The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-17
A FEE AND SALARY SCHEME
OCCUPIED MUCH TIME. BUT WAS
FINALLY HEADED OFF.
Anticipating Bill Fails in Senate
Long Debate Over Phar-
macy Bill.

| for the test was that by Mr. Neal of Ham
ilton and the question was on accepting
| the report of the committee railroads,
| recommending that the bill be indefinitely
| postponed.
There was some question as to whether
| enough members were in the hall last even
! ing to make a quorum when the hour ar
rived to which the House had adjourned,
and Speaker Ltteton waited few moments
| before calling the members to order. The
! seats for spectators on the floor were we'll
| filled when the House began proceedings,
and Mr. Neal was first recognized He
spoke at some length and said that to vote
! fer the report of the committee was vote
against the people the members were sup
posed to represent. He declared that the
! right of a State to regulate fares has been
settled in the famous Nebraska case, and
| that the State should reduce the present
| fare He asserted that the present rate of
| fare is a discrimination of the rich against
| the poor, and said that the average fare
now is but 10 cents a mile in this State.
He cited the reductions in street-car fare
in Toronto. Detroit and other cities where
the increased traffic has more than made
up the decrease that might have resulted
from the reduction, and he claimed that
roads. To prove his claim he read statistics
regarding the reduction of freight rates and
the constantly increasing business. He
would withdraw the bill, he said, if he
| thought it would reduce the pay of en-
ployes, but he believed that labor should
be consistent. He said the laboring men
claimed that this would reduce the wages
of the railroad employees, and hence wanted
it defeated, and then they turn around and
demand reduced street-car fares in Indian
apolis He said that since 1870 there has
been no reduction in fare, although there
has been a reduction in all other lines. The
average has come down, he said, because
of the increased number of excursions. He
acknowledged that the roads should have
fair returns on the money invested, but he
| declared that they wanted returns on
watered stock and not on the actual invest
ment. He stated that the Wabash is CAPT
talized at $1350O0 a mile and pays taxes on
valuation of $4,000 mile. Much is made
by the roads about the payment of taxes,
| said Mr.. Neal, but he did not think that
should be considered, as it was merely the
return of portion of the money of the
people. He argued that passes are given to
those able to pay fare and that the poor
man is the one who is required to pay cash
for his rides.
Mr.. LOutitt expressed himself as in favor
of a 2-cent fare. He does not think this
State alone should enact such a law but it
should be a general law. He was of the
| opinion that the railroads would remove
| their shops from the State if this bill was
| to be passed, and this would be a serious
blow to Fort Wayne.
Mr. Lief a Populist member argued for
the bill and stated that the State is greater
| than the corporations. He regarded Mr.
| Louttit's statements as an argument for the
bill. He argued that corporations should be
! subordinate to the State
ALL HAVE PASSES. SAYS WILLOUGH-
BY.
| Mr. Wiloughby began his remarks by
saying: IF 1 had a shotgun that would
| shoot every member of the Legislature in
! this room who has a pass in his pocket
! there would be no one left to answer TO roll
call in the morning" He considered prop
er course for those who thought there was
discrimination against the poor would be for
| them to go home and pay the amount they
would have had to pay in railroad fare, had
| they not ridden on passes, to their poor
| neighbors.
Mr. Lief jumped up and stated that he
! had two or three passes but that did not
! be right. Mr.. WillOughby continued that he
| was tired of hearing this ranting about cor
! pora tons, and said the members of the
| Legislature come here on passes. talk about
! reducing the fare to make people think they
! are doing something when they are really
| saving their mileage and feathering their
! own nests He argued that the cost of stop
! PING trains was great and that the reduced
| 1are on through trains was because they
carried more people and stopped less fire.
| quently He stated that Wabash stock
| never has and never will pay dividend
Mr.. Huff took the ground that railroads
| nave done more to develop the State than
| anything else. and ne ODDOSed the Dill be-
! cause of the reduction he thought it would
make in the wages of the employees and
| because he thought the roads would In
| crease freight rates. Mr.. Cunningham OPP
posed the bill because of the opposition of
| the employees of the road and their belief
| that their wages would be reduced. Speaker
| 14ittleton interrupted him to ask II he
| thought railroad should carry man who
| weighed four hundred POUNDS at the same
| rate it carried man who weighed two
| hundred? Mr.. Cunningham replied; If a
| man can raise hogs and hominy enough to
| get as big and fat as l am. think he
| Is entitled to two seats" and he sat down
| amid great laughter Mr. Knots spoke
| laboring men of this State want ii killed.
| Speaker Littleton then announced: There
| is one phase of this question that has not
| been brought out. understand that
| member of this House rode on pass by
proxy the other day and the proxy was a
| small page I'm knee breeches / think that
| feature should be discussed. and / recognize
| the gentleman from Jefferson. Mr. Rob-
| erts." The members shouted with laughter.
| and Mr.. Roberts rose long enough To move
the previous question. which was ordered
! although there were shouts of No from
| all parts Of the house.
THE VOTE THAT KILLED IT.
The roll was called and the committee re-
port to indefinitely postpone was accepted
| by a vote of az ayes to 26 noes, as follows:
| Ayes-Baker of whitley Baker of Martin
| Barlow Beardsley. Clark. Cotner, Compton,
| Galley, Cunningham. Durham. Furness,
| Giants. Glossbrenner. Graham, Hail. Hays,
| Hocomb HUFF. Kerwood King. Knots.
| Lawrence. Louttit. McGary, Manifold. Mes
| sick. Miller Murphy of Marion. Marsh, My
| Ter. Noel, Osborn Owen Powers Patterson,
! Roberts Roots. Schrader. Scott of Mont
| gomery. Scott of Lawrence. Shdeler. Stew
| ems Strong Schaal. Shirley Vogel Whit
comb of Marion, Willoughby and Littleton.
! Noes ~ Altman. Blankenship, Burrier,
! Burkhart Canada. Caraway Cravens of
! Washington. Guilty, Downey. Fuller, Geisei,
| Green Hayes. Herod Kirkpa trick Kriek.
| LAIR Lief, Madden. Morrison. Neal. o Ban
non. Rifenburg. Somers, Titus and VIII
iams
Paired-McCarty with Murphy. Of White.
Absent-AilSin Bonham Brown, Clay
| comb, Clements. Cravens of Monroe, DtlleS,
| Eichhorn, Fest. Heurng, Hedgeeock. Her
rod, James Marshall May. Null. Reece.
| Reser. Roose. Ross. Sullivan. Whiteomb of
| Nigo and Wise.
Nearly all the members occupied their
| minute to explain their votes hv maxine
| brief speeches for or against the bill. As
loughby moved that the vote be reeqnsid-
cred, and then moved to table his firft mo-