People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1895 — LEGISLATIVE GOSSIP. [ARTICLE]

LEGISLATIVE GOSSIP.

SOME SPECULATION ABOUT THE SPEAKERSHIP CONTEST. DenUon House Lobby a Scene of Turmoil. A Banquet That Will Not Come Off. The Apportionment Bills —Jackson Day Banquet. (Special Correspondence.] Indiana roufl, Jau. It la possible now to come pretty near sizing tip the situation as it will stand on the first ballot for speaker. Merritt will have the Twelfth and Thirteenth districts, with a few scattering votes elsewhere. Adams will have nearly all of the votes of the Seventh district and a following in the Sixth, Ninth, Eighth and Tenth. Statesman will have the Eleventh district, With scattering Votes in the Ninth and Tenth. Holloway Will have the First district solid and Cardwill is Certain to get most of the Third. The Second will divide between Allen and Willoughby, and both will get sOiiie Otltside votes. The Fifth will divide between Remy and Moore, and the latter will draw some strength from the Eighth, as two counties of his joint district lie in that territory. Newhousfl will have most of the Fourth, while Stakebake and Hunter will get their votes from their respective districts, the Sixth and Ninth. Leedy will get some Votes in the Tenth and some in the Seventh. The candidates will start in with followings ranging from one to 23 votes, and I predict that there will be at least three or four ballots, with a fair possibility of a long fight.

if - 4* All other legislative questions, usually discussed in hotel lobbies, are now swallowed up in the all-absbrbing contest Over the speakership. There' has been tin diminution in the number of announced candidates. The friends of J. C. Adams of Marion declare with a great deal of confidence that their man has a ■‘sure thing,” but for the life cf me I can’t figure him out with iribre than 20 Votes on the first bdildt, and Subsequent ballots are always more or loss problematical. The successful man must have ay votes ill the caucus, and no candidate Will have anywhere near that number to start with. Mr. Adams lias declared to. me that if W. H. Leedy, the second Marion county candidate, gets any other vote outside of his own in the delegation from this county then he (Adams) is willing to Withdraw. The impression is Very general that there will ho some effort at a combination of the candidates from the rest of the state. As yet, however, nothing in that direction Jins taken shape. Eut it is asserted that unless something of that sort develops Marion county will carry off the plum. A great many keen political managers and manipulators in the state are in the Adams “push,” and they will spare no efforts to land their man. The senate is strongly for him, and thereby hangs a little tale about the date of the house caucus. A few days ago one of the senators gave a local reporter the information that the senatorial caucus would be held on Tuesday night and that of the house on the next evening, and the programme was so printed. The senator was all right on the date of the senatorial meeting, but lie had no authority to set the time for the house. Most of the members of the latter body are impatient of anything like dictation by the senate and prefer to have their caucus at some time when the senators would be too busy to interfere. Accordingly when enough of them arrived on the ground they set about to overturn this scheme by circulating a petition calling the house caucus for Tuesday evening, the same time as the senatorial caucus.

-***— The Denison House lobby is a scene of turmoil. Not only do all the legislators make it their loafmg-plaoe, but the aspirants for minor places and their friends are there in force. It seems to be a settled fact that R. B. Oglesbee of Plymouth will be the secretary of the senate. He is the only candidate for any of the minor offices that has no opposition. For assistant secretary D. H. Olive of Lebanon and W. S. Ennes of Princeton are in the field. Mr. Olive was said to have enough assurances to elect him until it was asserted that he was to be appointed to the land department by Auditor Daily. That fact has made his canvass a little more difficult. R. E. Mansfield, secretary of the state Lincoln league, whose name was sprung by his friends for assistant clerk of the house, promptly appeared on the scene and announced that he would not enter the race. There are a whole regiment of candidates for doorkeepers of the two houses, as well as for the smaller jobs, and their success or failure will depend largely upon luck and circumstances in the caucus. * „ w The question of a banquet has been agitating the Republican as well as the Democratic mind for the past few weeks. About a month ago it was suggested that the Lincoln league give a big spread on the occasion of its annual meeting on Feb. 12, and last Thursday the district managers met at the Denison to consider the matter. It was a free-for-all gathering, and all Republicans who happened to be about were invited to join in the discussion. The proposition for a banquet was warmly opposed by R. M. Seeds, W. H. Leedy aud Union B. Hunt of Winchester, and just as warmly unheld by J. J. Wingate of Shelbyville, J. J. Higgins of Terre Haute and W. H. Ripley of Indianapolis. The motion that a banquet be given was finally lost and the preliminaries of the annual meeting were left in the hands of a special committee of live.

