People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1897 — JUNKET EXPENSES [ARTICLE]

JUNKET EXPENSES

WHY A PULLMAN WASN’T USED BY ONE COMMITTEE. i Republicans Counting on • Successor to Senator Torpie Before Tbeir Eggs Are f Hatched—Nicholson Indifferent to Xemperanoe Legislation “Jim” Watson’s Little Scheme—Populist Members and the Bills They Have Offered Other Legislative Gossip. Special Correspondence. Indianapolis, Feb. 8. Junketing trips have been the order with the leg- ■ islators during the last few days. These delightful outings have come to be a j source of royal entertainment to the 1 solons. They are out nothing finan- j daily, as the railroad corporations fur-1 uish passes and the overburdened peo- j pie of the state pay for the cigars' and other luxuries that go to make the trip a pleasant one. When the joint i committee on benevolent institutions j took its tour to the institutions at Logansport, Fort Wayne, Richmond and Knightstown they went in state. The arrangements for the occasion were left to an informally designated committee of which Senator Collett, chairman of the senate committee on benevolent institutions, was chairman. The committee actually made arrangements for a Pullman palace car, which was to cost at the rate of §45 a day. The cor;(orations would furnish passes but they could not afford to contribute Pullman palace cars, and this extra expense was, of course, to come off the state. The scheme would have gone through had not the lieutenant governor heard of it. According to the story, he sent for Senator Collett and said to him: “Great Scott, man, this idea of a Pullman car must, be abandoned. Don’t you know that if your go skylarking ever the state in a'Pullman car there will be a howl from the people that will doom the party for years to come?” He not only nipped this scheme in the bud, but he also issued strict orders to Doorkeeper Pelzer, who chaproued the party, that no drinks or needless luxuries were to be bought on the trip, and that expenditures of that kind were to be conliued to cigars. His calling down had some effect, as the total expenses of the trip were,confined to §lB6. ❖ •> ❖ Already the politicians are beginning to figure on a probable successor to David Turpie in the United States senate. The record that the present legislature is making, the periodical turn in public sentiment, which is growing more and more every year to be a feature of our state and national political life, and every other reliable indication points to the likelihood that the legislature will be Democratic two years hence. In that event either Senator Turpie, ex-Governor Matthews, John G. Slianklin, John W. Kern or B. F. Shiveley will be the peoples’ representative. Senator Turpie has been a hard student all of his life and his declining health is probably due in large measure to this fact. During the last year he has bfeen inordinately afflicted with a nervous affectation which keeps him in continuous worry and precipitates at frequent intervals, especially while he is speechmaking, a shaking of the head that seems almost to border on St. Vitus dance. He is still a student, and while iu this city is rarely seen on the streets, spending most of his time in his pleasant but unpretentious library, walking with quick, nervous step back and forth while he dictates to a stenographer or attempts to solve in his own mind some abstruse problem of government. If he is forced by failing health to quit the senate ho will leave a record for scholarship and classic lore rarely equaled. The Republicans are talking of several candidates, notably J. Frank Hanley, F. B. Posey, Colonel R. S. Robertson, W. R. McKeen and H. H. Hanna of this city. The latter was the prime mover in the recent monetary conference. ❖ •> ♦> S. E. Nicholson, he of temperance law fame, is one of the rankest partisans in the legislature. He rode into fame two years ago as a temperance advocate, but he is shrewd enough to realize that he cannot win fame that way this year and he has dropped temperance legislation like a hot cake. It is true that he introduced a bill abolishing quartshops, but this was nothing more nor less than a buncombe measure, and Nicholson admits that it is as much sought after by the saloonists as it is by the temperance people. There is no question that Nicholson this year is as foremost in smothering temperance bills', pradoxioal as it may seem, as any other member of the famous temperance oommittee. The fact is, he is essentially a partisan, and he is a very shrewd one at that. He was speaker pro tem a good portion of last week and he “didn’t do a thing” to the Democrats. On every viva vooe vote he decided for the Republicans. He has been appointed chairman of the Republican steering committee, which is a sort of captaincy of the force designated to see that all Republicans are in their seats when political legislation comes up. An instance illustrating his partisanship came up last week. Nicholson was at the reporter’s table talking to the newspaper men when a standing vote on a bill was called. He looked around and saw the Republicans standing. “I don’t have any idea what the bill is, but I vote with the majority, ” he said, as he straightened up. Some of the reporters tried to make him believe that it was a bill extending the hour of closiug saloons from II until 12, but he looked as if he didn’t care a whit if it was. There are always schemes in political legislation that the people wot not of, and if some sort of X-ray photographic process oonld be devised to detect the •eom purposes behind some of the bills

