Morning journal and courier., 1883-04-24
transacted in the House to-day ::
The House.

! The House. The House was called to order at 1z:3O p. m Mr Robbins, of Wethersfeld, in the | chair. Prayer by Chaplain Stone. MT Andrews of New Britain, introduced 1 bill s'to protect the public from the exorbi- ! tant exactions of railroad companies v which was not received. A few of the members had printed copies of the bill. given as file No. 300, ,OOO and which was simply satire on the position taken by the railroad com missioners and the railroad committee with regard to the Consolidated roads returns. Mr. Andrews did not urge the House to re- ceive the bill, and it was evident that he was simply assisting somebody in ''guy." That somebody was generally conceded to be MT. H. l.. Goodwin. The bill was as follows:
 Section l. No railroad company shall make or declare dividends in excess of ten per cent on it's capital stock in any one year.
 Sec ?. The directors of any railroad com pany may at any time before making it's annual returns to the railroad commissioners, appropriate out of the ascertained met earn ings'' of the year, and for the purchase of land or additional equipment, or for the con- struction of new buildings, or iron or stone bridges, so much thereof as they may deem expedient and the money so appropriated (eyen though not expended) may be added to the operating expenses, and deducted from the net earnings and the amount of net earnings which shall remain after deductlpg the appropriation shall be reported to the railroad commissioners aS the net earnings O1 the company for the year. Sec. 3. In order to make the books of the company balance, the amount of earnings appropriated for future expenditures shall be so entered and reported to the railroad con- missioners that the appropriation shall ap- pear as an indebtedness of the company out standing on the thirtieth of September i'm mediately preceding the day when the ap- propriation was made.
 Sec. 4. A separate account shall be kept of the land and other property paid out of | the appropriation, but the property so paid for shall not be regarded as part of the as- sets of the company, and shall not be re- ported to the railroad commissioners as ! such.
 | Sec. 5. Whenever the property paid for | out of these appropriations shall amount in
 the aggregate to ten per cent of the capital | stock of the company, it shall be the duty of the directors to issue full paid certificates of the capital of the company for said ten per
 cent. and divide the shares pro rata among
 the stockholders; and the capital stock thus
 issued shall be regarded as 'tactually paid in'
 and shall be entitled to future dividends in
 the same manner and to the same extent as
 the original capital.
 Business from the Senate was disposed of ! in concurrence
 Messrs Davis of Haddam, and Simonds, | of Canton, were appointed co mm1ttee or ! conference on bill relating to allroad fences
 Messrs. Brown, of Waterbury, and Sl- | monds, of Canton, were also appointed a
 conference committee on bill for protection l of railroad employees.
 After discussion by Messrs. Simonds of l Canton, Brown of Norwich, Lockwood of Bridgeport, Savage of Cromwell, and An
 drews of New Britain, the House concurred
 in adopting the Senate amendment to the bill
 limiting railroad crossings at grade, the vote l being 1O6 to 27.
 The bill as amended was opposed by Mr. Brown of Norwich, who moved that it be ta- bIed for further consideration; defeated, 57 l to T.
 | U4 Mir Griswold, of Rocky Hill, moved that 1 the measure be continued to the next Gener- al Assembly and be published in the session \ laws.
 Messrs Lockwood, Simonds, Cleveland and Perry advocated the passage of the bill,
 claiming that it was demanded by public safe | ty and interest.
 MT. Brown, of Norwich, took the floor against the bill, claiming that it was unwise legislation and should not be adopted On | vote Mr. Griswold's motion was defeated 4S
 to S2 The previous question was ordered on the bill as amended. the vote resulting 94 to 29 in favor of the bills passage.
 Resolution repeating act of 1880 annexing l portion of the town of Milford to the east | district of the school society of Stratford was l adopted
 The House adjourned until Tuesday morn l ing at 10 o'clock.