The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-09
THE STATE CAPITAL.
LANSING, March 3, 1877


Little villages are made happy by sud
: den transmogrification into pretentiou
cities with numerous wards to afford tn,
desired representation on the Count,
Board of Supervisors, while villages
that were not are now among the thing,
that be-"
Sundry little acts for the relief o.
John Smith and Tom Jones have
slipped through their several readings
and been ground out to order with
"neatness and Dispatch" as the
blacksmith advertises to mend log.
chains and crow-bars. Among
other things, John Gutekurst was
relieved of the last syllable of his
name by unanimous vote of the
House, yesterday, and Mark Antony
Greer was in about ten minutes made
over into Marcus Gordon, in order to
make mothers son of him.
The township of Hayes, in Clare
county, was organized by special act, up
on the passage of which it was ascertained
that every citizen within the territory
comprising the township had voted for
rutherford b. mt the late general cleo
ton.
The people of Hillsdale county think
they can run their own machine" SO
far as regards the liquor traffic, and ask
that focal option" bill passed fortheir
exclusive benefit. The propriety of To-
cal Legislation upon such Il matter is very
questionable, and much doubt whether
their request will be granted What is
good for one county ought to he good for
all counties in the State.
Speaking OF temperance reminds me
that number of the Legislators have
donned the "red ribbon, and temper
ance club composed of members of the
Senate and House is strongly talked of.
Such a movement would not be n bad
one, and hope it may prove successful.
The Lansing Reform Club numbers over
1000 red ribbons, and more are joining
every day. They have established very
pleasant reading-room, and are doing all
that is possible to aid the reformed men
and boys to keep their pledge.
The local affairs of some of the
northern counties of the State must be
very stability managed, if any reliance
can be placed upon the representations
of parties who are acquainted with the
facts. In one county, it is said, they
have their ballot-boxes made so that they
can take the bottom off and count the
votes mt dinner-time," so ms to know
how the thing stands, and Just what
amount of bulldozing" will be neces-
sary to carry the day i'll the interest of
the party having control of the election
machinery. A glance at the as
sessment roll in certain town.
ship reveals complete "checker-
board" so far as regards the valuation
placed upon the odd and even sections,
all the odd sections being assessed Mt
more than twice the rate per acre of the
even sections. The odd sections are
railroad lands, while the even sections
are owned by the residents of the town
ship. In one case which comes to notice,
a man hired eight or ten voters TO go into
II township with him. He then demand
ed township organization, upon secur-
ing which the new township was bonded
to the amount of several thousands of
dollars for the avowed purpose of accom-
plishing certain improvements, but
by means of straw bids " the money
was quickly transferred from the
township treasury-in the breaches
pocket of the "boss citizen to
the individual pocketbook of the said
boss" He soon paid off his hired ac-
completes and with a fat pocketbook was
ready to let the township sink or swim
just as it pleased, his colony being with
drawn and the territory again left an
unbroken wilderness. understand that
in one or two instances counties have
been organized and run on pretty much
the same plan. The Legislature cannot
be too careful in scrutinizing applica-
tions for county or township organiza-
ton.
The Senate yesterday defeated a joint
resolution proposing an amendment to
the constitution requiring an educational
qualification for voters after the year
1880. The vote stood Is ayes to Is
nays, but it would have required two
thirds vote to pass the resolution. Some
telling speeches were made in its favor.
Moses w. Field, the great disciple of
soft money-commonly known as "our
Noses" made n "greenback speech in
Representative Hall, Thursday evening.
Mr.. Field contends that there is no need
for the present hard times. All we are
lacking is in the amount of circulating
medium. Those who charged the hard
times to overproductiOn, to the extrava-
gance of the people, or the fact that the
nation was burdened with debt,
Mr.. Field very promptly denominated
as fools" and he then proceeded to
mark out the path of wisdom, drawing
! in the meantime n pitiful figure of the
poor working man as compared with the
bloated banker and bondholder, whom
he characterized as the curse of
the country. He further stated that we
were the abject slaves of British capital
lists, and that we might as well hope for
the devil to help us into heaven as to
look for prosperity while sending "hard
money" men to Congress and the Legis-
latures
Legislative Proceedings.
TUESDAY. Feb. 27.-SESATE.- resolution was
introduced by Mr.. McElroy, follows: WHEREAS,