Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1885 — INDIANA LEGISLATURE. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA LEGISLATURE.

Mr. Hoclke’s olvil-servlce bill canto up in the Senate Fob. 2;., »as read i third time, and defeated by wrote of 2) to 19. Senators Bailey, Hoover. Magee and Peterson were the Democrats voting In favor of the bill. The following bills were read a third time: Relieving railroads from liability for damages tor animals killed in certain cases, passed; approving a contingent fund of s‘,otw per month to be used bjr the Super ntendent of the Insane Asylum for current expenses, passed; prohibiting the employment of children under 12 years of age in mines and factories. On the last named measure the vote was, yeas 25, nays 15,- so that it failed for lack of a constitutional majority. Mrs. Josephine R Mchols addressed the House in support of the Staley bill providing for scientiffe Instruction in the gublio schools on the effect of alcohol on the uman syste in. She spoke earnestly for fifteen minutes, and was attentively listened to. The Ho us \ daring the day, passed the measure by a vote of 5* to 3& The following bills were recommended for passage in the House : Supplemental to an act authorizing the sale of lands ; providing for the construction of bridges over railroads; establishing the Indiana weather service; providing fife protection at the insane hospital; abolishing ail distinctions of race and color made in the laws of the State: creating the Forty-eighth judicial circuit; in relation to assessments for gravel and macadamized roads; providing tor the re-election of a Reporter of the Supreme Court; regulating the incorporation of cities and defining their powers; providing for the erection of fish ladders; authorizing the dissolution of the Eastern Indianh Agricultural, Mechanical and Trotting Park Association; e*tab taking provisions respecting private corporations.

Bitxs prohibiting the employment of children under 12 years of age la mines and factories; extending the benefit of the mechanics' lien law to farm hands: to enable municipal corporations to hold and purchase real estate for sanitary purposes outside city limits; concerning election of Justices of the Peace and their powers; and to amend the drainage laws, were passed by the Senate on the 26th alt. Mr. I'oucbe'S bill to prevent townships from appropriating money to build railroads was defeated. Senator Mayer said there were eighteen east-and-west lines centering in Chicago which crossed Indiana, Not six of them were paying affairs, per se they derived their profit by forcing paying roads into a pool. Meanwhile the town-hips that had taxed themselves to build such roads under the impression that freights wonld be reduced bv competition had been deceived. The joint resolution proposing a woman-suffrage amendment to the constitution was defeated bv a vote of 25 to 22. In thd House several new bills were introduced. A resolution was introduced, which was adopted, authorizing the appointment of two Representatives and one Senator to call the attention of the Legislatures of other States to the importance of securing a uniform system of laws on the subject of marriage and divorce, and to consider the propriety of holding, a convention to frame such laws. The legislative apportionment bill passed after a long discussion. The House c mmittee to investigate the affairs of the Knightstown Soldiers' Orphans’ Asylum reported ofgt-ially that the charges preferred by Supt. Whits against John M. Goar, a Trustee of the institution, were true and proven, and recommended the immediate removal of Goar and White.

