Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1901 — INDIANA LAWMAKERS [ARTICLE]

INDIANA LAWMAKERS

It took a strict party vote in the House of Representatives on Monday to kill an amendment providing that murderers condemned to death in Indiana shall be killed with morphine, instead of by hanging. Dr. Passage of Peru, a physician, offered the amendment and the Democrats promptly made his motion a party measure. The motion was tabled. The proposed change came up in consideration of a bill fixing the Michigan City prison as the legal place for the execution'pf criminals. The bill has been passed by both branches and is now in the hands of the Governor. The bill has direct bearing in the case of Joseph Keith, the murderer of Nora Kefer, who was recently convicted at Princeton. Without such a law there was no place where Keith could be legally banged. The rules as reported by the Lieutenant Governor to the Senate on Tuesday are the same as last year, except that a Senator will not be compelled to vote on a motion in which he is personally interested. The majority of the judiciary committee reported favorably on the bill to admit a culprit to bail pending an appeal to the Supreme Court, except in cases of murder, manslaughter and treason. A minority report opposed it. The report of the committee on organization of courts was read in the House and adopted. The fees and salaries committee reported favorably on Jackway’s bill amending the law fixing salaries of county commissioners? township assessors and trustees, and asked indefinite postponement of Manifold’s measure to compensate certain circuit judges for expenses incurred outside their counties. The corporation committee asked the passage of Clarke’s bill requiring express companies to deliver packages free inside corporation limits of towns of certain sizes. Roads committee was favorable to Kirkman’s bill exempting Spanish-American war veterans from working on public roads, likewise that of Barrier preventing heavy hauling over roads at certain times. 1 Horsfield’s bill prohibiting desecration of the soldiers’ monument was reported favorably. A large number of new bills were introduced. The Senate committee that has been investigating the claim ofP Vincennes University against the State made a report on Wednesday, finding that the State wrongfully appropriated the lands which Congress donated for the establishment of the old Vincennes Seminary; that the money for which the land was sold was given to the university at Bloomington; that the State afterward pafd the Vincennes institution about $60,000, but the property sold was then worth $200,000. The committee then finds that the State is not under any further legal obligation to the university, but suggests a moral obligation which should receive attention. The House killed the bill providing for the listing of promissory notes and other money obligations with assessors, and making them uncollectable if not so listed. The bill providing pay for county councils on a per diem basis also was killed. The commission appointed to investigate the needs of the State institutions made a report, in which a large numbed of appropriations are recommended for repairs and new buildings.-Among other things it is recommehded that the deaf and blind institutions in Indianapolis be removed to some other place, where ground is not so valuable. A peculiar recommendation is that for money -for the purchase of mirrors for the prisoners at the girls’ reformatory, a luxury that they are now denied. The Legislature on Thursday passed to engrossment a bill whiqh will be of great interest to the people of northwestern Indiana. It was introduced by Senator Agnew and provides for a waterway from East-Chicago on Lake Michigan to Calumet river, to be used as a ship canal. Senator Agnew says be hgs heard of no opposition to the bill, whihe provides that on petition of one-third of the affected property owners the circuit judge shall appoint three disinterested persons to assess benefits and damages to pay the cost of the waterway. Senator Agnew says if the measure becomes a law northwestern Indiana will have one of the greatest of inland harbors. The Senate on Friday passed the bill providing for the infliction of the death penalty by electrocution. There were only two votes against the measure. A bill was introduced in the Senate which, if passed, will probably prevent the transportation of natural gas from Indiana territory to the city of Chicago. The present legal pressure at which natural gas may be piped is 300 pounds to the square inch. The bill provides, that gas shall not be piped either within or outside the limits of the State at a pressure to exceed 200 pounds to the square inch and that no pumps or any kind of artificial appliances shall be used to increase the flow of gas from the wells or to force it through the pipes In the Hbuse A. L. Cooper was seated as member from Clinton County and A. W. Kidmore unseated. The former is a Republican. and the contest was decided by a strict party vote. Bills to establish a minimum wage scale of 15 cents an hour on public work, making void a contract by an employe surrendering the right to sue for damages for personal injuries, and requiring safety appliances for steam boilers were reported for passage in the House. The bill prepared by the fee and salary commission, providing salaries for State and county officers, was killed in the House, being the second measure of the commission to meet that fate.