Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1905 — GRAFTISN. [ARTICLE]

GRAFTISN.

After tliis The Hague tribunal will be a good enough method of settling disputes for the Czar.

Vice-President Fairbanks does not have to keep his boom on ice. It refrigerates itself automatically.

—lt appears that the Presbyterians are taking very kindly to Mr. Rockfeller’s proposition for a oburch merger.

No Massachusetts republican is in mourning over Gov. Douglas’ announcement that he will not be a candidate for re-election.

It looks as though the Philadelphia people made u big mistake in not including the aldermen when they were praying for Mayor Weaver

You never know how patriotio a trust is until you begin to talk about buying in the foreign market, products weich the trust sells cheaper there than it does at home.

Secretary of the Treasury Shaw says that he is not worrying about the deficit. Of course not, like the Governor of New York he proposes to let the taxpayers do the worrying.

Once on a time a man stopped taking a good newspaper because the paper printed something be didn’t like. The paper survived, but in course time the man went the way of all flesh and was forgotten.

The bank at Fowlerton, Grant county, has gone republican. Many poor people had thier savings in the institution. George E. Hopkins of Chicago was the banker and started the bank some four mouths ago. The papers state that he is now missing.

The Democrat rather likes the way the officials of the new railroad that is being built] through Newton county are acting. They state that they want no subsidies, only want the good will of the people along the line, and the Enterprise says that the SI6,(XX) subsidy voted in •Jefferson township will not be collected. Elections were held Wednesday in Beaver and Lake townships to vote subsidies for the road, and in Lake the proposition carried by a vote of 75 to 57. In Beaver, however, where there is a pretty stiff good old democratic sentiment against special privileges, it was voted down by 116 to 40.

There is a new school board iu Peru. It is composed of William H. Zimmerman, Charles A. Cole and Elvin O. Sullivan. Bills for supplies were recently presented to it aggregating $1,030. The board, after refusing for a year to pay them, finally settled for S3OO. This, it seems to us, is a very remarkable adjustment. W. M. Belt, who acted for the two firms interested (both of Indianapolis) says that, according to his calculations, the firms lost about S3OO by the settlement, but they thought it was better to lose this than go to the law. Peru is to be congratulated on its sohool board. It bos the idea that its first duty is to safeguard the public interests, and that it is necessarily fair and reasonable. Nor do we believe that it has any intention of "beating” the contractors with whom it does business. Of course, this Peru incident is a small matter, but when it is tak-

en in connection with other things, seems to indicate that public officers are waking up to the fact that the people wish to be honestly and efficiently served. Recent happenings in Wells county, to whioh we have referred, point in the same direction. While the moral revolution in Philadelphia proves that there are forces in every community which can beenlisted on the side of decency. We suggest to the men who are dealing with public officers that the people are going to be more exacting than they have been in the past —also they are going to be more watchful. School book people, supply people, and bridge people would do well to heed the signs of the times. The firms in this Peru case may have been treated with undue harshness. On that point we shall doubtless have more information. But we say that their willingness to compromise a SI,OOO acoount for S3OO, indicates that there was at least a large margin of safety.—lndianapolis News.