THE
BREVIER LEGISLATIVE REPORTS.
VOLUME TWENTY-ONE.
INDIANA LEGISLATURE.
IN SENATE.
THURSDAY, Feb. 15, 1883-10 a. m.The reading of the minutes was dipensed with.
On motion by Mr. BROWN his bill [S. 43] to amend Section 30 of the fee and salary act so as to increase Coroner's fees in the City of Indianapolis, was read the third time and passed by yeas, 34; nays, 4.
On motion by Mr. BISCHOWSKI the bill [H. R. 32] to create the Forty-third Judicial Court [the County of Vigo], was read the third time and passed by yeas, 44; nays, 0.
ANOTHER PRISON SEWER.
On motion by Mr. HUTCHINSON his bill [S. 17] appropriating $33,240 for a sewer from the Northern Prison to Fish Lake Creek, which nows into Lake Michigan, was read the third time.
Mr. Bundy, as a member of the Prison Committee two years ago, investigated this matter. The present course of sewerage was and is destructive to the health of citizens of Michigan City. The bill should pass.
The bill passed the Senate by yeas, 41; nays, 3.
ADDITIONAL INSANE ASYLUMS.
Mr. BELL called up the special order, being Mr. Graham's bill [S. 87] for the location of additional Insane Asylums one at. Evan^ville and one at Fort Wayne.
Mr. MAGEE moved to postpone the further consideration thereof till Tuesday next at 10 o'clock, In view of the fact that the General Assembly is invited to visit Logansport next Saturday to return Sunday. It is but just to that locality that this motion should prevail.
Mr. VOYLES favored the motion, but doubted the propriety of building the additional Asylums at this time. He incidentally referred to a location in his District.
Mr. RAHM introduced this bill over a month ago, and to postpone action now is simply to kill the bill. It is due to his interests that this bill should be acted on without further delay. Evansville moved in this matter last November, and now for other cities to arrange excursions looks like an effort to kill the bill, and it is unfair to postpone it further from time to time. There is a crying necessity for greater provision for the unfortunate insane now behind prison bars in the County Poor Houses all over the State.
Mr. McCOLLOUGH also thought this bill should not be delayed for excursions. The incurably insane should be better provided for, as the Constitution demands, and the duty is imperative upon this Legislature to do something in that direction.
Mr. WHITE, for the northern part of the State, spoke in favor of locating one of these Institutions at Elkhart-having the healthiest location and best water works in the northeast. He favored postponement.
Mr. BUNDY thought a majority of the Senate are in favor of locating one Asylum there, the other one being contended for by Fort Wayne and Logansport, and lately Elkhart has come in with a claim. He favored determining the question of location of one to-day, leaving the determination of the other till another time.
Mr. MAGEE was willing to that.
Mr. BUNDY understands there is no way to back out of the excursion. That is a settled fact, There is an absolute necessity for additional Asylum for the incurably insane. Whether more than one shall be built now is another thing.
Mr. SPANN favored Evansville as a place for one Asylum, but for the other place his mind is not made up. The bill ought to be dismissed on its merits to-day, but the question of location north of the National Road might be lets open.
Mr. VAN VORHIS favored the motion to postpone, thinking it the view of many that the number should be greater, located at different places probably one in each Congressional District, making each District partially responsible for their management, under the control of the State.
Mr. YOUCHE favored postponement, but not for the purpose of killing the bill, for he favored the erection of two Asylums. He desired time to consider the claims of places in the northern part of the State. The question as to what point in the northern part of the State an Asylum should be built, and as it is to be located for all time, great care and deliberation should be taken to canvass the question. It Evansville folk desire, page: 206[View Page 206] not to kill this bill they had better not hurry it through too fast.
Mr. GRAHAM did not believe either Evansville or Logansport geography the proper place. Logansport is more central for the northern portion of the State than Fort Wayne, and there are other places in the southern part of the State more central than Evansville. This location is to be permanent, and time enough should be taken to select with care. The grounds near the city belonging to the State would be a proper place and a far more economical place than any yet suggested. After next Tuesday there is ample time to decide upon a location, and he favored the motion to postpone.
