored the traffic will be lively, liaw materials are de clining, and the coat of production, it is thought, may be reduced. Employers in all directions are more than usu ally anxious to have rates of wages fixed before the spring trade opens. In many places they are already voluntarily advancing wages. In other coses they have indirectly requested that employes formulate demands in order that they may be aeted upon. Some of the labor organizations have decided to strike for an advance if their requests be not granted. . From the way New England manufacturers are cutting in machinery business must be good One coneern bas just put "in forty-three English cards and 400 new American looms for the man ufacture of ladies' white fancy dress goods. The Fall River, Taunton and other New England towns have formed a Manufacturers' Mutual Protective Company to protect themselves from
liabilities from accidents. - A treat many faetdry owners are in favor of this combination.
and are dropping into it in order that the lossec trom accidents may be equalized. Not for years have the makers of boilers in the New England and Middle States been as busy as they are at this time. Nearly all manu facturers are obliged to increase their steampower capacity in order to compete with neighbors. The city of New York pays over $100,000 per annum lor rents. The labor men suggest that the city build its own! offices by the expenditure of $10,000,000 for public works. It is said that $j;,()Uu,uuu is needed for new school-houses and $2,000,000 for streets. New York pays more money for police than for education, more money lor judges than tor public health, and more for charities and correction than for street-cleaning. Possibly New York is not alone in this dis tinction. TELEGRAPHIC BREVITIES. The Nottingham, England. Hosiery Companv's factories at Loughboro, were burned yesterday. Loss, $300,000. Johnson Nelson, a railroad contractor, was killed at Hurley. Mich., on Sunday, bv the ex plosion of a dynamite cartridge, which he was thawing out A bridge over Evergreen creek, on the Pitts burg & Northern Narrow-guage railway, gave way yesterday, precipitating an engine into the creek, fatally injuring eneineer Marshall and slightly bruising fireman Harry Crider. Traffic on the road will be suspended for nearly a week, pending the rebuilding of the bridge. Mr. Gerald Maxwell, a member of the Wilson Barrett Dramatic Company, has been placed in the Cincinnati sanitarium, upon the certificate of a Cincinnati physician that he is insane. His hallucinations point to English politics and to a cipher for telegraphic messages which he has invented. He is said to be well educated, and to have distinguished connections in Englaud. In Jones county, Georgia, Saturday morning, two boys, aged ten and eight years, while in the woods gathering brush, were Bet anon by Sam Bivend, aged seventeen, and murdered with an axa Charles Rivers, the father of the bovs. headed a searching party and found the bodies hidden in a galley, at 1 o'clock Sunday morning. Bivend is in -jail, and has confessed. He says he had a fight with the boys. A horrible murder was committed at Perkins, a small station about fifteen miles north of Escanaba, on the Chicago & Northwestern road. on baturday night, the victim being a man named Peterson, who was found in bed with his head split open, the deed having been committed with an axe. Mrs. Peterson claims that she awoke and found a boarder, named Johnson, attempting to stab her with a knife. Her stories are contradictory. She has been arrested, and officers are after Johnson. A Cashier Short in His Accounts. Chicago, Jan. 31. Benjamin J. Chamberlain, cashier of the stockyords commission firm of Combes, Hannah & Co., is short in his accounts, the firm say, to the amount of $3,000, and it may reach $7,000 or $8,000. Chamberlain is of good family, his father, R. IL Chamberlain, being superintendent of the Rock Island road. Chamberlaivas arrested and held on bonds of $2,000. Telephone Tolls In Canada. Detroit. Jan. 31 In Windsor, Detroit's Canadian suburb, more than half of the telephone subscribers have notified the company that unless they can have Detroit connections without extra charge the telephones must be removed. This is said to be but the start of a general movement throughout Canada looking toward a lowering of the telephone tariff. MRS. EMMONS. What Her Unsband Says Abont Her She Will Go to England. Washington Critic. "I shall not make any further efforts to restrain my wife," said Professor Emmons, "beyond warning merchants against trusting her on my account All that I could do. has been done, and now let those who have upheld the poor child against my wishes take charge of her. Of course, she will not want for anything, as the income from her telephone stock will be ample for her wants. The house that she bas rented in London is in a very pleasant quarter, near Marylebone, and the residences in the vicinity are very suggestive of Washington, being surrounded by little parks. Still, it would not surprise me if my wife refused to be contented even amid such comfortable surroundings, but immediately after going to England she should return to the United States." "Mr. Emmons has done all that he could in this matter, r said Mr. Linden Kent, "and he will attempt no -further legal proceeding. No one ca,aiu8tly accuse my client of harshness in this case, for he has shown a wonderful forbearance under the circumstances. Of course, we are estopped from in any way caring for Mrs. Emmons, and she must look to her present friends for solace. "In talking with the jury." added Mr. Kent. as the reporter was about to withdraw, "I want to repeat, in justice to Professor Emmons, what they have said to me. To use their own words, tney say that they 'consider the conduct of rofessor Emmons towards his wife as one of remarkable patience and forbearance,' and that thev believe that he has acted throughout this entire matter as he thought in the best interests