Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1894 — The Depth of Degradation. [ARTICLE]

The Depth of Degradation.

A reasonably full abstract of the President’s message is given on an inside page. Next to its great length, the most notable thing about the message, is the president's of a financial system which is practically a & ieturn to the' old state-bank, ■wild-cat system, of old Democratic times. The Kanban city Journal complains that the Populist leaders, in counting their gains in the late election, have counted in the Republicans and all other fusionists who voted Populist or fusion tickets to oppose the Democracy. This is true; but the Populist leaders would be nothing but sos their claims and pr edictions.—lndianapolis Journal

• Particulars of the Supreme Court’s latest decision on the fee and salary law, will be found on an inside page. The decision sustains Judge Wiley, who held the law unconstitutional, so far as it re.ates to county treasurers, because of the omission of Shelby county, as county auditors and rec< rders are also omitted, as to Shell y county, the same decision will be rendered as to them, as soon as the question can be brought before the court; unless, which is jtio' w hkely still the Legislature will n peal the whole ungainly thing, a d pass a new law, this winter. The iaw as it- applies to sheriffs and clerks has been held good, Shelby county not Luing • in.: ted as to them.

Tha couo < t nors who were de’ lighted with the overthrow of the Fee nr.d Salary law are beginning to wondvi "<EeTe"afTer a) I they are ••at ” The decision haves in force no law of any kind regulating compensation and the officers are apparently work ing f<-\nothing. The Legislature in January vil of course make proper provisit n iut until that time everything wili je at sea. It was the impression law would gov ern ard it p more than that officers will be settled on that basis but there is nothing now authorizing county commissioners to follow that law which is repealed and without any real force except as a precedent.—Logansport Journal

William £. Curtis is responsible for the statement that: The United States battleship Monterey left the harbor or Fairhavenwhen she day-at anchor 600 yards from a co-1 dock and sailed up Puget sound 50 or 60 mihs to fill hex bunkers with Canadian coal from the Comox mine, near Vancouver, because she could get it $1 a ton cheaper there than on this side of the border. Why? Because the Dominion coal is mined by Chinamen who are paid SI a dwy. iim Fairhaven coal is mined by white men who demand S 3. It seems almost impossible to believe that a Democratic administration could sink to such a depth of degradation. Does the Whit-ney-Russell Coal trust’s interest extend u» the Canadian Pacific end of the line? Buying cooley coal in Canada is ns bad as paying a bounty to cooley sugar in Hawaii. Anything to down an American.— American Economist The quest urn of whether women will vote or not, when given the opportunity on equal terms with men was fettled as it never was settled before, by the recent election in Colorado,. There the women now have the full right of suffrage, on the same terms as met ; and all reports show that

they do vote when given the opportunity. There they took as great ah interest in the previous canvass as the men did, and were as weil organized, and on'election day they turned out and voted in as large proportions as the men. They also managed the Australian ballots as successfully, and in every respect, in fact, voted as intelligently as the male voters, and, it is needless to say, fully as conscientiously. The practical workings of women’s suffrage in Colorado' has given a wonders ul impetus in this movement for justice to women, till over the country, and we have no doubt but that the movement will now go forward with ever accelerated speed and that future ages will record as one of the greatest glories of the last decade of this wonderful Nineteenth century, that then all, or nearly all, of the states of the American Union removed that last and greatest survival of a barbaric past, the inequality of women, under the law. As Indiana was among the first states to adopt the ballot reform, so now we hope it will be well in the front in adopting thisatill greater reform and that the State Legislature which meets next month, will take strong action in this direction.

ST ATE SENATORS IN CONFERENCE The Republican members of the State Senate met in conference at Indianapolis last week to compare views upon subjects that will come tip for legislation at the coming bession. The work of the legislature was dii-cussed fully and a resolution was passed that the republican Senators would undertake faithfully to keep the pledges made to the people by the Republican State convention. It was decided to have the various State institutions carelully canvassed with a view to change for the better where it can be done by law, and, when this investigation shall have been made, to pass a law putting them under the direction of non-partisan boards to be appointed by the governor in time for the Senate to confirm. In regard to doorkeepers and subordinates it was decided to adhere strictly to the provisions of the statute as it now stands. This was given out so that a large number of persons may not go to the city expecting that forty or sixty men will be employed, as by the last legislature, in violation of law.

The conference was unanimous in favor of a new congressional and legislative apportionment, for which legal reasons can be given. In regard to the election law, it was decided to make no change except to allow each party to have authorized watchers present at the count. Senator Wisbard said after the adjournment: “There are many men of strength among the new members, and the Senate will do its share toward keeping the pledges of the party in platform and on the stump. This conference was called at the request of the majority Of the republican members of the Senate, and there are eighteen signatures to the call. Out of the thirty repub’ican members there were twenty-eight present. There was not a sylable of disunity during the entire conference, and there was not a voice heard in opposition to the policy of living straight to the letter of the statute in those duties where it is hard to resist pressure. The Senators were of one mind on the subject of a fair legislative and congressional apportionment. The apportionment of the State will be made on mathematical lines, and not for party advantages. I believe there is longer lease of power in keeping our promises to the people.” If there is any one thing that the people of Indiana are determined on it is to have a fee and salary law that will end the abuses of the old system and place all official incomes on a fair and honest basis.—lndianapolis Journal. The Journal no doubt correctly expresses the prevailing sentiment

in .the above paragraph. The people do not want to return, to the old fee grabbings system, by which in most of the richer and more populous counties, office holders, especially the unscrupulous ones, were wont to secure enormous incomes. But the people also want a law that will not discriminate in favor of officers in Democratic counties, as compare 1 with those in Republican counties, as the present new law undoubtedly does. Neither do they want a law which will reduce the salaries in the less populous counties to a beggardly pittance. The people are willing to pay fair salaries, for good servicesj They consider that the laborer is worthy of his hire, and do not expect a man to work for them for nothing and board himself. In our own county of Jasper, for instance, they do not want tef call good men to leave their homes and come to the county seat and manage’the treasurer’s office with its complex and onerous

duties, and great financial responsibilities or the still more complex and onerous, if somewhat less financially responsible, auditor’s office, for salaries at which no man can live and support a family, in fair comfort, after the necessaryoutlay for deputy hire. The old system was not farther amiss in its extravagant remuneration of officials in wealthy and populous counties, than the new law is in its niggardly scrimping in the poorer and less populous counties. “Neither riches, nor poverty;’’ neither extravagance nor picayunishnews, is what the people want in a fee and salary law.