498 



INDIANA. 



This provision is designed to protect the tax 

 payers and limit the amout that may be assessed 

 against them, and to which these municipali- 

 ties may he burdened with debt. 



The question was asked of the State Attor- 

 ney-General whether, if the first and third 

 amendments were adopted, it would be oliga- 

 tory on the Legislature to pass a registry law, 

 or only directory. He replied : 



In the event of these amendments being adopted, it 

 would undoubtedly be the duty of the Legislature to 

 provide for a registration of voters, but the failure to 

 do so, in my opinion, would not operate to disfranchise 

 the electors otherwise qualified to vote. In other words, 

 the central idea that the elections shall be held as pro- 

 vided for in the Constitution and laws can not be de- 

 feated by the failure of the Legislature to pass the re- 

 gistration law. So if the amendments are adopted, 

 and there should be no session of the Legislature be- 

 fore the next election, persons otherwise qualified will 

 be entitled to vote, although they have not been " duly 

 registered according to law." 



An act was passed to provide for the organi- 

 zation and support of an asylum for feeble- 

 minded children. The number in the State is 

 estimated at five hundred. It is intended by 

 the act to gather up the children from the 

 county poor-houses, and provide a home for 

 them where they may be improved. Parents 

 of such children who were able to pay their 

 expenses would be required to do so, or, if they 

 could not pay all, then one half of them. It 

 was stated that there were eleven s uch insti- 

 tutions in the United States, and the statistics 

 obtained show that 70 per cent, of the feeble- 

 minded children gathered into such homes were 

 taught to read, and 43 per cent, to read and 

 write, while all of them were very much im- 

 proved. An instance was given of a patient, 

 persevering philanthropist of Philadelphia, en- 

 gaged in the work, who took a child so feeble- 

 minded as not to observe for two years a red 

 ball rolled daily backward and forward before 

 its eyes ; at the end of that time it noticed the 

 ball, and at the end of two years more he had 

 taught the child to read. 



An act was passed which takes the power ot 

 appointing the boards of trustees of the asy- 

 lums from the Legislature, in whose hands it 

 has always been, and gives it to the Governor. 



The Woman Suffrage Association of Indiana, 

 desiring to be heard upon the matter of bestow- 

 ing the elective franchise upon the fair sex of 

 the State, the House resolved by a unanimous 

 vote to grant them an audience on February 

 25th, and to invite the Senate to be present on 

 the occasion. The report upon the audience 

 concludes by saying: "Whatever may have 

 been the feeling awakened in the minds of the 

 members, they certainly could not have failed 

 to be impressed with the earnestness and seri- 

 ousness which characterized the papers read 

 before them." 



A bill passed the House which provided that 

 all juries should be composed of six instead of 

 twelve men. 



Grave charges having been made that the 

 plan of the new State House was decided upon 



unjustly, and that the contract for the con- 

 struction of the said building was let against 

 the interests of the State, a committee of seven 

 was appointed in the House to investigate 

 them. All of the committee save one made a 

 majority report in detail. It sets out the 

 charges preferred before them, and the answer 

 thereto, and states that the whole action of 

 the board, from its organization forward, was 

 inquired into by the committee. They find 

 that not one of the charges has been sustained 

 or is true in point of fact ; that no corruption, 

 dishonesty, collusion, conspiracy, failure to per- 

 form duty, or improper discharge of duty upon 

 the part of the board or any member thereof, 

 is shown or found to exist. This report was 

 adopted by the House yeas 71, nays 24. 



The propositions to divide the State into Sen- 

 atorial and Representative districts, and also 

 into Congressional districts, awakened much 

 interest. The voting population, as shown by 

 an official enumeration recently taken, is 451,- 

 025 ; consequently the average number of vot- 

 ing population requisite for a State Senator 

 would be 9,020, for a State Kepresentative 

 4,510, and Representative in Congress 34,694. 

 A separate bill forming the districts for mem- 

 bers of the Legislature was passed. In the 

 Senate the Congressional apportionment bill 

 was referred to a committee, which made a 

 majority and a minority report. The minority 

 considered the measure impolitic : 1. Because 

 a new census would be taken by the Govern- 

 ment in 1880, under which Indiana will be en- 

 titled to additional representation in Congress, 

 and a new apportionment will be required; 2. 

 It would violate a hitherto unbroken practice, 

 and tend to a struggle every two years for a 

 change ; 3. The bill proposes to give 194,770 

 Democrats in this State nine Representatives 

 in Congress, while 220,072 voters will have 

 three or four. Amendments were made in 

 this bill, and the Congressional districts as 

 finally adopted are as follows : 



First Posey, Gibson. Vanderburgh-Wnrrick, Pike, 

 Spencer, and Perry. Vote, 34,350. .Democratic ma- 

 jority in 1876, 1,909; in 1878, 1,729. 



Second Knox, Sullivan, Greene, Lawrence, Mar- 

 tin, Daviess, Orange, and Dubois. Vote, 32,877. 

 Democratic majority in 1876, 4,388 ; in 1878, 4,546. 



Third Jackson. Jennings, "Washington, Scott, 

 Clark, Floyd, Harrison, and Crawford. Vote, 32,381. 

 Democratic majority in 1876, 4.474 ; in 1878, 5,948. 



Fourth Union, Franklin, Decatur, Eipley, Dear- 



l /~it _ n *L i j _. J T_.O? -*V i_ rtrt t-.*-t 



roe, Brown, Johnson, and Bartholomew. Vote, 32,- 

 488. Democratic majority in 1876, 2,183; in 1878, 

 2,525. 



Sixth Bush, Fayette, Henry, "Wayne, Randolph, 

 and Delaware. Vote, 33,348. Republican majority in 

 1876, 7,854 ; in 1878, 6,832. 



Seventh Marion, Hancock, and Shelby. Vote, 35 ; - 

 191. Republican majority in 1876, 241 ; Democratic 

 majority in 1878, 502. 



Eighth Warren, Fountain, Montgomery, Vermil- 

 ion, Parke, Vigo, and Clay. Vote, 36.810. Republi- 

 can majority in 1876.1,360; Democratic majority in 

 1878, 257. 



