Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1890 — INDIANAPOLIS LETTER. [ARTICLE]

INDIANAPOLIS LETTER.

Indianapolis, Sept. .. The political gossips are just now having a good oeal of amusement in watching the attacks of the Evansville Courier and the Sentinel of this city on their party platform. The editor of the Sentinel was the chairman of the committee on resolutions, but somehow or other he failed in getting * platform just to suit him and the Courier has been a little off-colored with its party for a long time. The Courier practically accuses its party of cowardice, and declares that Democrats are for the broadest kind of free trade, and the talk of tariff reform means that, but the party is too cowardly to declare in its platform just what it means. This is bold and manly in the Courier and goes to establish the truth of one of the charges the Republicans have always made against the Democrats — that they were in favor of anything for expediency, and had no real oonvlctions, but were only after votes. The Courier has always been much bolder aud more honest than its party and ileserves credit for tearing off the mask under which Indiana Democracy has been playing before the public. That the Courier tells the truth when it says the Democratic party is for free trade of the broadest description, is evidenced by the fact that not a single Democratic paper in the State has denied it or charged that the Courier was speaking for itself and not for the party. The party has played under the guise of tariff reform for some years, but in Indiana there has been a growing boldness on that subject. When the Presbyterians fell out with the- established, church they so hated the forms and ceremonies of the old church that they thought it was the correct thing for them to get away as far as possible front...forms, and., ceremonies of all kinds, so they changed all the order of worship, stood up when the}’ prayed and sat down when they sang, and even cut the marriage ceremony to a few syllables. The Democrats so hate Republicanism that they think themselves in duty bound to go just as far as possible in the other direction from that taken by the Republicans. If the Republicans should declare that the Lord’s prayer was of canonical order, the first Democratic convention that would be held in Indiana would resolve that the prayer emanated fromßddha, or was the production of Bob Ingersoll. The Republicans are for America and Americans, for protection, hence the Democrats are for free trade, not because they have any idea that it would be a good thing, but simply because it istheoppositeof pro tectiom The Sentinel does not say much on the tariff question but sails into one ortwo of the other planks of the platform with a vim. To speak after the manner of men it has literally knocked tjie stuffing out of the plank on the State debt. That plank assumes all responsibility fOr the whole debt of the State, and then declares the Democrats are proud of that debt, and that for every dollar of it the State has got value received in the way of great public institutions. The Sentinel says the Republicans are responsible for nearly. $5,000,000 of the debt, and that the platform lies when it says the State has had value received for a single dollar of that $5,000,000. The truth is, both the platform and the Sentinel he about the matter. The Republicans are not responsible for a dollar of the present debt. When the Republicans first came into power they found a legacy of debt amounting to nearly $12,000,000, that the Democrats had failed to pay off in the reign of a quarter of a century. More than that a Democratic rebellion confronted them, which entailed a large addition to that debt. The Republicans, before they surrendered power, paid off every dollar of the war debt, and reduced the Democratic debt from $12,000,000 to less than $5,000,000. That is a part of the present debt of $8,500,000. If the State never got value received for that, the Democrats and not..the Republicans are responsible. Thus the Sentinel does not tell the truth when it says that it is a Republican debt, and the platform lies when it says the State got value received in the shape of great public institutions. Both the Sentinel and the platform lie in the other part ,of the proposition, when they claim that for the other three and half millions theStnte has had value received in the public buildings erected. More than ene million of it was borrowed to pay interest on the debt that had descended from a former generation of Democrats. The'Democratic Legislature annually eat up all the revenues of the State in extravagant appropriations, and the State officers were compelled to annually borrow money to pay the State interest or let the credit of the State suffer. The money so borrowed amounts to over one million dollars. The same Democratic Legislatures so increased the current expenses that at the last session it found a deficit of more than a million staring it in the face and it authorized the making of a loan to meet that deficit. So it happens, practically only a small amount of thp new debt has gone into the public buildings. But the fiercest assaults of the Sentinel have been directed at another plank of the platform. That section reads as follows: “Wb demand the adoption of a system of equalizing the appraisement of real and personal property in this State, »o the end that an equal and proper uniformity in such assessments shall be secured, for the reason that voder tkisting regulations many counties ufl compelled to pay an u«jus: p<portion of thp State’s expenses, v rich others us unjustly escapes." That p’ank was originally intended by the Demo-'rets as a sop to the farmers as th it Mass of citizens have been

claiming that land was bearing more than its share of the burtlens. The Sentinel comes out and declares that tax on personal property is a fraud and must eter remain a fraud, and demands that all levying a t%x on personal property be repealed, and says that in the near future all taxes will be laid on land, This is a bold attack of the Sentinel and a bold declaration of the' purposes of its party. How will it suit the farmers? To make land bear all the burdens of the State simply means ruin to the agricultural part of the community. How different is the Republican programme on this subject. The Republicans declare in favor of compelling personal property to bear its full share of the burden, and then to add to the revenue by requiring all corporations asking favors from the State to pay a fair price for such favors. Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania each have similar laws to that proposed by the Republicans. In Ohio the law produced last year a revenue of $146,379. In New York the receipts from the charges for filing articles of incorporation amounted to $198,982. In Pennsyalvania the report of the Auditor for the fiscal year ending Nov. 30, 1889, shows the collection of tax on corporation stock and limited partnerships to have been $1,953,771. There is no doubt but that a law requiring a proper fee on all articles of incorporation filed with the Secretary of State in Indiana would produce money enough to pay the interest charges on the State debt, thereby relieving the land of the State of that much of a burden. The farmers would, do .well to carefully study the two platforms on this question in connection with the editorial utterences of the Sentinel.

NICODEMUS.