Mr. BELL desired only to urge necessity for immediate action. As has been intimated by the Senator from Gibson [Mr. McCullough] the Constitution for thirty years has-demanded that provisions be made for the insane of the State, of which there are now more than 1,600 unprovided for. Yesterday when cry came up from sufferers by the flood, help was speedily granted, and how much sooner should the cry of those from whom the light of reason has forever fled? No action we can take will meet the hearty approval of the people of the State than to make immediate provision for this call of our unfortunate human beings. Those best informed say it is a mistake to mass the Asylums at one point, that better results can be obtained by building them at separate places. A comparison of management is a great advantage. Then upon the simple plea of economy. For transportation here from Fort Wayne each one brought costs $57, and friends desiring to visit inmates are put to great expense in coming from all over the State to one place. He thought the cottage system an excellent one. He favored as many additional facilities as could be obtained. Insane persons are now kept in this State in thirty-two places without clothing; in 108 places they are confined in cells; in twenty-two places in pens; in fourteen places they are wearing chains and balls; in twenty seven places they are fed through a wicket in an iron grate; in three places they are wearing handcuffs and in seven places they sleep on straw in cells. In two places they are controlled with the rod.
Mr. FOULKE supposed there is no doubt of a necessity for additional buildings for the care of the insane. It is due to the State we should not consider the question of location until the claims of all cities applying shall be canvassed. This matter should not be disposed of now. A postponement till next Tuesday will not hazard the bill. Probably by that time inducements now unknown may be brought to the attention of the General Assembly. It may be sites may be donated or other things offered that would aid materially in the construction of the buildings.
Mr. RISTINE favored the bill except the locations named therein. There was a proposition leaving the places vacant, which he favored, but a majority of the Committee insisted on inserting them. The postponement might endanger the passage of the bill. Let it be considered now- except the location feature.
Mr. SPANN made a substitute motion that the bill to read the second time now, with the report of the Committee thereon, and the further consideration thereof be postponed till Tuesday at 10 o'clock.
Mr. RAHM consented. He disclaimed any combination with Fort Wayne, declaring the location at Evansville to be decided on its merits solely. To-day it is the only city on the Ohio not suffering from the floods.
Mr. MAGEE was also willing to except the substitute motion.
Mr. VAN VORHIS favored a larger number of Asylums, conceding the location to Evansville.
The substitute motion was agreed to.
Accordingly Mr. Rahm's bill [S. 87] to provide for the erection of an additional Asylum for the Insane at Evansville [on not less than 160 acres of land, with a capacity to accommodate 600 patients-see page 51-or may select several buildings-on what is called the "Cottage Plan;" as soon as any portion is completed patients may be received], was read the second time, with a recommendation of the Reformatory Committee for amendments providing for two such Asylums, one at Fort Wayne, in Allen County.
The PRESIDENT pro tem. [Mr. Bundy in the Chair] declared the further consideration of the bill and report is postponed until Tuesday next at 10 o'clock, under the order of the Senate just adopted.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
On motion by Mr. FOULKE his bill [S. 47] to amend Section 4,524 of the R. S. so as to extend to all cities and town's the provisions of the Public Library act of March 7,1881-a tax of two-thirds- of one mill discretionary-was read the third time and passed by yeas, 38; nays, 5.
ANOTHER JUDICIAL CIRCUIT.
On motion by Mr. Marvin his bill [S. 167] to define the Twentieth Judicial Circuit and creating the Forty-third Judicial Circuit [Boone County the Twentieth and Clinton County the Forty-third] was read the third time.
Mr. Mclntosh saw no necessity of making a Circuit out of these two Counties.
Mr. MARVIN, answering, read statistis of numerous Counties showing as in comparison these Counties were not asking too much-some having nine and four times the Court facilities. His people were active and energetic, which makes a difference in litigation. Those charged with crimes frequently have to lay in Jail sixty days. The Courts there are behind. It is unreasonable to expect one Court to do the business of his two thriving Counties. This change is badly needed as the business of the Courts is behind.
Mr. GRAHAM favored the passage of the bill, a number of gentlemen having represented to him the necessity of this measure, which is but granting the right the Constitution says these Counties have. The Judge of that District is one of the most industrious, and yet he is unable to transact the business of the Circuit. New Circuits are- needed in many localities-one is needed in his District-and more will be created next session.
Mr. JOHNSON referred to the Constitutional guarantee that justice shall be administered freely and without delay, which in itself is a sufficient argument in favor of the passage of this bill. If the facts are as stated there should certainly be a new Circuit created, as proposed in this bill.