»efore the legislature the result would is surprising. One of these, which attracted a good deal of attention during the week, was a bill which it is claimed was devised to create a soft and accommodating berth for “Jim” Watson of Rushville as soon as the latter’s congressional term expires. The bill was stacked up with a lot of others and it did not attract attention until the joint judiciary committee of the honse and senate began to drag the bills through the meshes of investigation. JThe bill is to make a separate judicial district of Rush county, whieh is now linked with Decatur. Whether or not the object was to allow the mushroom statesman from Rush to don the ermine at a fat salary is a matter of conjecture, but the committee evidently smelled a ~mouse and it has been given out from inside sources that the bill will be killed as soon as the committee has a chance to report. Watson’s friends in the legislature say that he does not want a judgship and that he intends to make the effort of his life to beat Henry U. Johnson for congress in the “Old Riirnt” district next time. Watson is a politician and not a jurist. He is an adept as a lobbyist and he has been doing missionary work in this legislature. He has an office in Rushville that he never stays in and he is in constant demand as a spread eagle orator at fraternal aud political banquets. •> ❖ ❖ The iudications are that the Populists will not be able to get any legislation through this Republican legislature. In the house the third party is represented by five men and in the senate by Senator Gill. The Populists have introduced two important bills. The first is a fee and salary bill introduced in the house by Mr. Haifloy of Amboy. It is constituted along the line £f a general reduction in the salaries of state and county officers, from the governor down to4;he lowest oouutv -office. Mr. Haifley says that public officers are public and that as such they should not expect' to be paid large salaries in hard times like the present. His bill provides that the salary of the governor shall be cut down from §5,000 to $6,500, and the office of attorney general, which has yielded fortunes that are almost fabulous in the past, is placed in the list at $5,000 a year. The bill provides for a reduction of one-third in all salaries down to SBOO, those at the latter figure and below remaining stable. In the senate Mr. Gill (Populist) has introtroduced a bill intended to correct the educational system of the state and abolishing the office of county superintendent among its other features. It has been referred to the committee on education. where it will probably remain. There is every indication that Mr. Haifley’s bill has been smothered in the house committee on fees and salaries. The author of this bill is one of the most prosperous farmers in Miami county.

The political gossips in this city, or rather a few who are on the inside, have it from what they regard as a pipe line source that Alviu M. Higgins of Terre Haute will draw a consulate to Switzerland under the new administration. The information has not become generally public yet and it will doubtless create a good deal of surprise when it becomes thoroughly known. It is all the more remarkable from the fact that the appointment will, it is said, come from an anti-McKeen source. Higgins was popularly supposed to be one of McKeen’s strongest lieutenants in the race for United States senate. He is a bright young lawyer and as ex-president of the state league of Lincoln clubs he had a wide influence. On the night of the senatorial caucus at a late hour an editorial was written in McKeen’s headquarters in this oitv charging Higgins with being a traitor to McKeen’s cause and attributes the latter’s downfall in a large measure to Higgins’ alleged machinations. The editorial created a great sensation when it appeared in print in Terre Haute the next day. Higgins has stoutly denied the charge of treachery all along, but the news of his probable appointment wiA be destined to set tongues wagging once more. ❖ ❖ ♦> Representative Babcock is willing to bring down upon himself the wrath of dog fanciers by his bill to curb the roaming propensities of canines. Mr. Babcock is a farmer who raises more sheep than any other man in Lagrange county. During the spring he and his son, he declares, take it “turn about” sleeping in the sheep field in order to guard the fold against viciously inclined dogs. Mr. Babcock says that there isn’t a canine on earth that cannot kill sheep all night and be found the next morning on the front porch lying curled up as innocent as a lamb. Mr. Babcock has already reaped some-fame as the author of a legislative apportionment bill that is attracting a good deal of attention. He is a short man with a chin beard, which he is fond of caressing, and side whiskers of the muttonchop variety. He has an inordinate propensity to speak to about every question that is raised, but takes all the drubbing that he gets good naturedly. Aside from his large lauded interests, he owns one of the biggest grain elevators on the Lake Shore road. ♦> <♦ ♦> The republican joint committee on political legislation is scheming iu every way to reapportion the state for legislative purposes so as to give republicans a majoflty in both houses. It is said that they had their bill prepared at one time but were compelled to do their work over again, as in their eagerness to get an advantage of the democrats they had created districts for 101 representatives instead of 100. The democratic minority in the house is so large and so able that it will block any radical changes in the apportionment, and this may induce the republicans to play reasonably fair. They are very anxious to amend the election law, and here again the large democratic minority will stand as a bulwark for the people as against any republican juggling.

L OUIS L. LUDLOW