HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
SATURDAY, April 16, 1881--10:30 a. m.The LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR took the chair at 10:30 a. m., pursuant to adjournment.
TO WAIT ON THE GOVERNOR.
On motion by Mr. LANGDON, the reading of the journal was dispensed with, and the Chair was ordered to appoint a Committee of Three Senators, to act with a like Committee on the part of the House, to wait upon the Governor and ascertain from His Excellency whether he has any further communication to make to this session.
Messrs. Langdon, Comstock and Viehe were appointed such Committee.
Mr. LANGDON, for the Committee, subsequently reported the Governor had no further communication to make.
BREVIER LEGISLATIVE REPORTS.
The resolution reported from the Judiciary Committee, and pending at the adjournment yesterday, authorizing the continuation of the publication of the Brevier Legislative Reports, was adopted, with an amendment ordering 750 copies sent to members by the Secretary of State.
EXTRA PAY, ETC., ETC.
Resolutions were adopted allowing $30 extra to four Revision Clerks and $165 to Miss Bertie Clawson as Copying Clerk during the regular session; $750 were allowed Marion County for one-half expense of gas, water, Committee Rooms, etc., and $22 were allowed Mr. Langstaff, an Assistant Doorkeeper, for acting as Doorkeeper for a Committee.
Mr. COMSTOCK moved that the Senate adjourn sine die.
THE PRESIDENT'S VALEDICTORY.
Thereupon the LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR said:
SENATORS--Before I declare the the Senate adjourned, permit me to say in the way of a parting word that I am thankful to you on account of your aid to your presiding officer in the performance of the difficult task he has had before him. Coming, as he did, without a day's legislative experience, and being able to go through an hundred days' session and not a single difference of opinion existing between the Chair and the Senate is a pleasing fact to me, and it could only have been brought about but from your uniform courtesy and desire "to do unto others as you would have others do unto you."
You have had a greater amount of work to perform than any other Legislature within the history of the State, and I think the legislative records bear mark to the statement that you have done more labor than any of your preceding bodies. I wi 1 not undertake to tabulate your work, for it is known to you all, and is now a part of the history of the Commonwealth, and we now have every reason to believe that your work will receive the approval of the 2,000,000 people whom you represent.
Our associations for the last two sessions have been among the most pleasant of my life, and when I have grown older and turn with an eager eye and look upon the pathway in the plane of my life, these last hundred days will be like a beautiful oasis on either side thereof
One word more. If anything has transpired in your deliberations, during the heat of debate or in the excitement of the moment, that will in any manner tend to mar the memory of your associations here, leave it behind you when you pass out over the doorsteps of this chamber; let it be blotted from the tablets of our memory; let it be buried in the grave among other things which are forgotten. It shall be so with me. May God speed you all in your life work. I declare the Senate adjourned sine die.
And so the Senate of the first special session of the Fifty-second General Assembly of Indiana adjourned without day.
DEFERRED DEBATE--FRIDAY, THE 14TH.
Mr. CHAPMAN, just before the adjournment of the afternoon session, called up his motion, entered the hour previous, that the Senate concur in the House amendments to the bill [S. 325] concerning offices and officers. He said this bill concerning officers and offices is one that emanated from the Board of Codifiers,and is one of the page: 188[View Page 188] most important ones that have come before the1 Senate for action. The Senator from Jackson [Mr. Brown], in a recently delivered eulogium on the Board of Codifiers, characterized this bill as one of the best which had come from that Board. The question now is, shall this bill pass the Senate and become a law? The Senate spent much valuable time on this bill, and the House has done the same, and has sent it back to the Senate with important amendments thereto. If the Senate refuse to concur in the amendments of the House, the passage of this bill is endangered, if not absolutely defeated. It will go back to the House, and it is fair to assume that that body will not recede from its amendments. Then a Committee of Conference will follow. and consequent meetings of such Committee in deliberation. When the Committee has agreed, the reports are made to the separate Houses, and under the rules must have a two-thirds vote to change the rules, or lie over for one day, and the result is the bill is dead. The amendments which are likely to excite opposition are those embraced in what is known as the fee and salary bill [S. 369]. The provisions of these amendments have been before the Senate for fourteen days, and are well known to all who have cared to inform themselves about them. These amendments are germain to and belong in this bill. The subject matter of fees and salaries was embraced in this bill originally. The Board of Revision desired, and presumably still desire, that the matters relating to fees and salaries should be in this bill. The Senate ought to act on it now and finally, and in such a way as will preserve that feature of the bill and all other features of the bill, so that the work shall not come to naught. If the Democrats choose to array themselves in a body against this fee and salary bill it may as well be known now as at any time, and then the people may decide as to their action. When this vote comes to be taken let it be understood that a vote to refuse to concur in the House amendments is a vote to defeat all legislation on this subject.