Then came a recess till 2 o'clock.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. SAYRE desired to enter a protest against the passage of the bill. This session there has already been created two additional Circuit, Courts, and there may yet be other applications more deserving than the Counties of Clinton and Boone. He read a list of nearly twenty Counties having about as large or larger population than either the Counties affected by this bill having no more Court facilities. From an inspection of the docket of Boone County he had come to the: conclusion the measure is not absolutely needed. For these and other considerations he hoped this bill will not pass.
The bill passed the Senate by yeas, 29; nays, 10.
On motion by Mr. RISTINE his bill [S. 170] to fix Court terms in the Twenty-second Judicial Circuit-Parke and Montgomery Counties-was read the third time and passed by yeas, 44; nays, 0.
A NEW PROPOSITION.
By consent, Mr. SMITH, of Jay, introduced ft bill [S. 280] to amend Section of an act dividing^ the State into Counties and concerning the boundaries of Counties bordering on the Wabash and Ohio Rivers, being Section 4,204 of the Revised page: 207[View Page 207] Statutes of 1881-affecting the County of Blackford-which was read the first time and referred to a Special Committee of Three.
GENERAL APPROPRIATIONS.
On motion by Mr. BELL the Senate resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole [Mr. Bell in the Chair] and resumed the consideration of the bill [H. R. 30[?]] making appropriations for the State Government and its institutions-commencing where the Committee left off Tuesday.
The Finance Committee's amendment reducing the salary of the Deputy Attorney General from $1,000 to $600, and was agreed to.
Mr. DUNCAN moved to increase the sum for office expenses of the Superintendent of Public Instruction from $500 to $600.
Mr. WILLARD opposed the amendment.
Mr. DUNCAN offered this amendment at the request of both the outgoing and incoming Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Mr. HENRY stated that $600 was appropriated last year and all was expended.
Mr. WHITE also insisted $600 was necessary.
The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. JOHNSTON said the janitor of the State Library also acted as janitor of the Agricultural Bureau, and his compensation should be commensurate with his duties. He made an ineffectual motion to increase the salary from $500 to $900.
Mr. HENRY made an ineffectual motion to increase the pay of the State Librarian night watchman from $500 to $900.
The Finance Committee's amendment to reduce the sum for office and chamber expenses of the Supreme Court from $2,000 to $1,500.
Mr. SAYRE is informed $2,000 is absolutely necessary, and he opposed the amendment.
Mr. Graham also understood this sum should not be reduced below $2,000. One Judge has occupied his room one year without the carpet "being taken up.
Mr. Van Vorhis was of opinion this would be parsimony instead of economy.
Mr. White felt a curtailment would cripple the Judges.
Mr. Willard reminded the Senate that it was only in 1881 that the appropriation was increased to $2,000.
The amendment was agreed to but this vote was subsequently reconsidered on motion by Mr. Henry.
Mr. SPANN moved to increase the salary of Assistant Librarian from $750 to $1,000, as justice to a woman who will do the work and have a good share of the responsibility.
Mr. MAGEE conceding what is stated, but opposed the amendment.
Mr. HENRY moved to amend the amendment by making the sum $900.
His amendment to the amendment was agreed to as was also the amendment as amended.
The Finance Committee's amendment to make $360 the pay of the Messenger of the Supreme Court instead of $600, as in the bill.
Mr. VAN VORHIS said this man does some clerical work in addition to his duties, but on general principles if the man is worth no more than that, the item had better be stricken out,
Mr. HENRY understood this messenger's duty is to carry books from the library to the Judges.
Mr. BUNDY saw no necessity for employing a full grown man for such light duties.
Mr. SPANN preferred to see a place abolished if not worth paying for.
The Committee amendment was rejected.
On motion by Mr. SAYRE the sum for salaries of Circuit Judges was increased $7,500 to pay the three additional Circuit Judges created this session.
Mr. FOULKE moved to make one of the three janitors provided for in the bill under the charge and appointed by the Judges of the Supreme Court.
The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. SPANN moved ineffectually to increase the salaries of Prosecuting Attorneys from $500 to $1,000.
On motion by Mr. MARVIN the sum for Prosecuting Attorneys was increased $1,500 for the three new offices created this session.
