Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1899 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Poor Knotts! No harbor and that $5,000 bribe wasn’t accepted! O, worry, worry. The Indiana legislature has passed the voting machine bill, a&d it is now' optional with the county commissioners whether or not they use them in their respective counties. A typographical error last w r eek made us say that Jasper county levied an annual gravel road repair tax of over SB,OOO for her 23 miles of gravel road. We intended to say over $4,000. Congress adjourns today and the state legislature adjourns Monday. The people of the country, however, may rest easy, “Honest Abe’s” court will convene in regular session Monday. Yesterday was a busy day in the state legislature. Gov. Mount had notified that body that he would receive no bills after midnight, and the legislators had to get a hustle on themselves. The Indianapolis News, republican, occasionally hits the nail on the head. “It says: “All the principal reforms in legislation in this state in recent years have come from democratic legislation.” Last year the salaries of our commissioners were $738.50 each;, under the proposed new fixed salary law the three will receive $63.50 less than each one received last year. Wonder if any member will resign. ? The alacrity with which the services of a 50-cent-a-day man becomes worth $4 or $5 a day —in his own estimation —upon receiving a little document with the governor’s name attached to, it, is simply astounding. No lightning change artist can excel one of these gentleman in this particular. At the meeting of the Jasper County Democratic Central Committee last Saturday, among other business transacted was the formal adoption of The Jasper County Democrat as the official organ of the democracy of Jasper county. While the paper had always been considered the party organ since its establishment, it had never been formally adopted by the committee until this meeting. This action was unanimous. The republicans first elected about three-fourths of the township trustees of the state; then they extended their terms of office to make it run two years longer than elected for and now they find it necessary to pass a law which places a body guard of respectable citizens about them so as to protect the people’s money. Possibly it would have been cheaper and better to have elected democrats in the first place.—Delphi Times, Mr. Knotts, of Lake and Jasper has been present at every hard fight to save the (county reform bill) and voted for it,,every time. — Republican. Mr. Knotts, of Jasper and Lake, was present Monday at the hardest fight the bill had yet seen—when up for final passage—and voted square against it. Mr. Hall, of Benton, another northern Indiana republican, voted against its passage, and it was only saved by the votes of two democrats. Therefore both the township and county reform bills owe their success to democrats. Remember this. ■■

But six counties in the state, last year, paid out more money to county commissioners than Jasper. These were Marion, Allen, Vanderburg, St. Joseph, Shelby and Tippecanoe. Excepting Shelby—and it more than doubles our county in both wealth and population—these are the largest counties of the state. The average cost per capita of county administration (county officers) in the 92 counties of the state for the year ending May 31, 1898, was 41.6 cents. In White county it was about 43 cents; Benton, 60; Newton, 67; Lake, 55; Pulaski 72; Starke 85, and Jasper 79.9 cents. With the single exception of “the democratic (?) county of Starke,” Jasper county stands at the head as the most expensive governed county in northern Indiana, and third in the whole state, Carroll, with almost twice our population, and Starke, lately come under republican control, alone exceeding her.

