Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1891 — INDIANA LEGISLATURE. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA LEGISLATURE.

Ths Senate on the 3rd indefinitely postponed, after long discussion, the bill electing school trustees by popular vote. A resolution looking to the investigation of certain officers connected with the Central Insane Hospital was The following bills were passedi Te permit certain corporations to change their names by mere resolution ; permitting administrators to-sell personal property at private sale; anthnrirlnr establishment of city courts; providing for the construction and repair of five gravel roads; providing for correction es errors ia ditch surveys. Several bilis were introduced. The House passed the following bills: Relating to settlement and distribution ol decedents" estates ; to prevent adulteration of oirgbum; two bills for the payment of Lockman & Scherer for pavements; fixing license of >2OO for dealers of cigarettes ; re quiring hedges to be trimmed once a year; enabling certain counties to fund their indebtedness; amending the act relative to public offenses and their punishment; requiring State institutions to purchase native live stock for food consumption at such institutions; to prevent adulteration of candy; making it unlawful for officer* of State institutions to appropriate any of the rights, privileges, fragments, slops, offals, etc., of the institutions; extending time for cleaning ditches; also three other unimportant bills The wife-beating bill failed to pass by 6 votes. The Senate on the 4th passed bills as follows: Relating to street car companies in Indianapolis; defining arson; authorizing cities and towns to lay out. parks and publip grounds; relating to assessment of real estate in towns of more than 2,000 to defray cost of street improvement; requiring foreign corporations to file copy of charter if doing business in this State; legalising Lafayette Union Railway and aid voted it. The House and Senate committees on fees and salaries of State and county officers met pa the 4th. The sub-committee which has been at work for three weeks preparing a bill reported a measure which will probably be recommended for passage in both branches It makes no allowance of fees except a percentage to certain State officers, and provides that the Governor shall receive an annual salary of »,000. To tho Secretary, Auditor and Treasurer of State >3,500 each is to be paid, with 11 per cent, of all fees collected by them; clerk of the Supreme Court, >3,000, with 10 per cent, of fees; Superintendent of Pub'ic Instruction, >2,500; Governor’s private secretary, and all chief deputies in State offices, >1,200; Deputy Attorney General, >1,500; clerks and assistants from >6OO to >1,200. As to the countyofficers, there are to be nine classes, based on population in 1890, the first being of counties having from 10,000 to 15,000; second.ls,ooo to 30,000; third, 20,000 to 25,000; fourth, 25,000 to 80,000; fifth; 30,000 to 40,000; sixth, 40,000 to 50,000; seventh, 50,000 to 60,000; eighth, 60,000 to 70,000; ninth, above 70,000, The salary for the first is to be fl,* 000 annually, and for the second >1,250,; and from that there are gradations up to >3,250 for the highest class. In counties in yvhSoh there is a popuiation in excess of 20,000 and up to 70,000, the county officers are to receive, in addition to the salaries named, >SO for each additional 1,000 inhab. itants over the twenty thousand limit. In counties of more than 70,000 population the officers are to get >3,250 salary and >25 for each additional 1,000 inhabitants. All fees of every kind are to be paid into the conns ty treasuries. The number and compensation of the deputies in the various offices are to be fixed by the boards of county commissioners, and such deputies are to receive from >1.50 to >4 a day, the latter to be paid only to the clerks in the various courts of Marion county. The pay of subordinate county officers is not to be interfered with, with the exception that that of County Superintendents is to be reduced from >4 to >3 a day. Under this bill the Auditor, Treasurer, Clerk and Sheriff of Marion county would receive annual salaries of about 55,00' each. The House devoted several hours to debate on the bill requiring all foreign life, fire and accident insurance companies doing business in Indiana to keep on deposit with the Auditor of State >k),000 or its equivalent, which shall be taxed. The bill was engrossed. Several bills were introduced. The following bills were passed: Appropriating >8,032.31 to pay for pavement; providing that deputy county sura veyors shall have same powers in certain cases as their chiefs. The Senate on the sth passed an ant - trust bill. The bill fixing legal interest at 6 per eent. was killed. ANTI*TRUST BILL. The Senate on the sth passed Senator Shockney’a anti-trust bill by a vote of 39 to 6. i The bill is a sweeping and stringent measure, as may be seen from the following extracts: “All trusts, pools, contracts, arrange ! ments or combinations now existing or hereafter made between any person or per sons and one or more corporations, made with a view or which tend to prevent full > and free competition in the production | manufacture or sale of any article of dos mestic growth, production or manufacture 1 or in the importation or sale of any article 1 grown, produced or manufactured in any other State or country, or which are de* signed or tend to fix, regulate, limit or reduce the prodaction, manufacture or sale, or to fix, regulate, increase, or reduce the price of any article of growth, production, or manufacture, or which are designed or tend in any way to create a monopoly, are hereby declared to be conspiracies to defraud, to be unlawful,against public policy and void. “All persons entering into or continuing in any such trust, pool, contract, arrange- ' ment, agreement or combination, either on his own account or as agent or attorney foi another, or as an officer, agent or stockholder of any corporation, or in any capacity whatever, shall be deemed gnilty of a conspiracy to defraud, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not les* thah >I,OOO nor more tbsn >IO,OOO, and imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than two years per more than five years. “AU persons and corporations, and the officers and stockholders of all corpora.