The Finance Committee amendment, to strike out the appropriation for clothing for the insane, $22,000, being read-
Mr. MAGEE stated since the Committee acted upon this the Superintendent of the Asylum contends this should not be taken from the bill.
Mr. VAN VORHIS moved as a substitute for the Committee amendment a change of wording so as to make the appropriation in gross. There is no reason for counting these items in separate accounts. This is the view of the Superintendent of the Insane Asylum. Two years ago Mr. V. made an effort to have these sums stated in gross. They ought to be so considered.
Mr. HENRY saw no reason why these accounts be put in gross.
The amendment was rejected.
Mr. SMITH, of Delaware, understands the Committee reconsidered this act.
Mr. DAVIDSON, learning that appropriation was necessary, is satisfied the amendment was a mistake.
The CHAIRMAN understands the Committee's amendment to be withdrawn.
The Finance Committee's amendment reducing the item for repairs from $15,000 to $10,000 was agreed to.
The Finance Committee's amendment to increase the allowance to the Superintendent and Trustees of the Asylum for Feeble Minded Children $300 being read-
Mr. SPANN reiterated a former protest against an increase in the pay of the Trustees of this Institution, as one of them has come upon this floor saying the present pay is enough.
Mr. Voyles insisted the bill passed this session does not increase their salaries. The law requires these Trustees to meet once every two months and pay all their expenses.
The amendment was rejected upon a division.
The Finance Committee amendment adding to the appropriation of Purdue University a proviso that this appropriation shall only be drawn quarterly, and the Auditor of State shall issue his warrant for the sum only in case that the President of the Board of Trustees of Purdue University shall file with said Auditor on or before the first day of July, 1883, a statement that all restrictions or regulations of any nature whatsoever, in regard to students in said Institution joining or belonging to any College Secret Society, have been absolutely and completely abrogated, and shall remain so; that complete immunity has been granted said students to connect themselves with any College Secret Society they may desire; and a like statement shall be filed with the Auditor before each quarterly warrant is drawn; being read-
Mr. WILLARD delivered a set speech in support of the Committee amendment as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT-As the author of the proviso which has been unanimously reported from the Committee on Finance, and as a member of that Committee in charge of the appropriation bill, it is proper that I should give the reasons for the amendment proposed I desire in advance to state to the Senate that I have no personal inter- est in this matter whatever, as the only Greek fraternities into which I ever had the honor to be initiated, so far as I am aware, have never sought to establish a chapter in Indiana. But none the less warmly is every impulse of my nature in sympathy with this proviso. The object of the proviso is almost too well known in the Senate to page: 208[View Page 208] require explanation. Its purpose is to declare by solemn legislative enactment that the faculty of Purdue University shall not trample on the civil liberty of students in that Institution, whether citizens, or minors.
It proposes to declare in the most emphatic term in which this General Assembly can enunciate it, that and hobby-riding shall have no place in the advanced education which we are laboring to bestow on rich and poor alike in Indiana. It is indeed strange, Mr. Chairman, that in this, our advanced civilization, in a State which has the finest system of common schools on the continent, a legislator should be forced to insist that the blessings of civil liberty and freedom of thought shall not be denied to any citizen of Indiana.
One would think from the necessity which has given rise to this proviso that we were groping in dark ages of the past, under a despotic Government, rather than breathing the free air of Heaven in a State whose educational system is the pride and boast of her citizens. Nevertheless, the necessity is imperative. The Constitution of Indiana guarantees that "no law shall restrain any inhabitants of the State from assembling together in a peaceable manner to consult for their common good." Certainly no educational institution which is supported in party by the State will be permitted to invade this, one of the dearest rights of citizenship, simply because a fossilized faculty is imbued with the quintessence of craukism. The students of Purdue, who are so unfortunate as to be tyranized over by these antediluvian fanatics, know Their rights and have dared to assert them.
I purpose to briefly review the contest between the friends of civil liberty on the one side and the monomaniac faculty of Purdue up in the other. An application was made in the Tippecanoe Circuit Court in the name of the State of Indiana: on the relation of Stallard vs. White and others for a mandamus to compel the faculty of Purdue to admit a student, otherwise qualified, but who refused to sign what is known as the "Purdue Greek Fraternity pledge." The point in question was "whether a public institution supported in pa by the State could require any person, either a citizen or minor, to agree to abide by this rule of Purdue as a condition precedent to his entering the Institution. The rule alluded to is in the following language:
3. "No student is permitted to join or be connected with any so-called Greek or other College secret society, and as a condition of admission to the University or promotion therein each student is required to give a written pledge that he or she will observe this regulation. A violation of this regulation and pledge forfeits the right of any student to class promotion at the end of the year and to an honorable dismissal."
