354 



INDIANA. 



townships, subject to the control of the county 

 superintendent ; and the superintendent and 

 supervisors in each county, in connection with 

 the civil engineer of any city in the county, are 

 to constitute a county board of supervisors of 

 highways, which shall meet once a year to dis- 

 cuss road improvements and fix the rate of taxa- 

 tion for road purposes. Road taxes are to be 

 paid like other taxes, and not worked out, and 

 are to be fairly apportioned between cities and 

 che country. It was the unanimous opinion that 

 no road law can be made effective that does not 

 provide for the payment of the road tax in 

 money and place control of road building in 

 competent hands. Another recommendation 

 asked that it should be made unlawful to haul 

 any loaded wagon over any public highway in 

 the State of Indiana unless said wagon be pro- 

 vided with tires not less than 3 inches wide, after 

 Jan. 1, 1895. 



W abash River Improvement. The naviga- 

 tion of this river has been limited by shallow 

 rapids near Mount Carmel, 111., known as Grand 

 Rapids, just above the mouth of White river, no 

 steamboats or barges being able to pass this 

 point. The importance to the two States of the 

 water way is shown by the fact that in 1890 the 

 freight carried on it between Terre Haute and 

 Vincennes amounted to 40,000 tons. In order 

 to render it navigable, the Government has been 

 constructing a lock and dam at rhe rapids. The 

 lock is on the Indiana side of the river, and is 

 constructed of large sawed blocks of oolitic stone, 

 put together with the most scientific masonry. 

 It is 52 feet wide and 325 feet long. The lift of 

 the dam will be 11-Jfeet, which will give slack- 

 water navigation for 11 miles. 



Disastrous Fire. On Jan. 21 a fire broke 

 out in the Surgical Institute in Indianapolis, 

 about midnight. A majority of the patients 

 were children rendered helpless by disease and 

 deformity. Nineteen bodies were taken from the 

 ruins, and a large number were badly injured. 



Political. The State Democratic Convention 

 met in Indianapolis on April 21. The platform 

 declared for the autonomy of States and econ- 

 omy in public expenditure, and against the en- 

 largement and concentration of Federal power, 

 bounties and subsidies in any form, class legisla- 

 tion, and Government partnership with private 

 enterprises ; and affirmed opposition to the whole 

 theory and practice of " paternalism." The fol- 

 lowing are extracts from it : 



We arraign the administration of Benjamin Har- 

 rison for its subserviency to the interests of the money 

 power which created it and its indifference to the 

 welfare of the people ; for its brazen violation of its 

 solemn pledges to the country to elevate and purify 

 the public service ; for its shameless prostitution of 

 the public patronage to the vilest partisan purposes, 

 as illustrated by the sale of a Cabinet office to John 

 Wanamaker ; by the employment of the Pension 

 Bureau as a party machine, and by the promotion of 

 William A. Wood to a higher post in the Federal 

 judiciary as a reward for his services in saving the 

 " blocks-of-fi ve " conspirators from the penitentiary ; 

 for its contemptuous repudiat'an of its promises to the 

 veteran soldiers of the Union ; for its wicked attempt 

 to fasten upon the country the odious and un-Ameri- 

 can Force bill, intended to deprive the people of the 

 right to regulate their own elections ; for its weak 

 and demagogical foreign policj , which has exhibited 



the American Government to the world as a bully 

 toward the feeble and a truckler to the powerful. 



We favor such a radical and comprehensive meas- 

 ure of tariff reform as shall relieve the necessities of 

 the people and crude material of our manufacturers 

 from Federal taxation. We condemn the so-called 

 reciprocity policy. 



We favor the election of United States Senators 

 directly by the people, and commend Senator Turpie 

 for his efforts in Congress to secure this great reform. 



We most heartily applaud the action of our two 

 last Legislatures in passing the schoolbook laws. 



We denounce the infamous conspiracy of the Re- 

 publican county commissioners, township trustees, 

 and other officials of Indiana, who, for the purpose of 

 creating unfair prejudice against the new tax law, 

 have wantonly and needlessly increased the local 

 taxes in the 46 counties controlled by them more than 

 $1.250,000. 



We demand that the Indiana Senators and Repre- 

 sentatives in Congress use their influence to secure 

 the passage of laws making greenbacks taxable as 

 other money, and making interstate commerce taxable 

 on the same terms as domestic commerce. 



The Democratic party of Indiana expresses its un- 

 alterable confidence in and attachment to its gallant 

 leader, Isaac P. Gray, and in the event that the na- 

 tional convention deems the nomination of Mr. Cleve- 

 land inexpedient, the delegation is instructed to use 

 every honorable effort to secure the nomination of 

 Gov. Gray for the presidency. 



The following were the nominations for State 

 offices : For Governor, Claude Matthews ; for 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Mortimer J. Nye ; for 

 Secretary of State, William R. Myers; for At- 

 torney-General, Alonzo G. Smith ; for Auditor, 

 J.O.Henderson; for Superintendent of Public 

 Instruction, Hervey D. Vories ; for Statistician, 

 William A. Peelle; for Treasurer, Albert Gall ; 

 for Judges of the Supreme Court, Jeptha D. 

 New, James McCabe, Timothy O. Howard ; for 

 Judges of the Appellate Court, George L. Rein- 

 hard, Frank E. Gavin, Theodore A. Allen, 0. J. 

 Lotz, George W. Ross ; for Reporter of the Su- 

 preme Court, Sidney R. Moon. 



The State Convention of the Prohibition party 

 met at Indianapolis on May 24. The resolutions 

 declared in favor of the issue by the General 

 Government, without the intervention of banks, 

 of a circulating medium of a sufficient volume 

 for the transaction of the business of the coun- 

 try in a manner which will be just to the debtor 

 as well as the creditor class, said circulating 

 medium to consist of gold and silver coin and 

 United States Treasury notes, each to be a full 

 legal tender for all debts, public and private, 

 and each to be taxable ; of Government control, 

 and, if necessary to control, ownership of the 

 public means of transportation and communica- 

 tion; of the removal of the tariff from the neces- 

 saries of life ; of the passage of laws prohibiting 

 alien ownership of land and the reclaiming by 

 the Government of all lands now held by rail- 

 roads and other corporations in excess of their 

 actual needs ; and denounced as infamous the 

 "age of consent" laws. The resolutions also 

 declared that all restrictions on suffrage should 

 apply equally to both sexes, and that the time 

 of residence for naturalization should be extend- 

 ed, and no naturalized person should vote wjthin 

 two years after such naturalization ; that public 

 officials should be paid by salary only; that 

 United States Senators should be elected' by di- 

 rect vote of the people ; that speculation in mar- 



