Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1888 — TOPICS OF THE DAY. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

■ MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. The people are very apt to underrate the importance of mnnieipal elections. Because the salaries of the officers to be eiecied are small the voter thinks the office is of little or no importance. A more grievous mistake coaid not be committed. To the people the office of Township Trustee is of more importance than that of Governor. The Governor can not levy a penny of taxee or disburse a dollar of th 9 public funds, while a Trustee, in his sphere, is a little autocrat. A clever neighbor or a fairly good citizen will notalways makeagood Trustee. Many of the Trustees are called upon to handle large sums of money, much larger than they have ever had of their own. The Gffice is one that calls for the t xercise of sound judgment and a good deal of business capac ty. No man who has not displayed saccesefal business capacity in the management of his own affairs is competent to fill the office. The ballot and the public schools are the dearest interests we have. The Trus ee,~in a large sense of the word, has control of both. He is by law the inspector of all elections held in his township, and as such inspector has control of the tally-sheets and returns of the Board. What dishorn st or incompetent inspectors may do in such cases was fully demonstrated at the election in Indianapolis in 1886, when the boldest kind of forgeries were committed. Had Hisey and Schmidt been careful and competent inspectors their tally-sheets never wonidhave got into the hands of Coy and his gang. A fraudulent change of a dozen votes in a township may change the result in the county and rob the people of the right to choose their own officers, yet a dishonest or incompetent Trustee could readily permit such a change to be made.

An incompetent Trustee may ruin the schools of a township and thus injure all the children of such township. He ievies the tax and expends itandispractically responsible to no one. It is the taxation for local purposes that proves the moßt burdensome. The salary is very small, but yet men have been known to expend quite large sums to even secure the nomination from their party. But a few days ago a man expended SSOO to get the nomination on the Democratic ticket in a township with a voting population of less than two thousand. Every man must know that he could or would only do that" with the expectation of making it hack in some way and that way would be at the expense of the taxpayer. An election for township officers is soon to take place,and on that day there should be no stay at home voters. It is a striking fact that Republican townships are, as a rule, more economically and better governed than Democratic. In the schools a better and higher grade of teachers are employed; the tax levies are lighter and the improvements are better made. Let them be oompared in any county in the State. Ifthiais eo, what does it prove? It proves that as a rule the Republicans nominate a better and more competent set of men. As a sample of the difference in the administration of the two parties, and this only one out of hundreds that might be cited, let ub refer to a townshio in Jackson county. For six years it wss under Republican control. In those years new school houses were erected, bridges built and roads constructed. The average tax levy was forty-four cents on the one hundred dollars valuation. It then passed under Democratic mle and so remained for the following six years. No school houses were limit or other improvements made, vet the avitiVage tax levy was seventyfour cente. Almost every county will show a similar instance. Let the people think of these things when they go to cast their ballots on the 2d of April.

MATTERS AT INSANE HOSPITAL. Dr. Harrison, President of the Benevolent Boards, has since hiß appointment drawn annually out of the funds of the Bute the sum of $1,600 for services under a law which specifies that his salary ebould be S9OO and no more. He caused to be paid to Gapen his cotrustee, otft of the funds of the SUte, salary for services which were npt performed daring the year in which Gapen had abandoned his duties. Although he well knew that the discount returned by Mellen &Co , had been embezz’ed, took no steps to recover the money dueto the State or to secure the punishment of any person for the commission of the crime. Even after the adjournment of the last General Assembly he purchased the Hon. Franklin Landers, a large quantity of hogs, tongues, an article not suitable to be used as food for the insane, and insisted that the same should be accepted by the Superintendent and used at the Asylum in violation of an order passed bv the Board of Trustees, to whichrhe himself consented. The Trustee guilty of these acts at the time of his appointment was a man whose character was bad in the opinion of many of his fellow-townsmen, a man against whom charges of immorality, drunkenness, dishonesty and professional misconduct had been made which were believed by a large part of the community in which he lived; a man who, according to his own testimony, had snrreptionsly and illegally appeared before the Grand Jury of his county to protect himself from indictment for criminal mal-practice— a man who,just before the Senate investigation, had been seen drunk npon the public streets of Lebanon, —a man who confessed under oath the willful and fiaudit lent adulteration of goods *invoiced by him for sale.

These facts, and many others of like import, or shown by an overwhelming mass of proof; by the records of the Asylum; by the testimony ot witnesses of unquestioned veracity; by the confessions of these Trustees themselves, and in the evidence attached to the findings of the Benate committee which of itself shows the mendacious character of their report. In common with all good citizens we rejoice at the change in the management of the Hospital which will remove the Insane from each custodians as Dr. Harrison snd Mr. Gapen. Bat we wonld remind tbe people of Indiana that a reform depending npon the mere removal of one person and the substitution of another, will prove but a temporary and inadequate expedient so long as the eorrupt system of partisan control remains, of which the past management is merely an illustration. Even if the present untried appointees prove to be competent and faithful men, they

can do but little to eradicate the inefficiency of their subordinates so long as the latter are appointed upon political grounds, while any administration if chosen for political reasons is likely to repeat the experiences of the pne which has just been superseded. Abases and mismanagement are certain to appear at shorter or longer intervals so long as placeein our Benevolent Institutions remain part of the spoils of party success. Permanent reform can only come when appointments to positions therein are to demand upon the proved qualifications of the applicant, nnder a system of fixed regulations and qaite irr. spective of political considerations. Wo invite the co-operation of all patriotic citizens in our efforts to accomplish this reform, which will not on'y permanently parity the State Institutions themselves, bat will remove much of the incentive for that political corruption which is engendered by the hope of I lace.

