Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1900 — Page 4 Advertisements Column 2 [ADVERTISEMENT]

NOTICE TO DEMOCRATS. At the meeting of the Democratic County Central Committee on Thursday of this week, it was decided to postpone the holding of the Democratic county convention until Saturday, June 2. The republican senatorial convention will be held at Goodland next Tuesday. The democratic senatorial convention will be held at Monon, and the judicial convention at Remington, but . the dates' of either have not yet been decided upon. Naturally Porto Rico can afford to pay 15 per cent. Her laborers struck a day or two ago for an increase of their wages from 40 to 50 cents, and they will therefore only have to give up some of their luxuries in order to supply the money.

Democratic chances continue to brighten. The Republicans grow more and more hopelessly divided as the days go by. By coming out boldly for imperialistic government of Porto Rico, they have stripped off the mask of “expansion” with which they concealed their true policy and the people can now choose with knowledge. There can be little doubt how they will decide when the issue is put plainly before them. The commissioners of De Kalb county have begun suit against county Auditor Seiler to collect $72 which Seiler drew for services on the board of review for 1899 and used the money for private purposes. The commissioners contend that it should have been turned into the county fund,'as it was his duty as auditor to attend the meetings. The commissioners ask $l5O damages. County Tresurer Hines drew pay for similiar services, but turned it into the county fund.

The financial statement of Jasper county for the six months from May 31, 1899, to Jan. 1,1899, appears in the Apologist this week. Evidently it was not desired to give much publicity to this statement, the commissioners ordering it published in the Apologist and Barnacle. However, as it is rather rich reading, The Democrat will reproduce it in these columns next week, that the democratic taxpayers of the county may have an opportunity to study the report and see where their money goes to. The report confirms a number of statements made by The Democrat soon after the last annual report was made, concerning certain expenditures, etc.,

Gen. Lew Wallace, the well known author and one of the most ardent McKinley supporters in Indiana during the last national campaign, has written a letter to the Indianapolis Press, in which he scores the McKinley administration unmercifully for its imperialistic policy; and offers a sixteenth amendment to the constitution, in which the United States shall not expand except with the consent of the people. He says in closing: “The masses of the party (republicans) are innocent of imperialism, and it is not their intention to establish a colonial plaything for the present executive or for executions to come; none the less, they will have shortly to answer both those charges.” The letter is a scorcher from start to finish.

It was by a strict party vote, excepting Senator Lindsay, of Ky., who voted with the republicans, that the Senate tabled Senator Allen’s amendment to the Porto Rico bill, declaring that by force of the Paris Treaty of Peace the Constitution of the U. S. was extended over Porto Rico and its inhabitants, and the previous talk of some of the republican Senators made their votes somewhat surprising, as a vote to table the amendment was equivalent to a vote in favor of the contention that Congress can legislate for our new possessions, regardless of the Constitution. By a coincidence the vote was taken just after Senator Chilton had made a speech, in which he said: “Our constitution goes to Porto Rico. It goes everywhere that the American power goes, and it is a shame to our pretensions that the first act of an American Congress in dealing with our new acquisitions from Spain should be an effort to deny to that people the highest right of free men—the protection of a written Constitution. It seems like a travesty to hold that Congress, which is the creature of the Constitution, can legislate for anybody or anything in disregard of the terms of that Constitution.”