Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1890 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

Indianapolis Republican officers were succeeded by Democrats on the Ist. Ex-President Cleveland has promised to visit Martinsville the coming summer. The Standard Oil Company haß purchased ground and will erect several large oil. tanks at Crawfordsville. William Whitlock, a brakeman on the Pennsylvania Central, was fatally crushed at Fort Wayne Thursday. The hominy mills and a hotel in West Indianapolis were destroyed by tire early | Thursday morning. Loss $75,000. Noble county has a new dourt House, good bridges, a splendid jail and a fine county asylum, and no bonded debt j Crawfordsville has organized a Polio ; Board, and notice has been served that all gambling establishments must close. Henry Mowry, an aged farmer near Winchester, was struck by flying limbs while felling a tree, and fatally injured. The total enumeration of Huntington county shows 8,748 school children, of whom but 5,900 are in attendance upon the schools. W. W. Moore, of Peru, arrested at Indi anapolis while with forbidden company, has been dismissed from his church, and also relieved of his duties as chorister and Sunday-school teacher.

The soldiers of Hamilton county held a reunion at Noblesville, Wednesday, and opportunity was taken to further the service pension and disability bill now awaiting Congressional action. The old soldiers of Delaware county met Wednesday and effected a permanent organization. Resolutions indorsing Governor Hovey’s appeal to Congress in aid of service pensions were passed, Rebecca Fuller, an estimable young lady Qf Shelbyville, committed suicide by drowning, Wednesday, in Blue River. The act was prompted by ambitions she had not the money to gratify—painting and poetry. The high water has flooded the ponds on the Godfrey Reserve, near Montpelier, and thousands of muskrats which burrowed in the banks have been forced to seek refuge on tho ti'ees, where they are shot and killed by men and boys. The fur is valuable. Tbe barn on Joseph H. Kraft’s farm-, near New Albany, burned Thursday, and six blooded horses, one of them valued at $2,000, were included in the genoral destruction. Loss $6,000. The cause is attributed to a lighted cigar dropped in tho haymow by an employe. Oil in good paying quantities was struck seven miles northwest of Noblesville Thursday, and the indications are that a good oil field exists in that vicinity. Considerable gas was found with the oil, and the latter is now flowing steadily at the rate of 100 barrels per day. There is scarcely a poor field of wheat in Wabash county, and in many fields the plants are from four to five inches high, growing rank and luxuriantly. Farmers are apprehensive, however, that a . cold snap may nip the wheat, the growth of which has been forced by the warm weather and copious rains.

The annual report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction was filed with the Governor Monday. It consists of statistics relating to the school funds, attendance, etc., most of which has been recently published. It shows that the addition to the revenue from liquor license was $131,359 in 1889, and from dog licenses f 46,000. A son of Andy Huffman, near Nobles villa, was bitten afew weeks ago by a dog that was supposed to be affected with rab ies. The excitement quieted down and the matter was almost forgotten until last Friday when the boy showed unmistakeahle signs of hydrophobia and on Monday died in great agony, after developing a clear case of that dread disease. George W. Alford, State Senator from Martin and Daviess counties, who was sleeted to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Clinton S. Tharp, sets up the claim that he was elected for four rears. In this he is sustained by legal opinion, and it is likely to have an impoi - - tant bearing when it comes'to choosing the next United States Senator. Last summer Charles L. Hunter, a sec tion foreman at Greensburg, on the Big Pour railroad, was arrested, charged with reporting more time than the men under aim had worked, and keeping the money paid by the company. He was dismissed from the employ of the company and held to bail to answer the charge ~in court. In September the grand jury investigated the matter, but returned no indictment and he was released. Friday he sued the railroad lor $5,000 damages for falso imprisonment. Patents were granted Tuesday to Hoosier inventors, as follows: J. \V. Rader, Red Key, washing machine; J. Balsley, Seymour, clamping machine- for wood working 1 machines and clamping device for saw tables; J. M. Belote, Greenfield Mills, wire and picket fence machine; S. L. Bray, Evansville, combined jug handle and stopper; O. R. Davis, ludianap olis, cultivator; W. J. Hogue, La Otto, wind mill; C. A. Jones and C. L. Both well, Lagrange, swinging chair; J. Miller, Lafayette, car door; W. Nehering, Evansville, soldering-iron heater; H. Prather, Jonesville,corn plan tor; W. Brady, Sellers burg, separating apparatus; F. Siedentopf, Torre Haute, apparatus for making salt; S. D. Straw, Elkhart, wind mill; J. W. Titus, Eckerty, combined roller, harrow and marker; C. B. Wanamaker, Indianapolis, pencil sharpener; F. T. Zimmerman, Auburn, wind mill. The constitutionality of another law passed by the last Legislature is to be test ed. A suit by the State ex rel. Thomas R. Tislow, Mine Inspector, against Bruce Carr, Auditor, petitioning for a mandate, was filed in the Marion Superior Court Tuesday. The petition sets out that Tislow, Mine Inspector, is in every way qualified for his office and has performed the duties thereof; that the Skate is indebted to hims2,l9s for salary and expenses; that the Auditor refused to pay the claims, “The last Legislature,” said A. J. Bever idge, Mr. Tlslow’s attorney, “passed a law creating a Department of Geology and Natural Resources, and including in the department the officos of State Geologist, Oil Inspector Mine Inspector

