Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1905 — GOVERNOR HANLY’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOVERNOR HANLY’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS

Gov. Hanly's inaugural address was of unusual length, and if given entire would till many columns of this paper. The Governor congratulates the people pf Indiana oil the fact that during the last twelve years their affairs have been so honestly managed. Gov. Hanly pledges himself to a strict adherence to the non-partisan management of our benevolent and penal institutions. “Above nil personal and party obligations, J ’ he says, “however sacred and binding they may he. 1 hold the good of the Slate, Rnd the welfare of its unfortunate wards.” There will be no removals of persons holding positions in these great institutions except for the good of the institutions themselves. Upright and eflb Cient service will guarantee continued tenure, while negligent and incompetent service will insure immediate removal. The Governor advises economy in the administration of the benevolent and penal institutions, though he holds, and rightly, that a policy that would make impossible needed improvements would be extravagant rather than economical, lie recommends the appointment of a non-partisan commission, two of the members to be practicing physicians, to consider the question of establishing a hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis. An additional hospital for the insane is Advised, and the reasons for the recom-

lutuidatiou are sot forth in a forcible way. The Governor also favors Ilu> establishment of a hospital for epileptics, and recommends an appropriation of Jjt 1 r»t>.<MM> for this purpose, which will be enough to make a beginning. The discussion of the financial problem throws much light on it. The present embarrassment, the Governor says, is due to the large appropriations of the last “Legislature, and also to an invasion of the general fund for the purpose of making payments on the State debt. During the last four years $521,001 has been taken from the general fund to pay debts not yet due. On this subject Gov. Manly says: Bonds were bought In the market with looney from the general fund In the face of the fact that there was sure to he a heavy deficit In that fund at the elose of each fiscal year. Debt-paying is commendable, but the present embamisswent could have been saved by 'conserving the general ffrnd and applying -x>nly the sink lug fund to the payment of the debt, especially so, as such fund would have been ample to meet the entire bonded foreign debt long before It would have become due. The revenues for the present year have been anticipated to the extent of $520,649. On the basis of present receipts and expenditures there would have been a comfortable balance in the general fund from which specific appropriations for the years 1900 and 1907 might have been made, were it not for the fact that flic expenditures for this year will exceed the revenues by $403,000. In addition to the need of money for the carrying on of the State's ordinary business, money will be needed for extraordinary 'objects, such as a new insane hospital, the epileptic hospital, ami the girls’ industrial school. The Governor recommends that the sinking fund levy he reduced to 1 cent, the other 2 cents of the present levy he added to the tax for general purposes: and he also advises that the general State levy be increased by l’a cents on the SIOO. Ib.th these recommendations seem to us to he wise. Gov. Ilanly speaks strongly of the work of the codification commission, lit* commends “the results of their labors • * * with the full confidence that they can, in the main, safely lie accepted." He also recommends that the commission he continued for another two years. The Governor's argument for close supervision of the private hunks of tin* State is unanswerable, “The people," he says, “whose earnings have been embezzled and squandered, together with every man engaged in holiest private hanking, of whom there are ni(nny jn the State, righfly demand relief at the hands of their Representatives." 1 The Governor, on the railroad commission question, urges the necessity; for sueli a commission, and insists that, to he of any value at all, it must have the power, not only to declare that a given rate is unreasonable, hut to substitute a tva~ suitable rate in its place, which shall stand till the subject is reviewed by the courts. The evils inherent in present conditions are pointed out, and the remedy is suggested. It is impossible to quote anything from tin* Governor's remarks on the pass

