Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1891 — RECENT NAVAL PROGRESS. [ARTICLE]

RECENT NAVAL PROGRESS.

Notwithstanding the white-wp.sh-ing report of the legislative committee which went through the motions cf investigating the affairs of t’b-N •rtheru_penitentiary. the facts still remain that- Warden Murdock, contrary at least to the spirit and intention of the, law, has been; putting large sums of money into his «wn pocket every year, I her the state ought to have • li&d, derived from his “,-lop tract.;" and further that, contrary to the law, he has expended money on iinprovemviits that he ought to have turned into the state treasury, and what is still more reprehiTisibie, lie has keptTarge sums of the state’s money on deposit in the banks at Michigan City, also contrary to law, and has, no doubt, been making a nice thing out of the interest paid him by the said banks.

The house wrestled with the proposed fee and salary bill several days last week, and then sent it to a special committee with orders to report not later than Tuesday of this week The bill as it was amended and sent to the committee, provides that county clerks, auditors, treasurers and sheriffs in counties of more than 10,000 and less than 15,000 population, which includes Jasper County, shall have salaries of §1,250 each and an additional §SO for each 1000 of population in excess of 10.000. Tlrismakes the salaries §1,300 for each of the offcers mentioned. The salary of recorder —is fixed- at SI,OOO and also with an additional SSO for each 1,000 of population, above the 10,000. All fees collected by these various officers are to be turned into the county teasury. In case any of them does not collect as much in any year as his lawful salary, he gets no more than he has collected, and if he fails to collect all that the law requires, he is held to strict account The number of deputies necessary for these various officers is left to the decision of the county commissioners and in counties of the two lowest grades, the maximum pay of deputies was raised from $1.50 to $2.50 per day. Another important change adopted is in regards to the time in which it goes into effect As now amended* it will not affect any officials now in office nor any now elected. One of the most objectionable features of the law as first proposed, was that df allowing County Superintendants, about the most important officers in the connty, only $3 per day. This has been stricken out and their pay left at the old figure of $4 per day.

The New York Engineering News says that,“less than ten years ago it was generally supposed, at home and in Europe, that if the United States could build the lighter armored class of warships it would yet have to go

abroad for the armaments of these ships; and the fact was that our manufacturers then lacked both the plant and experience required for making heavy armour plate and guns of the modem types. But both deficiencies have been «*ell and rapidly overcome. Our m-w ships are fully, equal and some of them superior to their ■European protntyq.'S; American' firms are already equipped to turn out the heavy armour plate, and i now we hear from- England that our guns are- the /best in the world.’’