The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-17
'Danviile. Ind. Feb. a."
Republican Press Opinion.

The apportionment of 1885 is conceded on
all hands to be as unfair as any OF the
more recent acts which the Supreme Court
has set aside as Unconstitutional. Are we
to understand that is the reason the Gov
ernor and his party hang on TO 1T with such
tenacity.-Anderson Herald.
The Governor can refuse the committees
request only on rank. partisan grounds. IL
he does. then let a nonpartisan committee
draft a measure. present that TO him with a
pledge for its enactment. III he declines
that proposition, then attack the law of 1885
and let the Governor and his party answer
before the people.-New Castle Courier.
Governor Matthews will not for one mo-
ment deny that the law of 1885 is unconsti-
tut.onal. He has IL in his power TO dictate
a fair bill and accomplish its enactment. If
he refuses 20 do his plain duty. upon his
head will fall the full responsibility for the
deplora5le consequences that are inevitable
If he persists in his refusal. but which may
be happily averted If he will.-Kokomo Trib-
une.
Barrels of ink have been wasted in ar
guments f~avoring the policy of instituting
suits to test the constitutionality of the
apportionment act of 1885, but in all that
has been said no method has been proposed
or any scheme devised to compel the SUI
preme Court to hand down its opinion be-
fore the election. What ought to be done
ent Questions.-Crawfordsville Journal.
The Governors first refusal to call the
Legislature in special session for the pur-
pose certainly was not made with a full I'M
~" Aac
chance to rescind his first decision and to do
so without having the appearance of vacil-
lation. 1t is an opportunity for Claude Mat
ness-an opportunity Of which he would do
we'll to avail himself at this particular time
OF his career.-Logansport Journal.
Governor Matthews, I'm failing to call a
special session of the Legislature in order
to lift the State out of the predicament it
finds itself, shows his utter unfitness for the
presidency of the United States. The man
who cannot do right-or. rather, fails to do
what he knows to he right. at the behests
the interests of sixty millions of people,
over half Of whom belong to other parties
rather than his Times.
The Gazette is not alone in its belief that
the proposition to attack the gerrymander
of 1885 is unwise- A number of the leading
Republican papers of the State express the
same views. some of them more strongly
than We have done. The law deserves to
be downed: the Governor ought to call the
Legislature together; we ought to have a
fair apportionment: all these propositions
are true But the Governor won't call the
Legislature together, and the Legislature
he does, and last of all, the Supreme Court
can't be forced to decide the question be-
fore the fall election. So here we are
Fort Wayne Gazette
1t is plainly the duty of Governor Mat
tbews to call a special session of the Leg
islature for the purpose of passing a new
apportionment law, and the Tribune thinks
II an inexcusable admission of
for the Republican members of the Legis-
lature to crawl upon their bellies in ap-
preaching his Royal Highness upon the
subject of making the call. The demand
for a special session should have been
made upon Governor Matthews in that
firm, dignified manner which is born of the
consciousness that ones cause is Just, and
not in that cringing, won't-do-so-any-more
manner which it is now proposed to make
it.-Wabash Tribune