Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1845-07-03

MARION COUNTY, June 80, 1916.
Gentlemen-I have received your interrogatcry and
accompanying remarks, In reference to a reduction in
the compensation of county auditor. Recognizing to
the fullest extent the right you have, as voters of
Marion comfy, to PROFOUND questions of public policy
to candidates for office, l feel bound to respond to
your enquiry. In doing so, 1 have taken pains to
examine the whole ground, in relation to the pro-
posed reduction, and have come to the conclusion,
from the arguments you have advanced, and an
examination of the duties 10 be performed, to say to
you and to the people Of Marion county, that l answer
your question in the afirmative-that the sum you
have named, if l I'M elected, may be considered as
the amount beyond which the compensation for auditor
Of Marion county shall not be extended, and should
it be less, under the charges now allowed, such an
amount will only be charged by me, as the law allows.
l do not make this response, under the vain hope,
that my answer viii operate on the minds of the
people, in the absence of other considerations, in such
a manner as to secure my election, or that 1t will
weigh a feather in the scale, to bolster up a lack of
qualifications for the duties of the Office. Had |
thrust myself upon the people as a candidate, | per-
haps, might be presumed, by some, to stand in this
attitude; but as most of you are %apprised, | come
before the country as a candidate without the first
solicitation on my part-recommended to the people
of the county by a respectable body of my fellow
citizens, many of whom have known me well, and
who are well appraised of the capacity | possess to
discharge the duties of the Office with credit to myself
and to the county. AS a clerk in the Legislature and
the Reporter of Its proceedings for the last twenty
years, | am well acquainted with the history of the
State her resources her means and objects OF taxa
ton, the Indebtedness of the country, and the means
of the people to meet that indebtedness; and | must
be here permitted to remark, that when the impartial
historian shall have written the history of Indiana,
to have made greater exertions for the payment of her
liabilities. What is that history? In 1899 when the
bubble of Internal Improvements exploded when the
local banks were in all directions breaking down,
leaving a circulation of millions of worthless trash
in the hands Of farmers and laborers of the country,
which afterwards was followed by the complete pros
~tration of the great mammoth of Philadelphia, Indiana,
in addition to her foreign liabilities found herself
indebted to her own citizens as contractors and labor
ers on our public works, more than. a million and q
half of dollars, and upwards of seven hundred thou
sand to the State Bank Of Indiana; thereby virtually
Withdrawing between two and three millions of dol
lars from the general circulation of the country, as
every calculation had been made that this large
amount would be forthcoming from the State, out of
the loans which had been contracted for by our Fund
Commissioners. For these loans our State bonds had
been parted with, and the whole Of which has since