Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1909 — THE DEMOCRATS HAVE MADE GOOD [ARTICLE]

THE DEMOCRATS HAVE MADE GOOD

With Legislature Nearing End Record Is Clear. HANDICAPPED BY SENATE With a Working Majority. Operating Against Them In the Upper House, the Assembly Majority Finds It Impossible to Carry Out All Platform Pledges, but on the Issue of Economy vs. Extravagance the Record Is Clear and Can Be Pointed to With Pride. Indianapolis, March 2. —The regular session of the general assembly reaches its sixty days constitutional limit next Monday. No bills can be passed after Friday midnight. It is a busy last week and there is still much to be done, but even now something can be said as to the general -result. As the Democrats, by reason of controlling one house and having a presiding officer in the other, and a governor to whom all enactments must be submitted, have a large share of the responsibility for what is done, the question is, have they made good? It can be answered that they have made good so far, and there is every reason to believe that the finished product will be entirely satisfactory to the people. Of course it must be remembered that the Republicans control the senate, and that no bill can get through that body if they oppose it along party lines. This fact will account for the failure of the Democrats to carry into law many of their platform pledges. But on the leading issue of the state campaign, viz.,'economy versus extravagance, the Democrats have been able to make a very creditable showing despite thd* handicap of an adverse senate. And in this Governor Marshall has been a good deal more than a silent factor. He has been an aggressive force. The whole state understands at last that the Democratic charge of bad management and extravagance on the part of the Republicans is true. The Republican state officials have been forced to admit the desperate condl,tlon of state finances, and they appealed to a Democratic governor and a Democratic house for relief from the effects of their own short-sightedness ,and folly. On the figures furnished by the Republican officials, supplemented by his own investigations, Governor Marshall sent a special message to the legislature which went directly to the point. He told the members that expenses had to be reduced —it was either that or an increase in the tax levy or an issue of bonds. He made the situation so plain that the most indifferent had to sit up and take 'notice. And even those who have made the fact that Indiana is “a great and rich state” the excuse for all sorts of extravagance were compelled to realize that It is just as disastrous for a state to habitually spend money beyond its Income as it is for an individual to do so/

The first thing done was to pass the bill making it the duty of cqunty treasurers to pay money over'to the state whenever it is called for. It will not be a new experience for the county treasurers. They have been doing it for years. Last year they did it to the extent of $1,772,000, the largest amount advanced in one year in the state’s history. It is, after all, a mere makeshift arrangement, but it will save the state treasurer the shame of stamping honest bills “not paid for the want of funds.” Tn the light of recent developments Governor Hanly’s statement to the legislature in his last message that “the financial condition of the state is exceptionally good” looks like a case of attempted deception. When he first went into office Mr. Hanly batted the administration of his predecessor, Colonel Durbin, right between the eyes because of the “embarrassing” financial situation he had brought about. But the situation now is worse than "embarrassing.” It is little less than scandalous. During three years of his administration Governor Hanly used for general expenses the whole of the sinking fund levy, amounting to about $500,000 a year, a total of $1,500,000 for the three years. And yet with that great additional sum the last treasury statement showed a book balance of only $493,000. Without the use of the sinking fund levy there would have been a deficit of $1,000,000. As has been stated before, that special leVy is not now available for general expenses and cannot be used to meet appropriations unless it is again transferred to the general by legislative act. If it is so transferred it will mean that the state will not exercise its option to pay its bonds in 1910, but will hold them off until they are due in 1915.