Upon a hearing of the cause before Judge Vinton, of The Tippecanoe Circuit Court, the writ of mandate was dented to the plaintiff and an appeal was promptly prayed to the Supreme Court. While this appeal was being taken, and while as yet the case was not decided by the Supreme Conn, the extremely conscientious, high-minded and honorible President of Purdue, whose hair stands erect in horror at the very mention of a secret society, by a species of chicanery which would disgrace a pettifogger in a Police Court endeavored to bias the action of the Supreme Court by an official report to the Governor of the State in which he uses the following language:
"It is not feared that Judge Vinton's decision will be reversed by the Supreme Court of the State, and hence the validity of the Purdue regulation prohibiting connection with College secret societies may be considered as judicially settled."
At the time those words were penned by the President of Purdue he well knew that nothing whatever was settled by a Circuit Court decision from which an appeal had been prayed to the Supreme Court, and his futile attempt to bias a Court can only be considered the chattering nonsense of a blind fanatic, or else a willful misrepresention in an official report. He may take whichever horn of the dilemma he choses, but notwithstanding this insinuating effort on the part of the President of Purdue, the Supreme Court, decided the case upon its merits. I desire to quote from the decision: "But the possession of this great power over a student after he has entered the University does not justify the imposition of either detracting or extraordinary terms as a condition of admission into it, nor does it justify anything which may be construed as an invidious discrimination against an applicant on account of his previous membership in any one of the Greek fraternities, conceding their characters, objects and aims to be what they are averred to be in the complaint." So much for the case which th e President of Purdue so boldly announced in advance was practically settled. But the Faculty of Purdue were not satisfied: they passed for a rehearing: they wanted more, and they got more than they wanted. The Court granted the rehearing, and then reaffirmed their former decision with this addition: "In legal effect we have only decided that Regulation No. 3, adopted by the Faculty, and the special pledge tendered to Hawley fairly implied a discrimination against a class of the inhabitants of this State as much entitled to admission in the University as any other class, and that to that extent, that regulation and that special pledge were both unlawful and unreasonable."
"When an inhabitant of the State has acquired the right of admission into a Public School, and that right has been unjustly denied, he is as much injured as if some important property right had been invaded, and as much entitled to appeal to the Courts for relief. This has been settled by innumerable precedents and decided cases, and is no longer an open question. It is equally the duty of Courts to grant relief against the enforcement of unjust and unreasonable regulation for the government of Public Schools after questions of admission have been disposed of." In this you perceive that the Court went even further than in its original decision, and says in fact that it is the duty of the Court to take cognizance of rules of this kind, whether they be precedent to admission or refer to the subsequent continuation of the student in the University. Now, how did the faculty of Purdue receive this decision of the Supreme Court? Did they submit to tit with good grace like law-abiding citizens? Did they bow with respect to the Supreme Judicial authority of the State and endeavor to right the wrong they had done to the students under their charge? Far from it. They assembled together and concocted a subterfuge that scarcely serves even to disguise their contempt by the Supreme Court of Indiana. Let me inform the Senate of the action they took. They adopted the following rules and pledge:
2. No student shall join or have any active connection as a member or otherwise with any so-called Greek fraternity or other College secret society or with any other students' society not authorized by the faculty, and as a condition of graduation or honorable dismission, students shall be required to sign a written statement that they have complied with this regulation.
6. As a condition of admission to the University or any department therein, o re-entrance, students shall be required to subscribe to the foregoing regulations and all other regulations of the University relating to obligation and duties of students, and promise a faithful compliance therewith during their connection; that is, until dismissed or graduated.
"Pledge (to be signed by student): I hereby subscribe to the foregoing regulations, and all other regulations of Purdue University which re page: 209[View Page 209]late to the duties and obligations of students, and I promise on my honor a faithful compliance therewith during the University year, ending June 30 next."