of his wife. Mrs. Emmons now has in her own right $27.000 in Bell Telephone stock, and real estate to the value of $13,000 more. This, with her jew elry and other personal effects of value make her estate worth, in round figures, $50,000. All of this had been given her by Professor Emmons since their marriage. . State Inspectors. Lawrenceburg Press. About forty counties in Indiana have had de falcations in the last twenty years, and in prob ably every county in the State officers have charged illegal fees, or illegally sacrificed the interests of the people in some way to promote the interests of officers or parties. This county has had several officers who have pocketed fees which belonged to the county. It is not the business of the newspaper organ of the ruling party to say that which may injure its party: and what opposition papers may say is attributed to party spirit, so that the majority hears noth ing wrong in its own paper and believes nothing in others. 1 his would be jutit the same if the politics and conditions were reversed, and it shows the importance of having an independent and competent authority to examine and know if all things are right A really honest officer could then go out with a clear record, and it would be impossible for some officer or clique of his own party to throw a suspicion over him. The other day the treasure of Knox county turned up a $40,000 defaulter. Does anybody suppose this would have occurred if he had known that at any hour a competent inspector might drop down on him, and "go through" his accounts and his cash? Ripley county has been paying taxes for years to make up stealings by officers, and is now paying for official jumbling due to official ignorance and "politics." It is "fat" for the lawyers and "inside" politicians, but hard on the tax payers. The Legislature ought to create the office of inspector of count? affairs. The number to be appointed should be matter of consideration, and the appointing power, also. Their duties should be to inspect the books of county offices; to see whether they are kept according to law or intelligently; whether the money is on hand or- accounted for -safely; whether the fees collected are lawful, the taxes levied and collected are lawful; whether all the manifold and varied duties of the officers of the people are faithfully and lawfully executed. v Why! Not one man out of a thousand in a county knows anything about the methods of county business, or; if invited, could inspect the work of any county officer intelligently, and if an officer has gone wrong, his successor, who may come upon the wrong, is always bound by political considerations to conceal it If the inspecting officers were appointed equally from the two political parties, and, as far as practicable, the Democrats sent to Republican and Republicans to Demo'cratio counties, the result would be salutary. The subject should have the careful attention of thoughtful legislators. Gedaey House, New York Broadway and Fortieth street opposite Metropolitan Opera-house and Carina Hotel entirely new. Desirable for business men or families. European pian. Rooms. $1 per day upwards. Excellent restaurant Geo. Dan Macauley & W. B. Bowers.
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE. Temperance Legislation. To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal I see by your paper that Representative Ackman, of Hancock county, has offered an amendment to one of the sections of our present temperance law. I recognize it as a feature of the once celebrated Baxter law of this State. It was found to be a very impracticable part of that law, a great personal annoyance to communities, easily complied with by false signatures, and wholly unsuitable for the working of a temperance law. I deem it unwise and only a loss of time and money to undertake to patch up or mend our present rickety and inefficient law. It is as full of holes and technicalities as the liquorseller is of arts and craftiness. If the Legislature is desirous cf enacting a good and practicable temperance law, one that will stay or mitigate the curse of liquor-selling, and afford some relief to thousands of families now groaning under that curse, why not at once bring forward and adopt the Illinois local-option and high-license lawi or that of Missouri or Ohio? The 'Illinois law has been tried, and works welL It has added largely to the revenues of the places where lieense was voted, and reduced crime, pauperism and expenses where no license was voted. The law should be plain, simple and devoid of all ambiguity or loopholes not at all like the present one, wtich makes it as hard to prove a violation of it as to prove that the moon is inhabited by liquorsellers. The local -option clause to be submitted to the legal voters at each regular election for town and county officers, the tickets to be headed
with the words: "License" "No license." If the voter is in favor of license, he is to add to the word license "Yes." and if opposed. "No." And for cities, let the question be submitted at each, regular election for Mayor and Common Council Let the license fee be made high, the 6elier to give a bond and prove to the county board that he has a character for sobriety him self, owns some property, and has been a resident of the town or city at least one year. The law in Missouri is doing good service, and last year increased the revenue from that source from $547,000 to $1,842,000. 