and Gas Inspector. All of these but the Oil Inspector are paid salaries. The constitutionality of this law has beeir under consideration in the Yancey'-Hyde case and the'Collett-Gorby case. The Legislature inserted in the general appropriation bill the unprecedented provision that all moneys appropriated to pay the salaried of Miiie Inspector and Gas Inspector should not be paid to those officers in person, bat should be paid to S. S. Gorby whom the Legislature elected as Director of the Department of Geology and Natural Resources, and that if the Auditor of State should draw and deliver his warrant for these salaries to anybody else than Gorby, or if the Treasurer of State should pay the same to any cfce else than Gorby, they would be guilty of a felony, punishable by disfranchisement and two years in the State Prison. For this reason the State Auditor has refused Mr/Tislow, the Mine Inspector, his warrant, asked for in the petition, and these provisions will be tested by this suit.” James Anderson, Trustee of Jackson township, Blackford county, gave a light-ning-rod agent a contract to rod the sixteen school-houses in that township, at a cost of nearly $2,000. The citizens are very indignant,and in the Hartford City Friday to began an injunction suit to prevent payment by Trustee Zopher Evans, who was

appointed Thursday to fill the vacancy by c&usedfiy'Ariderson’sremoval. Five hunhundred dollars . would be a big price to pay for the lightning-rods, even if the peo pie wanted them, which they do not. In the meantime, the agent is hustling to get all the school-houses rodded. In the case of Hancock against Yaden an opinion was handed down, Tuesday, in which the Supreme Court holds that the clause of the law for the protection' of miners and laborers prohibiting contracts providing for the payment of wages in

anything else than money s constitutional. The opinion was written by Judge Elliott, and, after showing that the only question before the court is as to the validity of the provision of the statute prohibiting payment in anything else than money, it collates a great many authorities in proof of the proposition that the Legislature does possess, to a certain degree, the power to regulate contracts. It is held that this legislative power to regulate contracts extendssa far as to authorize the Legislature to declare that contracts shall not bo made in advance for the payment of wages in anything else than the lawful money of the United States. Tho Court does not decide that the Legislature may prohibit parties from agreeing to take property in accord and satisfaction after the services are rendered, but it does decide that it may prohibit the making of such contracts in advance of ,the employment. The opinion refers to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in the legal tender cases as laying down the rule that the G overnment may establish and may protect, by whatever legislation the law-making power deems expedient, the currency or money of the country, rhe case is said to be similar to those wherein statutes regulating interest have been sus tained as constitutional, and also to those wherein statutes establishing a standard of weights and measures have been upheld It is argued that the Government having established a standard of value it has a right to enact all laws deemed necessary to protect it, and that it Is proper for the State, so far as it can do so, to enact laws to aid in maintaining the established standard. The effect of the decision is to require employers to refrain from from contracting in advance for a waiver ofthe rightAo secure payment in lawful money, and to require them to pay in money, unless, after the wages have been earned, the parties mutually agree that property shall be accepted in accord and satisfaction of the sum due for wages previously earned. If the agreement to receive payment on property is made before the wages are earned, it Is void and statute applies, but that the delivery of property under such an agreement will notdefeat the :i right of the miner or laborer to demand his wages in lawful money of the United States.

