Continuing the term of Governor James Mount:
The story of pi
In 1897, the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill that lives in infamy. This is when they tried to legislate the value of pi. “Pi” is the mathematical ratio between the diameter of a circle and its circumference. That ratio is always 3.14159 etc. However, had the legislation succeeded, in Indiana, the value of pi would have been “five-fourths to four” (i.e. 3.2).
The bill was introduced by a Rep. Record of Posey County on behalf of Dr. Goodwin, also of Posey County. According to the bill’s preamble, it was, “A Bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the Legislature of 1897.” Goodin was attempting to “square the circle,” despite the fact that it had been proven mathematically impossible some 13 years earlier. Many members of the House did not have the foggiest idea what the bill meant or what it was trying to do, but they passed it anyway with a vote of 67-0.
Thankfully, a Purdue math professor was in town lobbying for the university’s appropriation. He overheard the debate in the House. When offered the chance to meet Dr. Goodwin, Professor Waldo is declined, saying that “he was already acquainted with as many crazy people as he cared to know.” After Professor Waldo spoke to some Senators about the legislation, it met a different fate in the Senate. Senator Hubbell was quoted as saying, “the Senate might as well try to legislate water to run up hill as to establish mathematical truth by law.”
Compulsory School Law
Not all of the legislation during this period was awful, however. Also in 1897, the General Assembly passed a compulsory school law requiring parents put kids between the ages of 8 and 14 in public, private, or parochial school for at least 12 weeks during the year. The law provided for the appointment of truant officers and penalizing noncompliant parents with misdemeanor charges and fines of between $10 to $50. (The law also provided for creation in counties of something called the “Parental Home” for “incorrigible and truant children.)
Black officers
In 1898, Mount oversaw Indiana’s efforts to provide soldiers in the Spanish-American War. Indiana was the first state to meet the initial quota called for by President McKinley. A subsequent quota caused some controversy, however. In response, among its troops, Indiana provided two companies of black volunteers. At the time, the War Department would not allow the black volunteers to be commanded by black officers. Indiana was not a bastion of racial equality by any means, but at the time the state was so evenly divided as between Republicans and Democrats, that the Republicans were dependent on the black vote to win elections. So, Governor Mount and Senator Charles Fairbanks went to work. When they were rebuffed by the Secretary of War, they took the matter up with President McKinley and, ultimately, Indiana was permitted to send two companies of black volunteers with black captains.
Harboring a Kentucky Fugitive
Dan Carden of the Northwest Indiana Times writes of Mount’s entanglement with Kentucky politics.
In 1899, Mount was at the center of a curious episode in Kentucky politics.
Republican William Taylor appeared to have won election as governor over Democrat William Goebel, though Kentucky Democrats were investigating claims of voter fraud. During their appeal, Goebel was shot as he entered the Kentucky Statehouse and died a few days later.
Taylor was indicted for complicity in Goebel’s murder, but fled to Indiana, where Mount, a fellow Republican, refused to extradite Taylor back to Kentucky. Indeed, Taylor remained in Indiana and became an insurance executive.
At the end of Mount’s term, he was weary of the job. In his farewell speech on January 14, 1901, Mount called his last day, “the happiest day of his life.” He died two days later of a heart attack while preparing to leave Indianapolis for home.
Dueling Senators
In the late 1890s, Indiana appointed two notable U.S. Senators. Charles Fairbanks was appointed to the Senate in 1897 and would serve under Teddy Roosevelt as vice-president from 1905-1909. Fairbanks started his legal career as a railroad attorney and, through some family connections, became counsel to railroad financier Jay Gould. He gave the keynote speech at the convention that elected McKinley, and was appointed by the General Assembly to the Senate not long after. After serving vice-president in the Roosevelt administration, he returned to the practice of law and would once again run for vice-president in 1916, losing to the ticket headed by Woodrow Wilson.
In 1899, Albert Beveridge was appointed as Indiana’s other Senator. Beveridge was a graduate from (what is now known as) DePauw and had a reputation as a compelling orator, gaining attention campaigning for various candidats over the years. He was particularly enthusiastic about American imperialism and Teddy Roosevelt’s brand of Progressivism. Beveridge broke ranks with the Republicans when Roosevelt did and ran for office as a Progressive. When he returned to the Republicans, his political career had diminished. Later in life, he became a historian and wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall and, before his death, wrote about half of a planned four volume biography of Abraham Lincoln.
Indiana historian James Madison writes of the distinction between the two men, describing them as part of a new generation of Republican leaders. While Fairbanks came off as aloof and cold — “the Indiana Icicle,” Beveridge was charming, dynamic, and a powerful orator. The two were initially separated by simple political rivalry. Over time, there was a rift between them that reflected the rift in the national political party — with Beveridge following Roosevelt and the Progressive wing of the party and Fairbanks standing with the old guard.
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