Mr. SPANN said: I have taken such a stand upon this question that I deem it due to myself to go fairly upon the record. If I deemed it a question of vital importance to the Republican party I would sink all personal feeling and vote with the Republicans; but I do not consider it a political question. It is one of justice, to the tax-payer and justice to the office-holder, and when a bill shall have been formulated of equal justice to tax-payer and office-holder it shall have my support; but I shall not vote for a bill which ought to be entitled "A bill for the relief of Marion County at the expease of the smaller Counties of the State." The fact is that the salaries of the Clerks and Sheriffs, the officers who do the work, is decreased under this bill. The fee bill already passed by the Senate and this day passed by the House does away with constructive mileage and fees of Clerks and Sheriffs. I make my objections to this bill, and yet because I stand here boldly and make them, I am to be denounced by the Senators from Marion and Tippecanoe as a renegade and traitor to the Republican party. You have said to County officers in this bill concerning offices and officers that they shall not get drunk, that they shall hold their offices only during good behavior, that they must give bonds in sums of $10,000, $15,000 and $20,000, and even more, and must pay the expenses of election canvasses; and yet you give them a mere pitiful allowance for their services. Another result of this bill would be to strike down the poor litigant. Its effect will be to increase the fees of Auditors and Treasurers in the sum of $100,000 in the State, and this comes directly out of the people of the State. In the stand I take here on this question I do not represent the officers, but I do represent the people of my District, and I am willing to go before them with my vote on this subject. The Republican party has claimed that iti s an iniquitous thing to do to attempt legislation by tacking riders on important measures.
Mr BROWN said: the senior Senator from Marion county, [Mr. Chapman], commenced the discussion in a spirit of unfairness. As the bill stood when I spoke upon it before, I did pass some few words of commendation upon it. And I agree yet that the officers bill is one of considerable importance. It is one that shoul blossom and grow and bring benefit to the people. The officers bill shall become a law if I and mine can work successfully to that end. The Senator from Marion says the House will not recede from its amendments to this bill. Is that Senator the keeper of the keys and seals of the House of Representatives, and does that body blindly follow his pronunciamento? I opine not. If this Senate says to the House of Representatives we concur in your amendments to the officers bill, but in our consciences we can not assent to the fee and salary bill tacked thereon, the House will not stubborniy hold out, and thus prevent the passage of the officers bill, which is an important measure. If the fee and salary bill is a rectification of error and wrong. why strike out the emergency clause? If there be wrongs to be rectified, let them be rectified as speedily as is possible. And yet here is an amendment to the effect tha this bill shall not have force till January 1, 1882. Is there anything of politics in this, I ask the Senator from Tippecanoe? The bill is unconstitutional, though it is professedly within the view of the Constitutional Amendments passed. It is a lie upon its face. There is not a line nor a letter in this bill which fixes compensation on the basis of services rendered, and yet that is what it professes to do upon its face. I hope that the Senator will concur in the amendments to the officers' bill and will refuse to concur in the amendment in the shape of a rider tacked thereto, and that the House will then recede.