Mr. Atkins’ bill to divorce the Soldiers’ Orphans' Home from the Institute, for Feeble-Minded Chilren, and appropriating $50,090 for the erection of a new building, was defeated in the Senate on the 27th nit., by the close vote of 23 to 22. The following bills were passed: The militia bill, appropriating SIO,OOO for uniforms and equipments and putting the militia on a satisfactory basis; to leortranlze the State Board of Health, adding one member. Empowering cities and towns to levy taxes for building bridges. The bill appropriating SIO,OOO to Mrs. barak May, for sei vices rendered by her late husband sb architect of the new State House, was dedicated by a vote of 22 to 26. Subsequently, however, the vote was reconsidered and the bill passed. The special committee ap ointed to investigate the accounts of Senate officials reported "that Secretary Kelly and Assistant Hofstetter had be in carrying on the pay-rolls more employes than were allow d by Jaw, and that they have overdrawn the amount of the money due them for the entire session. Mrs. Josephine Nichols addressed the Senate (by invitation) on the necessity of the passage or the bill lor the education of school children on the off eats of alcohol and other stimulants. In the House the special order was the sicond reading of the Senate bills, and the reports of the House committees on them wire one urred in without opposit on. A large number were in this manner advanced to third reading, the only important amendment to any being that of Mr. Smith, of Tipi ecanoe, whch incr ases the pay of conrt stenopra hers from $5 to $6 a day. The Committee on Ways and Means made a majority report favoring the passage of Senator Magei’s bill for the continuance of the work on the three new insane hospitals; and appropriating $150,000 for the current year, $338,000 for 1886. and $40,000 for their maintenance up to F eb. 1,1887. Mr. Gooding, from the committee, made a very long minority report, in. which he recommended a continuance of the work on the Evansville asylnm and an appropriation of $190,000 therefor, and that tbe work on the Richmond and Logansport bnlldings be stopped at once, the materials sold, and the contractors indemnified for any loss they might sustain. The minority report was laid on the table by a vote of 46 to 22, Mr. Shively's bill for the regulation of the practice of medicine was discussed, and various amendments were offered, but all were laid ou the table at the request of the supporters of the bill, who urged the fa t that it wonld never become a law ir amended this late in the session. The following Senate bills were indefinitely postpon -d; Amending the common schools act; providing for the probating of wills or recording copies thereof in other counties; providing funds for the expenses of county institutes.

Mr. Maqee’s bill authorizing fore ign surety companies to do business in the State on the same terms as insurance companies, and empowering Btate and county officials to accept snch surety as bonds, passed the Senate on the 28th nit. Huffstetter, Assistant Secretary ofthe Senate, resigned, and John D, Carter, oi Orange County, was unanimously elected to fill the vacancy. Gen. Manson then said he regretted exceedingly that he had signed the warrants for pay in advance of some of the clerks and officers whose conduct bad been the subject of inquiry. Senator Smith, 6f Jennings, presented an illadvised resolution, to the effect that the Senate exonerated Lieut. Gov. Manson from all complicity in the irregular practice which had become common, bnt Fonlke and Yonche for the Republicans, and Magee and a half a dozen Other Democrats at ones rejected it. ’'Exoneration,” they said. "implies • suspicion, and the Senate has tbe most implicit confidence in its presiding offic.r.” A rt solution was introduced instructing the Attorney General- to take steps for the recovery ot all moneys illegally drawn by employes of the Senate. The Democratic caucus bill for Congressional and Legislative apportionment were introduced. The Senate bill regulating the public printing of the 8 aie was brought up, and witu it was read the message from Gov. Gray on the subject. The bill and message were referred to a committee. Senator Hiliigass’ bill allowing municipaliti g to pnrehas; lands for sanitary pnrpos s outside of the corporate limits, and legalizing alt snch pnrehas s already made, was read a first time and relerred, the Ho se refusing to suspend the rules to finailv dispose of it. This bill is general in its opeiation, but is thought 10 hsve es. ec a. reference to 1 galizing tbe purchase of the Sella- s farm by the city of lndianapo,is. Tbe Ho-, se th n took np bills on third reading. Th most important of tbem was one | ruv,fling that when a person is acquitted on any cri - inal charge on the sole g ound of insanity, that tact should be set forth in the verdicand the court shon d upon this finding order him to lip sen to the insane asylnm and kept there nndi further orders, without any formal insanity proceedings, and also provid.ng pnnlahm nt tor persons who are accessory to the fact, after th* crimes bill has passed. TheJnsane hospital bill was passed, appropriating s2gS.<>oo for ne\t year, ands2Bs,o-. 4) for tb following year. Ther were only two votes in the negative. Mr. Heimintroduced a bill prohibiting sir etralway iomI antes from working their employes more than twelve hours a day.

The British drink bill for 1883 foots np $628,386,375. The quantity aggregates 1,032,142,158 gallons. This would make a lake a mile long and a mile wide, with a of thirty-five feet, or sufficient to float men-of-war. The highest-priced clock in America is owned by a Wall street broker in New York. It cost $34,000, and was mads in that city. « Canon Fabbab wiU visit tbs United States next autumn. \ 1 ? *