Last week The Democrat stated that St. Joseph county was the only county exceeding Jasper in the expense of county superintendent and county institutes. In this it was slightly in error. In Elkhart county the cost was $1,892.20; Grant county, $1,636.63; St. Joseph $1,665.77 and Jasper sl,630.96. Therefore Jasper stands 4th in the list, instead of second, but Elkhart has a population of 51,169; Grant, 58,950; St. Joseph, 60,845, and Jasper 16,609. These figures are taken from the reports of the Bureau of Statistics and the Auditor of State. From the same source we find that this item for 1895 cost Jasper county $1,212; 1896, $1,255; 1897, $1,281. Why did it cost almost S4OO more in 1898 than the average for the proceeding three years? After the county reform bill had passed the house last Monday, Mr. Artman (rep.) sent up to the speaker and had read the following resolution: • “Resolved, That this house extends its sympathy to the Hon. George M. Ray in the hour of his disappointment.” The speaker declared the resolution out of order. This notorious gentleman was on the floor of the house at the time, we understand, but left in short order. It was this self-same Geo. M. Ray, who, a couple of years ago, sold Thomas Stout, trustee of Grant tp., Newton county, some $12,000 to $15,000 worth of trash suitable to be used for a school conducted on the new fangled fad plan. This is only one of many cases that were developed in different parts of the state, after this oily-tongued supply man had got in his work. In the Grant tp., ease the warrants issued in payment for the stuff are still outstanding, and the trustee resigned his office in disgrace. The testimony before the beef board of Colonel Osborn, fidus Achates of the late Eagan, throws new light upon the physical condition of the soldiers of the Spanish war. Colonel Osborn, though attached to the commissary department, is evidently a medical expert. He declares under oath that 99 per cent of the troops had enlarged livers. That, he maintains, explains their stubborn and mutinous action in refusing to eat the embalmed beef furnished by a government through the agency of Eagan and Osborn. They were all bilious and, as he declares, “wanted to be fed all the time on delicacies.” Eagan and Osborn of course had no authority to issue blanc mange, custard pie and angels’ food, and in Osborn’s opinion the soldiers at once entered into a general conspiracy to discredit the commissary department of the army. Osborn’s statement is important, not only as bearing upon the beef controversy, but as a contribution to medical science. Even Sternberg of division hospital fame failed to discover this epidemic of hepatic hypertrophy. He thought the soldiers died out of mere spite.—Chicago Chronicle. , : , j

The whiskey trust, or pool, is now complete, with a capital stock of $128,500,000. Let us hope that the local market will not be unfavorably affected. Of late years whiskey has become very popular with republicans, and the monopoly of drinking all the whiskey, heretofore supposed to exist among democrats, has been broken up. We commend the following from that rock-ribbed republican sheet, the Indianapolis Journal, to the anti-county and township reformers in Rensselaer and Jasper county: “Every state in the union has suffered more or less from lobbyists, and none more than Indiana. Every measure of progress and reform that has been enacted in the state has been passed over the opposition of a lobby determined to maintain conditions favorable to a few and unfavorable to the masses. The very word reform is a challenge to the interests that prosper under bad systems and by corrupt practices. As long as the people are quiet under loose and dishonest methods or long-stand-ing abuses by which they are unnecessarily taxed or unscrupuously robbed, the persons and the interests that profit by these methods are quiet, but the moment the people demand reform a lobby springs into existence to oppose it. The lobby now opposing the county government reform bill embraces all those who have been profiting under the old system—extravagant and dishonest county commissioners, greedy county officers to whom such commissioners have been “very kind,” party bosses who live on the crumbs of corruption that fall from political tables, court house rings, bridge companies, stationery and blankbook supply houses, county officers who are reformers before election and fee-grabbers after, plausable citizens who are “in favor of real reform but not of this bill,” small politicians who think that platform pledges are made to catch votes—in short, every person who has profited or hopes to profit under th 3 old system.” The 55th Congress expires today at 12 m. And may this country never see its like again. It haß been the most extravagant of any congress that ever assembled, having appropriated over $1,600,000,000 for the two years ending June 30, 1901. This vast sum of money is over $300,000,000 in excess of the total valuation of all property for taxation in Indiana in 1897. And this includes the Jasper County Telephone Co. Likewise the State legislature will expire next Monday at midnight, and while some good laws have been enacted, notably the reform bills, its extravagance has been outrageous, and it has disgraced itself by passing some of the worst legislation, some of the worst steals, that have every been given life by legislative fiat. The Columbus Hospital steal, reimbursing the Spanish-American war veterans for equipments, the Vincennes university steal, the Mrs. May steal, —the University steal having been pending since 1855 and the May steal since 1860, will become laws if the Governor does not interpose his veto, which he threatens to do. Yet he may be overridden. All of these things show from what motive legislators, national and state, act. General welfare, the country’s good, the benefit of the whole people, is not even considered, the sole purpose being—judging from results—to get as much as possible out of the public treasury. This matter cannot go on indefinitely. It may require drastic measures to right things, but they must be righted, and the time will when the plain people will come into possession of their own. May it come soon. • A handsome envelope, either square or oblong, for 5 cents per package at The Democrat office.