Mr. SAYRE said--Mr. President: As something has been said with regard to the defects of this bill, it may be proper that I should say something in defense of it. In regard to the merits of this bill I can only say it must have some merit, for it has met the united opposition of the County officers of Indiana. The Senator from Rush [Mr. Spann] complains that this is a bill in the interest of Marion County, when the very converse of this proposition is true, as is proven by the fact that none have been more persistent in their opposition to the bill than the officers of Marion County. It is simply nonsense to say that the bill discriminates against the smaller Counties of the State and in favor of Marion County. The Auditor of Marion County has said that this bill is cruel, because it cuts them through in the middle. The Senator from Rush has also said that there is no relief offered by this bill to the taxpayers and litigants of this State. This bill has been distributed in every County of this State within the last ten days, and yet there have been no tax-payers nor litigants here seeking its defeat. It is also said that this bill will increase the burden of taxation on the people of this State in the sum of $100,000. I would like to know how this is determined by any Senator on the floor, or by any other person. I tell you it can't be demonstated to be true. The bill recently passed on this subject commences to reach the evil. This bill cuts down the fees to be charged by Clerks in the amount of two-fifths. That is not provided for by the other bill. It makes a similar reduction in Sheriffs' fees, and that is not reached by the other bill. And yet those opposing the bill claim that it does not reach anything which is not already reached by the bill recently passed. Then why this vigorous opposition, if it does not change existing laws? The bill goes to every County in theState, and gauges the compensation of officers by the services rendered The passage of the bill will result in reduction of fees charged to litigants, and while not working injustice to those to whom the fees are paid, will result in relief to the tax- page: 189[View Page 189] payer. Then there is a section in this bill requiring officers to report semi-annually to the Board of Commissioners the amounts coming into the offces. This is a source of objection to the bill by these officers, because they are receiving more money than they are willing to admit, but it is a good feature, and although the bill is not perfect, it goes so far in the correction of evil that it has attracted the attention of every County officer in this State.
Having had some part in the preparation of this bill, I am not vain enough to assume that it is perfect. I believe it reduces the fees to that extent that it will do perfect and absolute justice to those persons who perform the labor, and at the same time do justice to the litigant and to the tax-payer; and if it should give some officers more than they are entitled to, the Legislature two years hence can come to some enlightened conclusion as to what fees and salaries should be paid. I can hardly see how this can be considered a polical question. It seems to me it should be as much in the interest of the people of a County where there are Democratic officers as in a County where there are Republican officers. Inasmuch as this subject has attracted so much attention for so many years past, and especially since the pendency of the recently adopted Constitutional Amendments, this bill should have been put in shape so that it could be passed by this General Assembly, for the people have beeu outraged and pillaged by County officers to an extent almost unbearable.
Mr. FOSTER said: I am in favor of a fair fee and salary bill, but I can not support the one known as the Sayre bill. I believe it is a bill that is as unjust to the officers of this State as it is possible to construct. I stood upon this floor two years ago willing, and I stand here to-day willing, to vote for a fair bill, but I will not vote for a bill of this kind which comes in here at this late day tacked on as a rider to another bill. And, among others, I refuse to vote in favor of this bill for another good reason. The Senate appointed a Committe to construct a fee and salary bill. That Committee was out night after night. I was present part of the time and heard some of the confusion brought about, and know that the Committee never agreed upon a fee and salary bill. But the Senator from Wabash (Mr. Sayre) was so anxious to have something passed that he sat down in the back part of this Senate Chamber, and took an old fee and salary bill, got out his old jack-knife, cut up the old bill, eliminated some of it, marked out some figures and put in others, pasted it together, and reported it as a fee and salary bill; and, although he did not say it, he meant it should be considered as the judgment of tIe Committee sent out by the Senate.
Mr. LANGDON said, after speaking to the parliamentary questions raised by the demand for a division; "While I am in favor of any measure looking to the ample payment of public officials for services rendered, I am not in favor of burdening the tax-payer for the purpose of paying to officers salaries in a sum which enriches them to an extent which they probably could not reach in a lifetime of their own endeavor. I ask, without impugning the motives of County officers, of Senators or of the public press, why is it that this matter is almost paralyzed here when it is acknowledged and made evident by the voice of the people, as indicated by the vote on the Constitutional Amendments, that there is an overwhelming demand for some relief in this direction. Then why is it that the Senate Chamber swarms with County officers? Why is it that this measure meets this determined opposition? Why is it that the press is silent? I do not intimate, but it has been intimated, that public printing and patronage has had its effect. Without going into the merits of this bill, I ask the Senate to proceed with its consideration, detect its errors seriatim and take such action as is necessary to render the bill unobjectionable. It can be done within the five hours left us, and, I hope, will be done."
The House amendments to the bill were concurred in except the fee and salary features, etc., etc.