ties* that shall become or eeatimM to be members of or in any way connected with or concerned in ar r such trust, pool,contract, agreement, arrangementoreombina* Uon shall be jointly and severally liable to pay all debts, obligations and liabilities Of each and every person and and corporation that may become or continue a membep thereof, connected therewith or concerned therein, aa fully as if all were partners in the creation of suck debts, obligations an . liabilities.” The bill also provides that if any corpora tion orgauized under the laws of this State 'or any officer or stockholder thereof, shall become* member of any organization tn l he prohibitedlist, its charter shall be forfeited, and there are yet other penalties and restrictions provided. The House passed bills as follows: Lima iting right of appeal to Supreme Court to casesinvolving over>100; reducing stenog* rapher’scharges in criminal cases; providing change of venue in criminal cases; for the protection of miners, regulating the weighing of coal; to prohibit persons not entitled from wearing G. A. R badges; repealing the bill which exempts from taxation tracts of 5 acres or more within city limit*: reducingbond of Treasurer of Pur» due University; eliminating from public offenses what is known as “attempt to pro*, voke.” - —— The only bill passed in the Senate on th* 6th was to reimburse officers of the Northern Insane Hospital for money advanced to carry on that institution. The following bills were introduced; To regulate loaning of money by foreign companies, to amend the liquor law, to pros vide for the payment of two warrants aggregating >7,640 in favor of Wm. H. Drapier, making the legal rate of interest 6 per cent , anfl allowing 7 by special contract; to supplement the law regulating the mining and manufacturing organizations; to make county clerks, recorders, sheriffs, treasurers and auditors ineligible for more than one term in succession, and making the above officers ineligible to any other office without the lapse of a term; to en- i able city clerks and treasurers to place property on the tax dudlicate the same as < county auditors; to prevent one natural gas company from attaching its pipes to tha i of another company; to regulate the em- . ploymentof persons in the benevolent in- 1 stitutions; apportioning the State for leg" islative purposes; to amend the divorce . laws; to make the mechanics’, laborers> and material-men s lien law operative ; authorizing county commissioners to purchase toll roads when authorized by a vote of the people; authorizing the issue of ex, 1 ecutions in certain cases; requiring the filing of wills with the recorder for record. The following bills were introduced in the House on the 6th: Providing the manner of organizing and conducting insurance companies; amending an act creating a State normal school; amending an acl concerning the organization and perpetuity of voluntary associations—also, appropriating >40,000 for the Indiana Normal University: amending an act regulating the taking up of animals that run at large; also (by request): amending an act providing for a general system of common schools; concerning attorneys’ and collectors’ fees; amending an act for the govern ment of the Indiana hospitals for the insane ; concerning powers of cities to construct viaducts; also: amending the act regarding incorporation of manufacturing and mining companies so as to provide that their stock shall be deemed persona] estate, and that no such companies should purchase stock in any other company with I out the written consent of all the stockholders ; providing for the abandonment of school houses wherein the average attend-, ance is less than ten; making it unlawful to soli poisons, except upon the written prescription of a physician or surgeon, legally authorized to practize. Also: Providing for the employ ment of physicians and surgeons for township poor, granting * to such poor the right to select their own physicians; authorizing county commis- ! siouers to make donations and receive sub-1 scriptiona for the erection of soldiers’ monuments and memorial halls; amend* ing the elections laws by providing that in cases where persons cannot read, or are not able to prepare their ballots, then they shall be prepared by the poll clerk, with the rest of the board, and that such officer falsifying a vote of this kind shall be guilty of felony, and sent to the State prison. Senate not in session on the 7th. The House devoted the day to the discussion of bills. Several were advanced on the callendar. The bill to protect employe* of railroads was discussed at great length, and the report of the committee recommending its passage was adopted. LEGSILATIVE NOTES. A law similar in its provisions to Mr. Claypool’s bill passed the House Tuesday I requiring the purchase of native live stock ‘ for food consumption at reformatory, char* table and benevo lent institutions, has . been in operation in Ohio for several years. I and the court* have held it constitutional, ' In a few word* urging the passage of his bill Mr. Claypool said it was about the only measure of the sort for the protection *f f the farmer* which was constitutional, j Senator Moore’s gravel-road bill, passed by the Senate Tuesday, is believed to be I one of the best measures yet enacted on 1 that subject. It makes a board of county commissioners turnpike directors; provides for the division of the free gravel* road system of each county into three divisions, and places orrexttrectorincharge of each. The board is authorized to meet four time* a year; to make an itemized report to the auditor once each year; to establish rules and regulations for the government of travel and hauling; to appoint superintendents of construction and : repair, and a secretary to prepare the annual report mentioned. I Senator Ewing’s arson bill, passed Wednesday, considerably broadens the provisions defining that offense. Anyone who attempts to burn, as well as he who burns, any house, bridge, craft, fence, rick, stack, etc.; also, any person who burns or attempts to burn his own property for the purpose of defrauding any iusuranee company is held to be guilty of arson,and upon conviction shall be imprisoned not les* than two nor more than twenty-os* years, and may be fined In double th* smeont of th* property destroyed.