1 here should be one clause against any phase of gambling, and proof of its violation subject the seller to a fine of not less than $2o, and a for feiture of his license. S. H. Potter. Terek Haute, Jan. 31. . What Is a Contested Election? uo the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal; A great effort is being made to avoid that sec tion of the Constitution which provides that contested elections for Governor and Lieutenantgovernor shall be determined by the General As sembly. It is claimed that because it is conceded that the people elected Robertson by 3,000 majority, therefore his election is not contested. The fallacy is apparent To make an election there must be an office, a candidate and a vote. If eithei of these requisitie3 are lacking there is no election. Whether there be a vacancy in the office, present or expected, is just as much a subject for the adjudication of those tribunals that have the right to hear and determine election contests as whether the candidate is eligible or ineligible, or whether his vote is honest or fraudulent Our courts have never hesitated to consider either of these questions in a contested election case, and no one ever dreamed of arguing that the question of whether there was a vacancy in the terra of office did not make a "contested election" until within the last sixty days. If the only question in a con tested election is that which concerns the actual ballot and its count, this would exclude all ques tions of eligibility of candidates. Did any one ever go so far as to Bay that the question of eligibility could not be considered in a contested election? Yet the reasoning is precisely the same as that urged to support this new-fangled doctrine that a vacancy is a question not included in election contests. Sup pose an alien elected by a heavy majority to the Senate. Could a contest of the election be avoided upon the plea that "no one questions the majority of the vote" therefote, this is not a contested election! The term, "contested election." has no such restricted meaning. It clearly includes all the preliminaries and necessary elements required to clothe a person with the title to an office, and among these neces sary elements is not only the eiligibility of the candidate, but the question whether there is a vacancy present or prospective in the office to which he is elected Any other construction of the phrase "contested election" is contrary to common sense ana tne unorosen usage or our courts. D. P. Baldwin. Logansport, Jan. 29, 1887. The Blackwood M order Case. To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal: Please allow me to say, as one of the counsel for the prosecution in the Blackwood murder case, recently tried at Brazil, that the pretended review of the case given by your correspondent from Brazil is a colossal aggregation of misstate ments of fact He misrepresented the case and the conduct thereof from its commencement to its termination, and is now trying to excuse his own mendacity by expressing surprise at the yordict of the jury, and offers as an excuse for this verdict that the defense was strong and the prosecution "notably weak-" A queer verdict indeed, if his' statement were true in fact. While in no way underrating the labors of my friends, Messrs. Holliday & Byrd, in behalf of the defense, I do resent the statement in reference to the weakness of the prosecution as malicious, slanderous, false and untrue. P. O. Coluves, Prosecuting Attorney. Grexxcastli, Jan.. 31. Artesian Wells, in Colorado. To the Editor of the lndiananolis Jcv-nal: Some twelve or .fifteen years ho Congress made an appropriation for boring artesian wells in the desert lands of Colorado and the slopes of the Rocky mountains, for irrigating the same. Can any one tell the result of this beneficent attempt? It may have developed some facts of value in these days of boring for water or gas in the Ohio valley. J. R B. Indianapolis. Temperance Legislation In Texas. Austin, Tex., Jan. 31. In the lower house of the Legislature, to-day, the joint resolution proposing a prohibition amendment to the Constitution was passed by a vote of 80 yeas to 21 nays. The Debility Produced by Malaria And the disease itself are effectually remedied by the Liebig Company's Coca Beef Tonic. Beware of irritations. "My patients derived marked and decided benefit from it" says Prof. J. N. Carnocban, M. D., LL.D., surgeon-in-chief New York State hospitals, etc., etc. Invaluable in dyspepsia, biliousness, sleeplessness. 3 tm MOST PERFECT MADE Prepared with strict regard to Purity, Strength, and Ilealthf ulness. Dr. Price's Baking Powder contains no Ammonia, Lime or Alum. Dr. Price's Extracts, Vanilla, Lemon, Orange, etc., flavor delieiously. PMCF PAWM PCWfif Ca C"-A"l8-rJ ' 4
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ELY'S CATARRH CREAM BALMLS in We have never handled a catarrh remedy that has in creased so rapidly in sales as Ely's Cream Balm or that has given such universal satisfaction. C. N. Crittenton, 115 Fulton street, New York City. HAY-FEVER A particle is applied into each nostril, and is arreea ble. Price 50 cents at Drugcrists; bv mail, resristered, 60 cents. Circulars free. ELY BROTHERS, Druggists, Owegm. N. Y. e APPLIED TO THE BRUSH with ASIVORY Cdiviaa) spoon. is a new Dental Cream. Its cleansing, refreshing and preserv ative properties, delicious flavoring and convenience of use, place it far in advance of all previous preparations for the Teeth. Sold by ail Druggists Joznrsoff & Johitsok, Operative Chemists, . IBS Cedar Streeti New Tor fc BREAKFAST Delicious, Ifourisliing, Absolutely Pure, Costing less than one ecnt a cup. GAS STOVES 3. CO 4 0 Pi n w Jb3 CO CD NO KINDLING REQUIRED. NO COAL TO CARRY. NO ASHES TO REilOVB. Prices from $2 to $16. Gas Engines from Horse-power ut We sell to fas oonsamar in tbia city only. Oa eibibition and for sale at the GAS COMPANY, No. 47 South Pennsylvania Street. RUITU R K Positively curedVv our Medieated Electric Soft Pad Truss, j without use of knife or needle. A perfect retai uer. No pain, no loss of time. These are facts which we acrree to verify, or forfeit $1,000. Cures guaranteed on accepted case or monev refunded. For circulars. price-list, rules for measurement and instructions for self -treatment, address SANITARIUM, Room 4, 77 East Market street, Indianapolis, Ind. 13. BRIDGE RODS, TRUSS RODS, Bolts, Stirrnpg, Plates, Washers And CONSTRUCTION WORK STEEL PULLEY AND MACHINE WORKS (Successors to Maoblna and Bolt Works). 79 to 85 South Pennsylvania St.. INDIANAT0LI3