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. ■ The Twenty eighth annual meeting of the State Board of Agriculture was held at Indianapolis, Tuesday and Wednesday The. session was opened with the annual address of President J. N. Davidson, who began by saying that during the past year the results from the fields had been gratifying. Referring then to the conditions that attend all classes of home industries, ho said some wore new and complicated. “This is an age of trusts, combines and al liances,” he continued, “of lock-outs and strikes; of secret syndicates and conclaves of centralized capital against the producer of raw material and the necessaries of life; an age of rapid transit and hurried manufac ture; of adulterated food, medicine and liquors. Shoddy clothing and quack nostrums are found on every hand.” But in regard to the Twine Trust, whbh is so peculiarly related to the interests of farmers, he hoped that the efforts to establish local manufacturers of twine would be successful. The production of everything necessary for home consumption, he declared, is the most potent influence against trusts. “If wheat and corn are produced at a loss, raise less,” he continuod. “If hogs and cattle are too low in price, breed fewer and better. Horses are in steady etc and, while she3p, from which two coupons a year may be clipped, are always good property. Low prices in any commodity are followed by a cry of trusts and corners. Importers are sure of a markes before investing capital, and so the fanner should be equally wary in regard to his productions.” The Secretary’s and Treasurer’s reports showed following facts: The general expenses had been $23,443.60: expenses of construction and repairs, $1,973.88; current expenses, $3,497.19, and premium awards $10,200. The total number of entries at the last fail were given at 5,847, there being 508 more than at any previous exhibition. Cash on hand Jan. 1, 1889, $204.49, receipt?, from all sources during the yehr, $45,838. 95; total, JM6, 103.64; total disbursements, $39,691.01; balanoe on hand, 16,411.63. ’ Governor Hovey made a brief address. He bad been trying to conduct a farm for twenty five years, but had never mafleany

money out of it. Continuing, he spoke o lessons about irrigation which he hat learned during his stay in Pern, and dwel upon the application of the same ideas fit the farmers of this country. The farmer: of Indiana, it seemed to him, should some what change their methods of land cult! vation, as there appeared to be a disposi tjon to cultivate too much land. The election of eight members of tiu board, to fill vacancies caused by expir ation of terms, was held at l:3o*p. m., resulting in the re-election ’of all the old members, as follows: First district, Robert Mitchell; second district, W. W. Berry; third district, J. Q. A. Seig; fourth district W. B. Seward; eight district, S. W. Dun gan; fourteenth district, J. A. McClung; fifteenth district, W. A. Banks; sixteentl district, R. M. Lockhart. The only oppo sitionwas to Messrs. Seward, of th< fourth district; Dungan, of the ‘eighth, and MeClung, of the fourteenth, but thos< gentlemen were re-elected by decided majorities. The board Thursday afternoon, by an al most unanimous vote, abolished the Wo man’s State Fair Association. Tworea sons were given, first, that the board had no legal right to delegate part of its dutiei to an outside authority, and second, be cause 4he woman’s association has not been well managed. It is charged that thj association, while meant to be a State body, has been confined almost to a single ward in this city, and people outside refuse t< exhibit goods, believing there has been s ring of ladies in control. It also costs-tgr muoh, one member said. W. A. Banks, of La Porte, was elected president of th< board; Thomas Nelson, of Rockville, vice president, and the other officers romaiu the same. The new executive committee men are J. M. Boggs, J. N. Davidson, S, W. Dungan aDd E. H. Poed.