Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-03-18
From the State House.


| The committee hearings, as general thing,
were quite devoid of interest this forenoon. Mr..
Edward Crane appeared before the committee
on railroads and advocated a bill to incorporate
the Boston and Portland trust company, which
was referred to this Legislature by the last gen
cral court. The proposition of Mr. Crane is,
that the state should take the railroads of the
state, and have them under the control of a
board of thirty directors appointed by the state,
and if carried out, he claims that the roads can
be made free by the year 1900.
The senate again discussed the reading and
writing amendment to the constitution The
motion to reconsider the vote whereby the re-
solve providing for its repeal was refused third
reading was advocated by Messrs. Goodnow of
Berkshire Thayer of Worcester and Bird of
Norfolk, but the motion was lost by vote of II
yeas to IS nays. Bills were reported by COM
mittees: to authorize the Massachusetts, Central
railroad company to extend its railroad from
Weston through Waltham, Newton, Waterfowl,
Brighton and Cambridge to Boston; to incor-
porate the Hoosac savings bank in North Adams
to aid in the preservation of rabbits and hares
to allow the Worcester southeast agricultural So
ciety to hold its annual exhibition in different
towns; a bill to establish the police court of
Holyoke; and ineXpedient to egislate on the re-
moval of snow and ice from sidewalks.
In the house there was more varied debate
and more work accomplished than usual. The
bill for the annexation of CharlestOwn aud Som
erville to Boston was discussed for half an hour,
Messrs. Hurd of birmingham, Pratt of Brain
| II
the bill, and Mr.. Train of Boston in favor. An
| amendment, making two-thirds vote of the
| inhabitants necessary for annexation, in the
| place of majority, was accepted, and the vote
on ordering the bill to third reading was then
| taken. Lightweight gentlemen voted in the
affirmative and one hundred and nine in the
negative, and the bill was therefore rejected.
Subsequently motion to reconsider was made,
and will, by special assignment, be considered
next Wednesday.
The proposition to exemt private libraries from
| taxation was the occasion for very interesting
debate, but the bill was defeated by a vote 6S to
| II. By decided no the house also voted down
| the resolve from the military committee to fur
| DiSh officers of the militia Lippitts Treatise on
| the Art Of War, at a cost of about 5000.
| The discussion preceding this vote was of a
somewhat humorous character, but not SO much
so as the debate which followed on bill to incor-
| porate the Boston base ball association Mr.
Adams of Quincy began this in a speech of
| mock gravity, which kept the house in the
| greatest state of merTiment from beginning to
| end. He moved an amendment that the words
federal, constitutional" be added after ma
| tional in the bill, so that it would read
ga national, federal, constitutional game of
| base ball, which was not carried, however, al
| though it received strong vote Mr. Wood
/ burV bumnrOuSlV Rev lr D,1tn el,r
and several others, among them Mr.. Putnam of
| Worcester, came to the support of the bill, and
| the house by a vote Of 60 TO So passed 1t to a
third reading. 1t was voted inexpedient to pass
| bill authorizing the appointment of superin-
| tendent of highways, also TO legslate on the
subject Of uniformity of text books in schools. !
Bills were passed to be engrOssed: To provide
| for the proportional payment of the expense of
| erecting and maintaining dams, bitches and
drains for the benefit of cranberry lands; TO au-
thorze the Boston theological seminary and
trustees of Boston university corporations to
unite; to incorporate the Orange savings bank:
to change the name of the Winnisimmet Con-
gregatonal society in Chelsea.
Among the petitions presented to-day were
those of Charles G. Stevens, and eighty Others
of Clinton, and L. Harris Rowland, and fifty
Others, against the removal of the Foster street
| depot in Worcester; of Patrick Meehan and
Others, for the incorporation of building asso-
citation in West Roxbury; and of the East Bos-
ton dry dock company for a reduction of its
capital stock from S250,000 to 100000 Mr..
BiscOe of Westboro introduced a bill relating to
the property of married women.
The railroad bills were about the only matters
in the orders of the day left for future consider
alton. Three prospective railroad companies in
MiddleseX county, which have been struggling
for charter before the railroad committee, have
transferred their fight to the house, the com.
mittee having wisely reported "leave to with
draw" on all of them. Which of the three will
be successful is not known. None of them
ought to be granted, and if the house is wise it
will abide by the decision of the committee
One route runs from Dunstable through Tyngs-
borough and Groton TO Acton; another through
Tyngsborough, Dunstable and Pepperell, and
the third from Lexington through Groton to
Peppercll. The routes are near to and conse-
quently prejudcial to the routes now existing
from Nashua TO Worcester and Nashua to Bos-
ton.