STATE FINANCES. Shall we go on, as a State, borrowing money forever? This is a pertinent question just now to the tax payers of Indiana. The books show tnat the State debt-has ever increased nnder Democratic administration. • The utter recklessness of the methods of the Democratic party is well exemplified in the financial government of the State. In 1883 three new hospitals for the insane were ordered erected. They were to be very costly buildings. It is not necessary now to discuss tbe question as to whether they were needed or not, or whether the State could not have got along with a less number, or that greater economy might not have been used in their construction. The State has never been niggardly or mean in its charities, but the people have ever stood ready to pour out their monev like water to help the helpless and afflicted, and who is more helpless and afflicted than that one on whom heaven has laid its hand so heavily as to deprive him of his reason? The Democratic legislature was willing enough to order the construction or the additional hospitals but its recklessness is shown in the fact that it refused to make aDy provision to meet the ex-* penses of building. It was a well known fact that the income of the tstate was barely sufficient to meet the current expenses, yet out of that insqme, without increasing it they soughtro expend additional millions At that time the»e was a temporary loan outstanding,-which bad been renewed from time to time for ten years. The State bad been unable to save a dollar from its incOine to pay that temporary loan. All these facts are well known to the Democratic legislators, yet they went ahead and ordered the expenditure of m ore than a million dollars. They knew also that the current expenditures were yearly increasing while the income was growing less, and that unless something was done there would be an annual deficit. Ia 1885 they found themselves about run ashore. What did they do? Oh, the oredit of tbe State was good, bo they ordered another temporary loan of $l,lOO 000. They knew that even that large loan would not furnish money enough to complete the hospitals, but it was enough for the hour, and that was all they were looking after. They borrowed the money, but made no arrangements to raise funds with which to meet the loan when it should become due. Nor was that ail, but they even failed to make provision to meet the interest on the loan. The first interest that fell due the State officers managed to meet by exhausting the treasury and by calling on the counties for an advance. When it rgiin became due the treasury was empty and there was no money due from the counties, so the State officers had to go into the market and borrow $340,000. To eke out the fund for current expenses which had been exhausted an additional $60,000 was borrowed. To-day they are advertising for another loan of $340,000 with which to meet the next interest nay meet. Thus, in twelve months the State has been c impelled to borrow $680,000 with which to pay interest. Compounding interest is a ruinous business and yet that is just what Indiana is doing. How long can it last? Our debt is increasing at the rate of three quarters of a million yearly with nothing to show for it.

The new hospitals are completed but there is no money in the treasury to furnish and operate them, nor can any money be obtained except by borrowing, for some years to come. Tbe General Assembly does not meet until January of next year, and a new tax levy cannot be collected under eighteen months after it is made, so that unless the money is borrowed the new Hospitals mast lie idle until 1890. This state of affairs is wholly dne to the blundering stupidity of the Democratic legislature. To the people of this State this question ~igTme tfaat-ontrankganyt>r-aB-crrtlreisp-called national issues. Let every honest, conscientious voter compare the financial administration of tbe two-par-ties. 1f he will do so he be forced to vote to return the Statfi to Republican rule. INGALL’S SPEECH. Milwaukee Sentinel. __ The Republicans are very well satisfied with Senator Ingalls’s speech. In truth, they are somewhat enthusiastic oyer this speech, to which justice was hot done hv tbe telegraphic reports. He toid some wholesome truths in a wholesome way—truths which the people of this country should carefully consider. There are no Republicans who do not feel cheered strengthened by Ingalls’s vigorous kssault on the thimole rigsjing Democracy. Sofarfroha alienaimg the svmpathy of Republicans, Senator Ingalls has gained a warmer place in tbeir esteem and increased the regret that his residence in Kansas imnairs his availability for a nomination. Ingalls is a thorough-going Republican of the right sort, and he has the cheers of all through going Republicans everywhere. Hurrah for Ingalls! »

• Strong Circumstantial Evidence. The Epoch. 1 Husband—Wasn’t it very late last night when young Bampion left? Wife—Yes, very. Husband—And Clara is not up yet? Wife—No,poor girl; I thought I would let her sleep. Husband—l wonder if that yonng man really intends to propose to Clara? Wife—l think he has done so already. I noticed this morning when I came down that one of tbe easy chair in the parlor was broken.