The Portland daily press., 1889-02-09
YESTERDAYS D0INGS AT AUGUSTA.
The Cigarette Bill Amended And
Passed In the Senate.
Forestry Preservation Recommended
to the Next Legislature.

Forestry Preservation recommended
to the Next Legislature.
The Portland And Rochester Bill Pre-
sented In the House.
AUGUSTA. Feb. s-That cigarette bill has
been the greatest bone of contention of the
Legislature. The Senate has used two ses
sions In long and heated debates over it.
The first day 1t was amended and then de-
feated. But yesterday Senator Wright
moved to reconsider that vote and today was
assigned for the discussion. The vote was
reconsidered and the bill came up again.
Senator Wright offered an amendment which
would strike out all the bill after the enact
ing clause and insert the following:
Sec. /. No person shall sell any cigarettes, to
any person under the age OF 16 years.
rent or guardian, shall give to any per son under
the age of 16 years any cigarettes, for such
Sec. s. ANY person violating any of the forego-
ing provisions shall be punished by fine not ex-
ceeding fifty dollars.
Senator Libby, of Cumberland, opposed
this He said it was Intellectual legislation
In that it provided no suitable remedy for
the evil and imposed additional penalties
upon shop keepers. He thought we had
gone far enough in that direction, and If we
really meant to deal with the mischief we
should attack Indirectly rather than indirect
4 ly. The affect Of this amendment offered by
the Senator from Oxford. was to withdraw
| any prohibition against smoking by minors
under 16 years of age, in public. If that was
the real intention of the legislature the
amendment should be adopted. But the bill
would then be of SO little value so far as
| checking the evil, that it would not be worth
| while to pass it. 1t would be simply another
piece Of declamatory legislation annoying to
| shop keepers but presenting no difficulties
| to minors who wished to get cigarettes. All
that was necessary was to have some boy
| over 16 years OF age purchase the cigarettes,
which they could divide afterwards.
And unless the. Senator from Ok
| inquisit0rial system which should authorize
the arrest and examination Of minors having
| cigarettes in their possession. there would
| not be much danger of prosecution under the
| bill. The bill as reported originally was sat
isfactory to the petitioners who appeared
before the committee, and certain OF them
had expressed to him preference for no
legislation which did not contain substan-
TALLY the provisions prohibiting smoking IN
public by minors. Mr.. Libby further said
that the amendment If adopted would be of
so little value that he should not support the
bill.
Later Mr.. Libby offered an amendment
inserting the word knowingly In the sec
tion prohibiting the sale Of cigarettes on
the ground that trader SHOULD not be open
to prosecution unless he was guilty OF an
intentional violation Of the law. The Senate
thought otherwise and voted the amend
ment down. Mr.. Libby said that the amend
ment by Mr.. Wright ought to be entitled.
AN act to punish traders and encourage
the smoking of minors in public"
Senator Lord favored the original bill. but
If he could not obtain that, he would accept
fhe amendment as better than nothing.
Senator Daggett favored the original bill,
and offered an amendment prohibiting the
sale to any person. but this was ruled out.
Senator Heath favored the original bill but
was ready to support the amended bill.
So was Mr.. Walton.
Senator Poor said that the use of cigarettes
was great evil To his place great many
summer visitors resorted. Many of these
were young people, and great many OF
them, the young ladies as we'll as the young
men, were accustomed to smoke cigarettes.
He favored legislation against it.
Senator Wright Of Oxford, in advocating
his amendment, said he objected to the last
section of the original bill because 1t was
going step beyond. He claimed that in
to stores to buy supplies for the families, and
very frequently to buy snuff and tobacco;
and it was necessary TO sell such articles
sometimes to minors under l6 years OF age,
duu ~ was lidulc w PidCC tllC otOlChCCpCIo III
bad position and subject them to a good
deal of trouble, annoy ance and frequently to
much cost, If the law was enforced, and
while he was heartily in favor Of the sup
preston Of the sale Of cigarettes, he thought
the bill went too far, that it was cigarettes
that boys bought and began smoking on,
and when we prohibited the sale of them we
struck at the root of the evil. He also op
posed section four, and moved to strike that
out, which provided fine to any person uh-
der 16 years of age who smoked any cigarette
or tobacco in any form in any street, alley
way, park, scnool-yard, public conveyance,
place OF amusement, or other place of
resort, claiming that it was neither consist
ent nor good legislation to discriminate be-
tween a person Is years of age and one Of 16
years Of age as to punishment for the same
act, making one liable to penalty and the
other not for the same act, and that 1t was
more likely to injure the boy who might be
caught smoking, than it was to benefit him.
The boy whose parents were able to pay his
fine would be saved the stigma of going to
jail, while another must suffer the disgrace,
and it might be the stepping stone to q life of
crime. He claimed that our State. in its wise
and effective prohibitory legislation on the
liquor traffic, had not gone to the extent to
punish the person who drank glass of
liquor, unless we got drunk and disturbed
the peace, and he thought he ought not to
commence the policy in this act, by imposing
the pepalties proposed, upon the indiscreet
boy who got led away by his older comrade
when he had only committed the indiscre-
tion of smoking cigarette, which his COM
rade, only one month older, could lawfully
do. He claimed il the law prohibited the
sale of the cigarette, it would accomplish
every purpose desired by the friends of the
bill. and he was heartily in favor of bill to
that effect.
The Senate passed Senator Wright's
amendment and the bill, as amended, was
passed to be engrossed.
The Forestry Bill.
In the House this forenoon, the forestry
bill, which was drawn up by a committee Of
the forestry convention held in Bangor last
fall, was reported unfavorably by the COM
mittee on agriculture; The objections to
templated the appointment of officers, who
were to be paid, and provisions In the bill
which contemplated large penalties when
the law was violated. There were many
provisions in the bill which met with ap-
proval, but it was thought that the law al
ready in force was sufficient for present pur-
poses. When the question came up Mr..
Robie, of Gorham, said that the bill was
originally presented by him by request OF
the friends of the bill that he was not in
favor of all of It's provisions. 1t was, how
ever, great question, for sixty per centum
| OF the area of our territory. was forest.
| And this qeestion of forestry was eliciting
| the earnest attention of our National and all
| said Mr.. Robie, received large volume
| from the State of Michigan, which is an ex-
! haustive report of the forest commission of
4 that State. / notice that one of the provis-
| ions Of the law fixes no compensation for the
| commissioners. but requires that their
| services shall be gratuit0us. "he
commission is filled by some
| Of the leading men Of the State which GER
| tainly shows the personal interest they take
| in this matter. The present law was for
mufated at Bangor, and received the unani-
| nous approval of many of our farmers and
| some Of the most influential men in our
| State. think under the circumstances that
courtesy to them would require that this
matter should not be dismissed summarily;
but should 60 over to the next legislature for
| further deliberatien in regard to the OBJ
| jectiouable features OF this bill. / therefore
move that this matter be referred to the
next legislature"
Mr.. Talbot, of East Machias, followed
fayoring the motion.
Mr.. Burleigh, of Vassalboro, explained the
reasons Of the report of the committee as
given in the first paragraph Of this article.
The motion Of Mr.. Robie prevailed by a
large majority.
Portland and Rochester.
The Portland & Rochester railroad ena-
bling bill came into the House from the rail-
road committee this forenoon, that commit