The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-02-25
SELLING STATE LANDS.
Indiana Needs Money To Pay Inspee-
tors, Boards and Bureaus.

To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal:
Anent the matter of the States selling
its real estate holdings in Indianapolis, to
which the Journal and other local papers
and the Commercial Club and the Board or
Trade object, allow me to suggest that
probably not one OF you was ever In just
the uncomfortable fix the State is just now
or you would not talk you do Bear In
mind the State is hard up financially, and
something desperate has 10 be done. Our
bonded Indebtedness alone would be bad
enough, but that is not half. Here are our
obligations not only TO existing boards and
bureaus and inspectors, but here comes an
innumerable host which no man can num-
Der, for it has come to pass that every
thing in the heavens above and the earth
beneath and all things under the earth.
need to be inspected" and all these cost
money. Indeed but for the money I'm IL
there would be little demand for the whole
sale system OF inspection. Now, il any OF
you were ever in just such fix you would
know better how to sympathize with the
State. Not one in ten Of you could ever
think of looping off the superhuous indui-
gences that had brought you into such
straits, but you would cast about TO
what land you could spare to meet emer-
gencies, happy If you did not have TO sell
the house you live in.
Now, / not only profoundly sympathize
with the State. but, seeing that IL does not
propose TO drop any of the luxuries that
have made this desperate measure neces-
sary, 1 wish TO help it out. 1t has much
real estate not In immediate use, though
much Of it, If not all. will be indispensable
in the near future. Notable among the
pieces is ST. Clair Park, for which there
J is no immediate use whatever, but which.
the city has beautified at its own expense
| rather than leave it as IL was for many
years-a disgrace TO it's owner, the State.
| 1t is absolutely nothing but an ornament
as 1t now is; why not sell IL and let the
| future provide for itself? Your correspond
ent. &c. w. S." suggests in Fridays Jour-
nal two other pieces OF very valuable real
estate each 40 by lso feet, the spaces be-
tween Washington street and Ohio street.
respectively, and the Statehouse, which are
| not only useless now except ornaments,
| but which are maintained at great expense
| TO the State merely as ornaments, while
| the city relieves IL OF this expense TO
| the st. Clair Park. They would bring a
| pile OF money and bridge over the immedi-
| and inspectors galore. Then there are
about lao acres OF valuable lands in con-
nection with the Central Hospital for the
| Insane and with Purdue University, re-
| spectively, more than is necessary for the
wants OF the institutions and which now
1 are used only as truck patches for those
| institutions, in which every potato and
| every, cabbage costs the State ten times as
| much as they would cost In the market.
counting interest on the value of the lands,
as an honorable senator did the other day
| when he justified the project OF selling the
| Deaf and Dumb unimproved lands by say
| ing the butter from the lone State cow that
grazed on the State pasture cost ten times
| as much as equally good butter would in
the market, and therefore the land ought
N QnI - arrnC frra IN hat ~.
land at Purdue is used for agricultural ex-
| periments. AS much and as good land for
experimental purposes can be bought liz
| Pulaski or Starke county for one-twentieth
| the price of Purdue lands, leaving a large
| balance to be used for inspectors and the
various State boards that want money. and
| a Governors mansion, and the like.
| To one who has been somewhat familiar
with the personnel of every Legislature for
notice how ever every y Succeeding Lessature is is
just like Its predecessor. In every one
there has been a born bucolic dressed for
the occasion in store clothes who imagined
that he was a veritable Atlas bearing the
whole world on his shoulders. and every
one of the tribe has imagined that Indian
| apolfs depended wholly upon the patronage
| of the State, and the thing TO do was TO
oppose everything that might by any pos
sibility be construed into favor TO the
| OF 1883. in order TO be safe. voted against
every appropriation, including the appro-
priation to pay the legislators. When re.
buked for this he naively answered: Il
knowed enough OF you fellers would vote
| to pass the bill. I'm bound 10 please my
| constituents in Putnam county" There
have been McNarys I'm every Legislature
since, and sometimes several OF them as
ir the present one.
| But indianapolis, thanks TO its geogra phi
| cal location and the enterprise and push OF
| its people, has become one OF the largest
inland commercial and manufacturing cen
tiers in America. In which the civil patron
| age OF the State has never cut any appre.
ciable figure. IL has always Hospitality
| treated the States representatives. and al.
ways will; many of whom, after their OF
fetal duties were closed. have remained e
| better their conditions by sharing I'm the
| prosperity others had inaugurated. AS 1
, matter OF cold figures II would be million.
10 the city II the lands occupied by tn.
State institutions ard tho arsenal could b.
opened to the people for residence ant
manufacturing purposes, but. greedy as ou
, people are for gain, not one in a hundred
of them would consent 10 damage IN,
wards of the State by the proposed cruelty
and the unanimous protest outside a few
| land spectators. against the disturbanc,
] OF the homes their money and enterpris
have prepared for these come not from
| mercenary motives. There will be no sale
= There are not enough McNarys 10 order II
L Trol,