question. without quoting them as a whole. He urges the enactment of a law which shallAnnke it illegal for any public officer, State, county or city, to accept a pass from a railroad. Discussion of the Nicholson law occupies more space than any other one subject except the State finances. The danger of radical changes in the structure of so desirable a law. whose provisions have been passed upon in so many particulars by the Supreme Court, are referred to by way of caution, but the need of amendment of the remonstrance provision is declared. Under the present law, remonstrances being against individuals, must be repeated so frequently that the liquor interests nre able to wear out the people and defeat their will. It is recourroemlcd that the law be amended so ns to make remonstrances apply to any and all applicants nnd be effective for two years. “Such a remoustrance,” the Governor says, “will strike directly at the traffic, and.not at the individual.” That is what the law really means. Paragraphs on Leading Topics. Following are striking paragraphs from •he inaugural address on leading topics of State interest: These (State) institutions have been placed upon u plane far above partisan politics, and there this administration means to keep them. There shall be no backward step. I’he policy of the administration In regard to tlie institutions of the State shall Involve strict but sane economy. * • • Te refuse actual needs Is not economy, but extravagance. In behalf of the llflO neglected ones (insane) who sit In mental darkness amid unsanitary eomlltlons and unwholesome surroundings, without medical or humane treatment, and without hope in the hearts of the friends who love them, I appeal to you. The nature of the malady (epilepsy) Is such that those who are afflicted With it must be dented the usual privileges of schools, entertainments, society and employment. and are compelled to grow up into adult life Ignorant, idle, isolated and neglected. I lie Insane and the epileptics In the poorhouses and jails of the several counties uro already public charges, ami unless cared for by the State are destined to remain so indefinitely. There they are costing 40 to •id cents u <lny for maintenance. They can be maintained in a State institution at a cost of from 17 to “0 cents a day. 1 am persuaded that the time has come in Indiana when we ought to take these worthy and dependent children of the State out of the poorhouses, the jails and asylums, where they are a burden to the public and a horror to themselves, and care for them in a State institution, as becomes our wealth and rank among great States of the L nit>ii. liebt-payiiig Is commendable, but the present financial embarrassment of the Statecould have been saved by conserving the general > fund- and applying only the sinking fund to the payment of the debt, especially so as such fund would have been ample to meet the entire bonded foreign debt long before It Would have become due. The revenues for the present year have been anticipated to the extent of ?.VJSi,«4l).q3. " htle wc have been debt paving at an unprecedented rate, the needs of the Stated Institutions have been multiplying and canlo, longer be deferred. It will be better to meet these needs now, frankly ami boldly, than to shirk our responsibility by refusing to recogulze them, and leaving the helpless and unfortunate wards of the State In pi orhouses and tu Jails, charges upon the resspective counties In which they live. A rich and prosperous people will respond generously to the one policy, but I am persuaded they would be slow to forgive the adopt km of the other. The people, whose earnings have been embezzled and squandered, together with every man engaged In honest private banking. of whom there are many In the State, rightly demand relief ut the hands of their representatives. The employment of prison labor • • • in the production of articles to be sold by the State or used by the State In Its various Institutions, or by the political divisions thereof, has been demonstrated to lie practical, and of all methods least objectionable to free labor and production nnd most satisfactory to all the people. Having the power to make freight rates, nnd freight rates being the controlling factor In determining where and by whom business shall be done, the carrier becomes the master and the people It was created to serve Its servants. The same considerations that led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Cam-. mission by the Federal ’Congress and tor the establishment of commissions in other States, now make It imperative that a State railroad commission be created by this (leneral Assembly. There nre no more practical business men In the world than the managers of the great railway, telegraph and express corporations of the country, and these men would not annually give away to public officials In Indiana thousands of dollars In value of such favors (free passes) if the net aggregate results of such custom were not beneficial to t hem. ') Von onu end the reign or the lobbyist In Indiana If you will, and 1 venture to hope that you will do so. The right (of remonstrance against Issuing liquor license) Is limited In Its application to the individual seeking the license. * * • To the purple within such territory the prohibition of the business Is everything and Hie Individual applying for license is nothing. If a new remonstrance Is filed and the second applicant {for a liquor llccns-* Is defeated, the same performance Is enacted by some one else, ami so on, month after month, and year afetr year, until worn out and discouraged by constant litigation that never ends, ami from which there Is no respite, the people are defeated and the will of the majority Is overcome and trampled upon by the agents of the traffle, the unhollncss of which nil men, save those engaged In It. confess. This erpiilltlon Is Intolerable and ought not to continue, beyond the day of your adjournment and the publication of your enactments.

J. FRANK HANLY.