In this way the faculty of Purdue re-imposed upon the students the very rule which the Supreme Court had termed degrading and extraordinary. These rules assume to establish a condition subsequent to admission of a condition precedent, but in truth and in fact they establish a condition precedent by making the student pledge his honor to abide by the condition subsequent. This is the most bold-faced and impudent attempt to evade Supreme Judicial authority that I have ever known, either in this State or any other. The faculty of Purdue have placed themselves in shameless' and open contumacy of the Supreme Court, and defiantly challenge its powers, and did the law of civil procedure permit it, I doubt not they would" be summoned for contempt and allowed to cool their fevered fanaticism inside the cold walls of a common Jail until they had purged themselves of their contempt. This is the history of the struggle which the students of Purdue have made against the oppression which crushes them down. You ask, perhaps, why do they not again go into the Courts? Why do they not compel the faculty to abandon their heinous and degrading regulation? Remember, Senator, that these students are many of them young boys, poor perhaps, and unable to bear the heavy expenses which an appeal of cases to the Supreme Court necessarily entails, and what assurance will they have that another contest will not be followed by another attempted evasion ? They have been victorious in the Courts but it has been of little avail, and, therefore, they come to you as the representatives of the people, and they have the right to make their appeal to you. They ask you to relieve them from these regulations, which the Supreme Court has pronounced to be degrading. They ask you to burst the shackles which bind their consciences, They ask you to relive them of the infamous pledge which dishonors their man hood. They ask you to say, through the medium of legislation, that you will not permit an class of the inhabitants of this State to be held in moral slavery by any combination of men what- soever. They ask to be relieved from the ignominious and insensate mandates of a cabal which can be most fitly characterized in the words of the most varsatile of English literati, "men who are a type of those never to-be-forgoten times of cold hearts and narrow minds-the golden age of the coward, the bigot and the slave. And these students have the right to appeal to you. It was a right guaranteed to them by their fathers, and that it might never be disregarded it was placed in the supreme law of the State in these words: "Knowledge and learning generally diffused throughout a community being essential to the preservation of a free Government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage by all suitable means moral, intellectual, scientific and agricultral improvement, and to provide by law for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, where tuition shall be without charge and equally open to all."
Every Senator upon this floor is aware that it is under this provision of the Constitution that aid has repeatedly been granted to the State University, the Normal School and Purdue University, and to the credit of the other Institutions be it said that Purdue has been the only one to violate the Constitution of Indiana as expounded by the Supreme Court of the State.
I appeal to you, my fellow Senators, to right this wrong. I appeal to you not to close your ears to the demand of the down-trodden students of Purdue University. I appeal to every liberty-loving sentiment which animates your bosoms, I appeal to you Republicans whose hearts thrill with just pride when you recall, as the grandest achievement of the greatest representative of your party, the striking off the fetters from the limbs of 4,000,000 enslaved, and I ask you are you ready to maintain a species of moral slavery right here in the free State of Indiana? I do not believe it.
I appeal to my Democratic friends, members of a party which has survived so many successive defeats only because it is founded on inalienable and unchangeable principles, and I ask you, are you going to deny the prayer of the oppressed in utter disregard of the fundamental principle enunciated by the founder of our party, "equal and exact justice to all men?"
Again I appeal to yon as Senators acting under the obligation of a solemn oath, and I ask you, are you going to disregard the sacred provision of the Constitution that the system of Common Schools shall be equally open to all. Are you going to say that a man who joins a Greek fraternity should be classed in the same category as a criminal, that he shall not be accorded the-same liberty as other inhabitants of this State? Why, what are the Greek fraternities?
If you listen to the drivel of the President of Purdue, you would suppose that they were the offspring of Satan and the damned. Away with such fanaticism. These fraternities have numbered in their catalogues the grandest names in American history in the nineteenth century. You find their members in every assemblage of educated men. As I look around upon my colleagues, I find that well nigh half of them have experienced their blessings and known their worth. They throw around the young man just entering collegiate life the most secure protection imaginable. He leaves his home, doubting, hesitating, untried, inexperienced, totally unfamiliar with the ways of the world, and when be enters the fraternity he finds himself amid a brotherhood whose older members will guide and counsel him. He finds himself protected, advised, admonished, urged onward in the pathway of ambition, while his course is regarded with the most affectionate solicitude and brotherly care. He finds himself at once admitted
- "To a sphere where love's the center,
- Where all hate and envy cease,
- Where dissensions never enter
- To a fellowship of peace.
