Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1907 — HOOSIER STATESMEN [ARTICLE]

HOOSIER STATESMEN

Those Who Make the Laws for the State Are in Business Once More. GOVERNOR READS HIS MESSAGE Republican Majority in the House Only Six—State Railway Board to Probe the Woodville Horror. Indianapolis. Jan. 11.—The one hundred and fifty men who, under the name of the Sixty-fifth general assembly, decide what the laws of Indiana shall be, for the next two years at least, met and organized preparatory to taking up the work. There was a full representation of every county of the state at the opening, with the exceptions of Marshall and Kosciusko, whose senator, John W. Parks, is too ill to attend. Fully one hundred answered to roll call in the house. Republican House Majority Small. The Sixty-fifth is expected to be both Important and Interesting; important for the reforms pledged by the platforms on which men of both parties reached their seats in the body, and interesting because of the smallness of the Republican majority in the house, which assures anything but a sleepy sc*' iei'. In the senate the Republicans are to the Pemocrnrs as 37 is to 13, but in the house the difference is only that between 53 and 4h, and the 47 are about as active and wide awake as ever occupied the west side of the house chamber. Caucus Nominees Elected. Both senate and house organized, electing the officers selected at the Republican caucuses. Representative Branch, the newly-elected speaker of the house, presided throughout the greater part of the session. Both houses adjourned shortly before noon to meet In joint session at 2 p. m. to hear Governor Ilanly personally read his message. a document of some 33,000 words. Lobby We Have Always with Vs. Crowded galleries of men and women saw the opening, and politicians and amateur statesmen from miles around were about the side-lines. Noticeable, too, was the always-to-be-fonnd lobby, of various sorts and sizes of influence. The lawmakers, in their best Sunday clothes, had no reason to doubt that the eyes of the state were upon them.