(From our regular correspondent.) Mr. McKinley has nominated Ex-Secretary Day to a U. S. Circuit Court judgeship. * • * When the Morgan Nicaragua Canal bill passed the Senate there was seven votes cast against it; when the River and Harbor bill, containing an amendment providing for the building of the Nicara-

gua Canal passed the Senate, only three votes were cast against it— Senators Pettigrew, Teller and Rawlins, neither of whom are opposed to the Canal under what they consider proper conditions. It is an open secret in Washington that Mr. McKinley would be glad to receive Alger’s resignation. The story circulated last week that Alger was about to resign originated in administration circles, and was doubtless intended as a hint to Alger. It brought out the defiant statement from Alger that he did not intend to resign, of his own accord. He is said to believe that Mr. McKinley is afraid to ask for his resignation, although he knows that he is constantly being advised by prominent republicans to do so. * *• • ♦ | Our Philippine policy is bearing fruit quickly. In addition to having an expensive war with the Philipinos on our hands, Dewey’s despatch to hurry up the battleship Oregon indicates the belief on his part that there is danger of war with more powerful opponents. Just how great this danger is can only be guessed, because officials are concealing what information they have and pretending that the dispatch from Dewey, which was made public by mistake, had no meaning. Little information can be gained from private dispatches from Manila as they are all strictly censored, but it is known that conditions are critical, and that European consuls there are making some stiff claims on account of the recent partial burning of the town. * * * Mr. McKinley has been catching it again from members of his own party in Congress. Senator Sewell, who voted fqr ratification of the treaty and for everything else that has been asked for by the administration, was so stirred up by the progress of the war with the Filipinos, that he let out the fact that he had been supporting the McKinley policy against his own judgment. He said emphatically: “I never was in favor of the acquisition of the Philippines,” and added that he had begged Mr. McKinley to order Dewey away from Manila, after he won his victory. Mr. Sewell thinks the Filipinos will have to be practically exterminated before we can control the Philippines. He also thinks that we ehall soon be at war with Cuba, because of the administration policy. * * * Mr. McKinley’s backdown from his army bill bluff will go down in Congressional history as the most complete ever made by a President. The democratic victory is complete. The new Army bill is practically just what was offered to the administration by Senator Cockrell, on behalf of those Senators who opposed a large standing army—it provides for continuing the present status of the regular army of 62,000 men for two years from next July, and for enlisting 35,000 volunteers for the same period. The administration Senators fairly fell over each other in their anxiety to accept Senator Cockrell’s offer. The next Congress, which will be republican in both branches, will probably inflict a large standing army on the country, but that will not deprive the Senators who killed the bill, to do so at this time, of deserved credit. „* * * Representative Johnson, of Ind., a republican, made a long speech, nearly every sentence of which contained an attack upon Mr. McKinley. He said of those who attacked Alger and praised Mr. McKinley that they have “lacked the courage to lay their ax to the root of the evil and censure the gentleman who, to reward him for his political services and disbursements in the campaign of ’96, appointed him (Alger) to his present position, and had maintained him there ever since, notwithstanding his incompetency and against the righteous complaints that have been made against him.” He said that Mr. McKinley’s recent Boston address “was nothing more nor less than a carefully devised misstatement of the issue,” and of our Philippine policy: “I insist that the whole policy is not simply an error, but that it is a crime, and that the Chief Executive of this nation is the one who has precipitated upon us the embarrasments and difficulties by which we are now confronted.” Speaking of the claim that Mr. McKinley acted upon the advice of Dewey, in demanding the Philipines, Mr. Johnson said: “The Chief Executive cannot screen himself behind the gold lace of the hero of Manila.” He expressed the opinion that the real reason for Mr. McKinley’s policy was “his concessions to the selfish capitalists of this country, his surrender to their demands. These are > the

gentlemen who furnished the money for his nomination and election, and who, I doubt not, have pledged him a re-nomination and re-election. These are the gentlemen who are already grasping after special privileges in the Philippines, in Cuba, and in Porto Rico. It was, I imagine, for their especial benefit that that the President created his advisory Board to the War Department.”