The indications are that the making of the congressional apportionment will lie largely in the hands of the house committee on apportionment. The house will probably accept without question the legislative apportionment bill which Senator Wishard will present. It is not very greatly interested in this anyhow, as there will be comparatively few joint representative districts. But the sena* tors are intensely interested, as nearly all the senatorial districts are likely to be affected more or less. In return for its courtesy iu accepting a legislative j

bill originating in the senate, the house will expect the uppet body to accept the congressional bill prepared by its committee. -♦*«- Senator Boyd is said to have a new fee and salary bill ready to introduce as soon as the senate begins business. It is a remodeling of the present law, with the changes based partly upon population and partly upon the amount of business done by the various officials of each county. Senator Boyd believes he has cured all alleged inequalities, but he will doubtless find half the officials in the state demanding more as soon as the details of his bill become known. "J believe,” said one of the prominent members of the house yesterday, “that the county officers would faro a great deal better without a lobby than with oiic this year It wiil only irritate the members aud do more harm than good. There is a disposition to treat them fairly, and if let alone tile legislature is Upt to do a lot better by them than it will under the pressure of an effort to control its action.” The county officers, however, have gone ahead with their organization and have their plans all laid for an active campaign. Their executive committee Held a three days’ session at Logansport last week, at which it drafted a bill which the lobby will try to get through. At this session the following officers of the assodution were elected: President, H. ('. Wyand, clerk of Fountain county; secretary, G M Fountain, clerk of St. Joseph . county; treasurer, Edmund Johnson, clerk of Madison county. Governor Matthews after about two Weeks’ work has finished his message, which Wifi be read in both houses as Soon as they are fully organized. The message is a bulky document and gives It pretty thorough review of the operations of the state government during the (>ast two years. The governor congratulates the assembly upon the excellent tibiJditkni Of state finances. He praises very highly the management (it the State institutions under the present boards and calls attention to tire recommendations of the state board Of charities for two new intermediate institutions for the' care of the mildly insane •bid the first offenders in crime. He reviews the history of the great cdal and railroad strikes Of Hst sfinimer and recommends a larger military appropriation and a more extensive establishmentOf the state militia. He commends Very highly the discipline and loyalty of the troops who “fit into the war” at Shelburn and at Hamlfioitd. Then he dives into the question of winter racing at Roby and tells the legislature that this disgrace to the state ought to be wiped out. For this purpose lie strongly commends a bill which has been prepared by Attorney General Ketcham forbidding winter racing, prizefighting and certain other brutal sports and conferring upon the governor full power to enforce the provisions of the act where the local authorities fail to do so within a reasonable time.

-***- The Roby people have begun their campaign by sending to the members an anonymous circular defending the racetrack and declaring that it has no connection with the old prizefighting organization. —*#*— Within three or four' days after the legislature meets the Republican niajority in the senate will probably be increased by one. In the Huntington and Wells district J. W. Rineer was declared elected over Adam Foust, on the face of the returns, by a margin of 49 votes. Foust was the Republican nominee and Rineer the Democratic. Foust’s attorneys have prepared papers for a contest, setting forth certain alleged irregularities, which, if sustained by the evidence, will throw out more than enough votes to unseat Rineer and seat his Republican opponent. It is not likely that the Republicans will miss this opportunity to gain a holdover senator and thus increase their prospects for a majority on joint ballot two years hence, when a United States senator is to be elected. —'***_ When a party of 25 or 30 young Republicans gathered at the Bates House early in December and spent an evening in discussing lines of party policy the event created something of a furore. It was stated in some quarters that this meant the pushing aside of some of the older party leaders, and in others that the assemblage had political significance of another character. A special committee was appointed that evening to call another meeting in the near future. This committee met at the Denison House on Monday and decided to -call the next conference about the time of the Lincoln league in February.

-***— One of the most inexplicable things about politics is that geography should be such a factor in nominating conventions and in the disposition of appointive offices. It never cuts any figure in elections, and yet this matter of geographical location has knocked out many of the brightest and best men in public life. —**" — Both the house and senate contain a very large proportion of young men this year. It was a fact often noted and commented upon during the campaign that more young men were participating than ever before. v!* v -XWhen the senate committees were being made up a peculiar blunder arose from the fact that the committee in charge of the work was not informed as to the occupations of the various members. Senator Gostlin of Lake and Porter counties had expressed no preference for any particular committee. He has been a successful distiller for a number of years, but does not believe in mixing his business and his politics. Therefore, when the caucus met to approve the selection of committees he was astounded to hear his name read at the head of the committee on temperance. Gostlin protested at once and explained that it would be a difficult matter for a distiller to accomplish much for the cause of temperance. His appointment, he believed, would be taken as a direct slap by the temperance element of the party. The caucus saw the point at once and Senator Gostlin was relieved, his place being supplied with Seuator McManus, the poet-politician from Lagrange, one of the strongest temperance counties ig the state. Uuo.