Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1902 — A FIGHT FOR FORTY-TWO YEARS. [ARTICLE]

A FIGHT FOR FORTY-TWO YEARS.

Equals the Record of the Children of Israel. OTHER ATTEMPTS AT REMOVAL. Never Did It Fall tor Want of a Good Majority. Goodland Herald. No longer shall the drums beat To please the favored few: The county seat is on its feet— Sound Kentlaud’s last tatoo. Forty-two years ago the 4th of September, 1902, the first attempt was made to move the county seat of Newton county to a more accessible point. Think of it! Two years longer than God ordained that the children of Israel should wander in the wilderness, since the people of this county begun the struggle for justice ! Nine years longer than the average life of man ! A new generation has taken up the fight where their fathers dropped it when the grim reaper called, and to-day, with a united front, are pushing the work to a conclusion. Since that time six unsuccessful efforts have been made to effect a removal, and in the first four Kentland retained the court house only by technicalities, and in the last two cases only by reason of an unjust law, violating the fundamental principles of our government, which deprives the people of the right to administer their affairs by a pronounced majority. It is nothing unusual for nations to consume years in accomplishing reforms, such as suppressing the trusts and combinations, which live upon the earnings of labor like the vultures and buzzards upon a corpse,.because a system of education is necessary, and that is a slow process. But where the question at issue is one the justness of which is grasped by the feeblest mind, the historical fact that the inhabitants of one small county in Indiana should struggle nearly a half century to secure that justice due all men, would be passing strange if our state wasn’t afflicted with a weakling legislature every two years. Even the “Old Boy” himself, .if he lived anywhere outside of Jefferson township, would grow weary and disgusted with the long drawn-out injustice, and in Satanic forgetfulness remark: — “The proposition is one in equity, boyt; its a good thing; push it along —to Goodland.” And still, there has never been a time in the history of the county when a good two-thirds of the people didn’t want the county seat removed to a more accessible point. The first attempt at removal in 1860 was backed by the required number of petitioners, but the prayer went before a prejudiced board of commissioners, and was refused. The second effort in 1861 was made with ten petitions containing 390 signatures, but failed because of a flaw in the money bond —a mere technicality that cut no figure in the merits of the case. In 1870 a petition for remoyel with 609 signatures was filed, but failed because some important papers were stolen. 1872 the fourth petition was filed. It contained the signatures of 952 voters, about one-half. A counter remonstrance was filed, afterwards withdrawn on account of insufficiency, but later accepted by the board. In 1876 the last attempt at removal by petition was made. The required number of signatures were attached, but again the will of the people was defeated. A failure on the part of the petitioners to deposit with the auditor the money required by law to hire an architect and pay expenses of damages furnished a looked-for technicality upon which to again defeat the expressed wishes of the people. This money was tendered the board, but they refused to accept it. All are familiar with the last two attempts of Morocco and Brook to accomplish removal under a law that is as illiberal and nnjust as the blue laws of New England. Although both towns fell short of the required per cent, both received a pronounced majority, and no one doubts but that either of the towns would have secured the required 65 per cent if it was not for the natural rivalry that always exists be tween neighboring towns. It is little wonder that, after all these years of struggle, many times defeated by flimsy technicalities, but never by voice, voces or petitions of the people, that the sentiment is so strong to day to give up all personal consideration and relocate the county seat at a more accessible point: nor strange that the choice should fall upon Goodland, which, although away from the center, offers convenience of access that cannot b<\duplicated by any othef town in the copnty.