Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1901 — STATE SOLONS MEET. [ARTICLE]

STATE SOLONS MEET.

INDIANA LEGISLATURE BEGINS ITS WORK. Body -Meets in Biennial Session, Effects Organization, and Hears the Message of Retiring Governor Mount —Important Measn -es lip for Consideration. Indianapolis correspondence: The Forty-Second General Assembly of Indiana, which meets once in two years for a sixty-day session, convened at 10 o’clock Thursday. The feature of the firet session was the farewell message of Gov. Mount. The message dealt with State affairs in an exhaustive manner, the Governor complimenting the people of the commonwealth on the satisfactory condition of State finances.

One of the principal recommendations made in the messuge was for stringent laws by which Indiana lynchers can be convicted. The Governor said that the people of Indiana feel keenly the sting of reproach and the justice of the criticism heaped upon the State by reason of the brutal lynehings that have dishonored her good name. A mob is an assembly of lawless men acting in defiance of law. Gan such men administer justice? Lax enforcement of law brings its fruitage of contempt for law. The remedy, says Gov. Mount, must be found through the eo-operatiou of good citizens in demanding a rigid enforcement of the law and'not through mob violence.

The Governor favors the election of United States Senators by popular vote, and on the subject of kidnaping the message says: “Where the kidnapers have ifo legal or blood claim, where the abduction is for ransom or for any other unlawful purpose, it should be made in extreme cases punishable by death or imprisonment for life.” ; The Legislature this winter is Republican in both branches. In caucus Wednesday night the two houses organized: Senate —President, pro tern., Will R. Wood, Lafayette; secretary, W. W. Huffman, Anderson; assistant secretary, Harmon Hutson, Indianapolis; doorkeeper, C. Pelzer, Boonville. House —Speaker, Samuel R. Artman, Lebanon; clerk, William Essman, Indianapolis; assistant clerk, It. B. J. Shafer, South Bend; doorkeeper, W. T. Murray.

The Democratic nominations were: Speaker of the House, C. E. Davis; principal clerk, R..F. Stewart; president pro tem. of the Senate, Ephraim Inman; principal secretary, Bayard Gray. Important bills will provide for a new primary law, for an increase in the Governor’s salary from $5,000 to $7,500, and for new charters for smaller cities.

The House and Senate were in session buit a few moments Friday, and each provided for holding a joint convention on Monday, when the votes cast for Governor and Lieutenant Governor will be canvassed and the results declared.