424 



INDIANA. 



citing suspicion and leading to inquiry. An- 

 other clause of the bill will strike the fast- 

 freight and sleeping-car lines, whose property 

 used in the State has hitherto escaped taxation. 

 The railroad company upon whose line the fast- 

 freight cars are in use on the day of assessment 

 are required to list them for taxation, and the 

 same for sleeping-cars ; aud the act authorizes 

 that the company may deduct the amount of 

 taxes levied from their payments to the trans- 

 portation lines to whom the cars belong. At 

 present fully two thirds of the cars used in 

 freight service by the railroads doing business 

 in Indiana belong to foreign corporations, and 

 thus escape taxation, although used by the local 

 roads. 



The act makes the county treasurer and au- 

 ditor the county board of equalization, instead 

 of the township assessors, and they are given 

 full power to increase or diminish, add to or 

 take from, the assessment lists any property 

 which may have been omitted or improperly 

 inserted. None but infants and insane persons 

 are exempted from taxation, married women 

 who own property being compelled to list it for 

 taxation the same as men. Churches are still 

 exempted for their actual buildings and ten 

 acres of ground, and schools and colleges are 

 allowed an exemption for a campus of not ex- 

 ceeding forty acres. A provision is made for 

 the redemption within thirty days of personal 

 property sold for taxes. Another provision is 

 that if a treasurer has failed to make collection, 

 after attempting the sale of land or property, 

 when three years have elapsed, it becomes the 

 duty of the treasurer to transfer the matter 

 over to the prosecuting attorney of the judicial 

 circuit, who shall proceed to foreclose and sell 

 the property through the agency of the sheriff; 

 and if there is still a failure to obtain a bid for 

 the property equal to the amount of the tax 

 due, and no compromise can be effected, the 

 delinquent is to have the benefit of what is 

 called " a year of jubilee,"' and the cloud rest- 

 ing upon the title to his property is to be re- 

 moved. 



A whipping-post bill was favorably reported 

 in the House, by the Committee on Eights and 

 Privileges, all dilatory motions were voted 

 down, and it was ordered to be engrossed, but 

 failed to become a law. 



It was proposed to extend to the whole State 

 the plan for the improvement of the condition 

 of pauper children, which had been adopted in 

 some of the counties. There are about seven 

 hundred children of sound mind, between 

 the ages of two and sixteen years, in all the 

 county poor-houses. The execution of the plan 

 consists in putting these children under the care 

 of a matron, a woman of good moral character 

 and sound judgment. The children are pro- 

 vided with food and clothing, sent to the pub- 

 lic schools, and given home training and educa- 

 tion. They are as if in a home. No uniform 

 clothes them. They would not be distinguished 

 from any other children. It is believed that 



they would thus be cut off from old associa- 

 tions and be brought under good influence, and 

 would grow up into useful, industrious, and self- 

 supporting citizens. For the maintenance of 

 these children the matron receives not less than 

 twenty-five nor more than thirty cents a day, 

 each. In this home there are never to be more 

 than twenty-five children, as, when the number 

 exceeds that, a second home is provided. As 

 fast as possible the matron finds homes for the 

 children in different parts of the State, thus 

 cutting off their dark past and opening up a 

 hopeful future. The advantages of such county 

 homes are their cheapness, their simplicity, 

 the home feature about them, the personal care 

 instead of institutional, and the individual train- 

 ing each child receives. 



An unsuccessful effort was made to effect 

 the passage of a bill providing for the compul- 

 sory education of children. Some features of 

 the bill will illustrate the method adopted to 

 secure this object. The first section was as 

 follows : 



SECTION 1. Be it enacted l>y the General Assembly 

 of Indiana, That every parent, guardian, or other per- 

 son having charge or control of any child between 

 the ages of eight and fourteen years, shall be required 

 to send such child to a common school for at least 

 twelve weeks in each school year, at least six weeks 

 of which shall be consecutive, unless the township 

 trustee, or board of trustees, as the case mav be, hav- 

 ing control of the school district or sub-district in 

 which such parent, guardian, or person resides, excuse 

 such child from attendance, when it appears to the 

 satisfaction of such trustee or board of trustees that 

 the child's bodily or mental condition is such as to 

 prevent its attendance at school or application to 

 study for the time required, or that its time and labor 

 are essentially necessary for the support of an indigent 

 parent, brother, or sifter, or that it is being otherwise 

 furnished with the means of education for a like 

 period of time, or has already acquired branches of 

 learning ordinarily taught in common schools 5 pro- 

 vided, nowever, ir the common school of the district 

 or sub-district in which such parent, guardian, or 

 person resides is distant two miles from his residence 

 by the nearest traveled road, he shall not be liable to 

 the provisions of this act. 



The penalty for a failure to comply with the 

 provisions of the bill is a fine upon the parents 

 or guardians of not less than two dollars, or 

 more than five dollars, for each child not attend- 

 ing school, and the same fine shall be collected 

 for each day that each child is absent. In 1879 

 the number of school-children enumerated 

 amounted to 708,101, and the number enrolled 

 was 503,892, leaving 204,209 children out of 

 the public schools. In 1880 the enumeration 

 amounted to 703,558, and the number enrolled 

 to 511,283, showing that 194,275 children of 

 school age did not attend the public schools 

 a gain in attendance, as compared with 1879, 

 of 9,934. It was not known what percentage of 

 these absentees from the public schools attend- 

 ed private schools, nor what percentage were 

 unable to attend on account of sickness, poverty, 

 or other causes justifying their absence. But, 

 in the absence of proof, it was assumed that a 

 very small percentage of the absentees were 

 denied the privilege of attending the public 