• • • Before this week ends the Democrats in the house will have passed a bill in redemption of every promise contained in their state platform. If they could only reach the governor they would become laws. But unfortunately before they can get there they must pass the senate' alley, where they are likely to be sandbagged by the Republican majority. Aside from the political bills, there are hundreds of others still pending and members are

trying almost savagely to ears thstr favorites from slaughter. It hi only death that they fear at this stage. The bill that gets through during the last days, can point to its scars and mutilations as evidence of the fight it made, and even, perhaps, as marks of honor. But not many of the pending hundreds will escape death. Most of them will die because they do not deserve to live. If all of them should pass it would be necessary to wall in the state and turn half of It into a penitentiary and the other half into a lunatic asylum. Now and then a good measure is killed and a bad one is given a vote of confidence, but there is in most instances a fair discrimination. But the goats so outnumber the sheep! And so crowded tumbrils go to the guillotine every day and decapitations are performed with neatness and dispatch by the executioners. And the multitud&tApplauds—and so do most of the lawmakers. Those amiable Frenchmen who frequented the Place de Greve from morn till night in the good old days of Robespierre and Marat never saw a head fall with greater I satisfaction than "is felt by the average legislator over the killing of another fellow’s bill after one of his own has suffered a like fate. • • •

The most important thing the legislature has on its books this week is the general appropriation bill. Much depends on its construction. The question whether the state will be able to weather the financial storm without borrowing money will be answered largely by the character of the appropriation bill. The present fiscal year ends on the 30th of next September

and the appropriations for it were made two years ago. This legislature must provide for the fiscal years 1910 and 1911. So far as the regular appropriations are concerned it is believed that there will be a substantial reduction in the total. It is the special appropriations that worry the legislators and make them wonder where the money is going to come from to pay them. Now here are the various state institutions holding up their plates for special appropriations amounting to nearly three and a half million dollars. Governor Marshall has called attention to the fact that there will be less than two millions available for these purposes. If more is voted the state will either have to "go broke” or borrow money. It is going to take some close figuring and not a little diplomacy to shape things up satisfactorily. In view of the existing “financial stringency” the demands that the three state-supported schools have made upon this legislature Jiave been most remarkable. These schools are Indiana and Purdue universities and the normal school at Terre Haute. Among them they ask for special appropriations amounting to more than a million dollars. In addition, they asked that the special tax levy made for them be Increased from "2% cents on each SIOO to 4 cents, thus making their income nearly $700,000 a year. - But then, the pulling and hauling that is going on before the appropriations committees of the two houses is something frightful all around. Apparently no one institution cares a rap what happens to any other institution, just so it gets what it is afters You can recognize a member of the appropriations committee as far as yau can see him. He has a weary and furtive took, like a fox that has been chased over three counties.

To make matters worse, the two committees —the Democratic ways and means committee of the house and the Republican finance committee of the senate—have different views about what should be done. The Democrats are determined to carry out, if possible, their party’s economy program, while the Republicans, judged by their past record, don’t care a hoot about any economy program, to say nothing of one of Democratic origin. • • • Governor Marshall has found it necessary to veto a few bills, including four to create new courts. Doubtless before he gets through he will veto some more. What he has done in that line so far has been generally approved, and it is not probable that he will make any mistake hereafter in the exercise of his constitutional right to disapprove proposed legislation. In the first place both the public at large and Hie members of the legislature have confidence in hiq purposes and also in his judgment, "and this is a combination with which it is hard to find fault. In the next place the governor has the happy faculty of being able to disagree with others without making it a personal matter. Some of his predecessors—no more in earnest than he—frequently managed to rub the legislative fur the wrong way and thus provoke a row. As a rule, Governor Hanly did not rub the fur at all. On the contrary, he made bold to skin off the whole hide. • * ■ •

The legislature has been trying to find out who sold several tons of public documents and what was done with the money. About twenty years ago, when the Republicans had possession of the state offices, a negro Janitor was accused of selling wagon loads of doc'uments and books to junk dealers and pocketlfig the money. Among the articles thus disposed of and lost were many records and papers of great official and historical importance. How serious the present operations of thrifty officials or employes will prove to be, no one knows yet The tons of books and documents which have been surreptitiously sold and carted off cost the taxpayers a lot of money. If they had no value save as waste paper it is proof that the state officials have been very kind to the public printer. MILLARD F. COX.