The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-01-25
IN THE INTEREST OF REFORM.


IN THE INTEREST OF REFORM.
A Reduction of Eleven Judges to BE Made
by the General Assembly.
The special committee composed Of
Senators Stuart of Marion, Wray OF Shell
by and McCutcheon of Vanderbnrg. to
report a new apporiionment OF judicial
districts with a view OF economy. has
agreed upon a bill which will be reported
Monday. The report will be unanimous,
there being no politics in the measure.
but it will save annually to the tax
payers 100000 in the way Of
salaries and court expenses. The
bill reduces the number OF judges from
fifty-fve to forty-four and, of course. the
prosecuting attorneys are affected IN the
same way. The judges are paid by the state
3. 800 each. maKinga saving in the sal
aries of the useless eleven judges dropped
of 81 800 year. The prosecuting at
torneys also receive $500 from the state,
and by dropping o eleven OF them the
state will save s., 500 IN ore, or total saw
ing of S33, 900 in salaries alone to the state.
But this is not all. in small counties
Inv bahNONA hh0 AACAAgg N~S1
mas Judge the court must
rag cases along to make ap-
pearance of business. whereas II
- or more such counties were Joined
the court would hurry mp and clear the
docket In q very short time. This would
save thousands of dollars on jurors. per
diem and other court expenses. AS an IL
lustrstion of how the present system
works the two circuits the Eorty-fourth
and Thrty-second, are cited. The
Fortv-fourth circuit lie composed OF the
counties of Starke and Pu. ask, two small
counties with a combined population OF
1882. There is no man utscturing, no
large cities and no corporations. and
much OF the territory is included In the
hankakee regions. Yet these two counties
have q Judge and prosecuting attorney
which cost the state $1,000 year. Well
informed lawyers say that all the business
in those two counties could be transacted
in three weeks. The Judge can devote
the remainder of his time to fishing in the
kankakee.
The Thirtv-second circuit is composed
OF 81. Joseph and Laporte, two large poDu-
lous counties OF 70. S97 inhabitants. In
the county of Laporte there are
two cities. Laporte and Michigan
City, which latter city has a hsr-
Dor and state prison. Discharged
convicts and sailors give the courts con-
siderable criminal work. There are more
railroads in LapOrte than in sny other
county in the state and numerous corpor-
atoms exist In ST. Joseph there Is the
city of South Bend, full of corporations,
with some OF the largest manufacturing
establishments in the state. There Is
also the city of Mishswakee full OF shops.
Judge Moves has been Judge in this circuit
for twelve years. His docket lie always up
to time. And yet he SAYS that he
always fnds plenty of time to
GO fishing and would not have
lis circuit reduced because he thinks 10
would cause him to become lazy. Yet
/ Henry. Hendricks, Hancock. and many
other counties have judges OF their own
counties without large cities or oorpor-
atoms, with few railroads.
The new circuits will be composed 80
/ follows:
Lake and Porter.
IapOrte and ST. Joseph.
Marshall, Starke and Pulaski
Ekhsrt and Lagrange.
Steuben and Dekalb.
Noble and Whitley.
Benton. Newton and Jasper.
Fulton and Miami.
Kosciusko and Wabash.
Huntington and Wells.
Adams and jay.
Grant and Backford.
Howard and Upton.
Carroll and Clinton.
Fountain and Montgomery.
Boone and Hamilton.
Henry and Randolph.
| PErke, VermilliOn aud Warren
Hancock and Rush
Union, Franklin and Fsyette.
Hendricks and Morgan.
Johnson and Shelby.
Clay and Putnam.
| Sullivan, Greene and Owen.
Lawrence, Monroe and Brown.
Bartholomew and Decatur.
Jackson, Jennings aid Ripley.
Davies. Martin and Orange.
Knox and Pike
Posey and Gibson.
Wsrrick. Dubois and Spencer.
Perry. Crawford and Harrison.
Floyd and Washington.
Jefferson, Scott and C.srke.
Dearborn, Ohio and Switzerland.
Cass.
Madison.
Wayne.
Vigo-With superior court.
Allen-Superior court
Acknowledgements court.
Marion Three superior courts.
IippecanOe and White-Superior court
in Tppecanoe.