- Each for every other caring
- Learns his brother's good to prize,
- With his brother honor sharing-
- Every honor multiplies."
The Greek fraternities train the student by the art of criticism into habits of correct thought. They teach him the first rudiments of political maneuvering. They give him new and broader ideas of humanity. They elevate him in all that constitutes true manhood. These fraternities form the green oases in the dreary desert of collegiate labor. For myself I can say that the Greek fraternities into which I had the honor to be initiated, accomplished for me fully as much as the collegiate course itself. And in after days, when fighting the battle of life, in the pauses of the contest; with what fond remembrance does the mind look back and dwell upon fraternity experience! I have experienced the beneficent influence of the Greek fraternities, and never shall my voice be silent when they are assailed until my tongue is stilled in death.
But there is another aspect, in which this question should be viewed. What means this sudden attempt to engraft into the youthful mind the belief that a secret society is simply a league with hell? Are we going back to the dead issues of the palmy days of Thurlow Weed, and attempting to revive the spirit of Morganism in the land?
Are we expending the money of the State that the worn out so-called priciples of the anti-Masonry party may be instilled into the minds of the young? If so I, for one am ready to call a page: 210[View Page 210] halt and say that rot one single cent of the money the State shall be expended for the inculcation of such pernicious doctrines. You can never eradicate an innate principle from the human mind. The tendency of men to associate themselves together in secret societies is a part of human nature I challenge all history to disprove the assertion. The records of secret societies are found engraven in stone amid the hieroglyphics of the Rameses. The songs of these orders were chanted beneath the hanging gar- dens of Babylon; they were re-echoed along the shores of the Aegean in the Elusinian mysteries: they were heard again in the Vehm Gericht of Germany and Burgundy, and finally in our own times they are echoed and re-echoed in every Clime and beneath every sky-
- "Where'er the sun
- Does his successive journeys run."
The influence of the secret society is to-day well nigh forming a brotherhood of mankind as the various orders extend their power. The secret orders are cementing and uniting humanity in a "solid phalanx of friendship, which no foe can sever, neither can the gates of hell prevail against it."
They are hastening that day of universal brotherhood which the Scottish bard, with fatidical eye, foresaw more than a century ago and prophesied in his grandest poem.
- "Then let us pray that come it may.
- It's coming yet for a' that,
- When man to man the world o'er
- Shall brothers be for a' that."
Mr. Chairman, I sincerely trust that the proviso may be adopted by such a decisive majority as shall thoroughly and finally settle this question for the future.
Mr. FOULKE called attention to the fact that the proposed amendment would be a special act applying to Purdue University alone. Under some circumstances a proviso of this kind might not be very disadvantageous to a University, but prompted as this is by spite, and backed as it is by a speech in which personal vituperation of the President of that Institution has been a prevailing motive for the passage of such a proviso at such a time, it can be nothing more nor less than a stab at that College, and nothing more nor less than an insult to the gentlemen who constitute the Board of Trustees, the President an el Faculty of an Institution that has done a great deal of good in this State. Who is it that makes a complaint, and who is it that appeals to the Senate on behalf of these down-trodden students?
Mr. WILLARD stated that he had in his possession over thirty letters from the students playing for this prohibition, and every one of them telling him that they would be expelled if their names were revealed.
Mr. YOUCHE opposed the amendment, although'belonging to one of the honorable and ancient Greek fraternities that have chapters in this State. When voting on such questions we should rise above all considerations but what is for the best interests of the State. He favored the public interest and would not vote to saddle a rider of this kind on the bill which would put it in the power of one man to rob the people of the State from benefits that might be derived from this school.
On motion by Mr. SPANN the Committee rose, reported progress and asked leave to sit at 2 o'clock to-morrow.
The Senate concurred in the report.
SUFFERERS BY THE FLOOD.
On motion by Mr. Mclntosh the Senate concurred in the House concurrent resolution instructing and requesting Indiana Congressmen to try and secure an appropriation by the Federal Congress for a liberal sum to be used for the relief of the people suffering from the floods.
SESSION HOURS.
Mr. BELL called up his motion, notice of which was given yesterday, for a change of the daily meetings of the Senate so they shall convene at 9:30 a. m. and 1:30 p m.
Mr. BUNDY moved to amend by substituting 9 a. m. and 2 p. m.
The substitute was adopted.
The motion as amended was agreed to.
And then the Senate adjourned.
