Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-19
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HARRISBURG, March 1S.-It continues
to be firmly asserted that the Legislature
will adjourn April %, but in spite of that,
another effort to limit the business before it
was firmly and decidedly squelched in the
House tonight. Chairman Dearden, of the
Appropriations Committee, offered a resolu-
tion providing for the appointment of
committee of Is members to Gull all legisla-
tion of general and public Importance from
the regular calendars, and from them into
special calendar to take precedence of all
other bills.
Mr.. Dearden talked strongly concerning
the necessity for this action. There are
bills on the calendar, he declared, that are
more important than some others, because
they are designed for the whole State in
stead of for locality. He didn't seem to
think there were great many of them,
however, for he later declared that there
were probably not 25 bills before the Legis-
lature outside the general revenue bill
and the appropriation bills, that were vital
to the welfare of the Commonwealth, and
he was not prepared to say that the passage
of all appropriation bills is necessity.
ADJOURNMENT NOT WANTED.
Mr.. Dearden said the important bills
were scattered all through the calendars,
and perhaps some of them were near the end
OF it. He had submitted his proposition to
many able minds, and they agreed with him
that it was an excellent idea to separate the
wheat from the chaff. This is why he ap-
pealed to the good judgment and fairness of
the House. Mr.. Dearden, however, didn't
find the good Judgment and fairness of
the House where he expected to find
it. The members who were present
had evidently made up their minds that
adjournment is not an unmixed blessing,
and after great deal of vigorous debate
the motion of two Democrats-Messrs. Mac
Donald and Quigley-te indefinitely post
pone the resolution, was carried by a very
large majority of very slim House. Chair
man Andrews was absent from his accus-
toned seat when this declaration of inde-
pendence was made and the rebellious Re-
publicans will probably hear something
confidential from him when he returns.
Mr.. Brooks was more fortunate than Mr..
Dearden in an effort to carry out the Re-
publican policy. He met an onslaught to-
night, led by Mr.. Macdonald, the brilliant
young member from Lackawanna, repulsed
it in spite of the evident fairness of the lat
ter's proposition. Mr.. Macdonald asked
special order for his bill to restore the
license fees in cities of the third class
to what they had been before the Supreme
Court of the State knocked out the classif-
cation act, and explained his position
clearly.
HIGHER LICENSE FEES THIS YEAR.
The Brooks bill, he said, passed at the
session of 1887, had fixed the license fee in
cities of the first, second and third classes
in other words, in Philadelphia, Pittsburg
and Allegheny-at $500, and in all other
cities at 5000. 1t was the intention of the
Legislature when it passed the law that
all cities but the three named should
pay the smaller sum, and the Supreme
Court having decided against more than
three classes of cities, those that had been
classified as fourth-class cities and lower be-
came by the decision third-class cities, and
the license fee is raised by the letter of the
law in them to $500. He asked that the
House conform to the intents of the last
Legislature by amending the law.
Mr.. Marshall, of Allegheny, called at
tention to the fact that Mr.. MacDonald's
bill made the license fees in all third-class
cities $500, and Allegheny, as third-class
city, was not clamoring for it. The liquor
dealers there were willing to pay for license
Mr.. Brooks defeated the plea for special
order by telling the House that once the
matter of amending the license law was
opened up there was no telling where it
might end. Consequently it ought not to
begin at time when the people were pre-
pairing to take another step in advance on
the liquor question. Mr.. Quigley objected
to Mr.. Brooks acting as dictator of, the
House, but the House seemed to like it, and
liquor legislation will therefore not be per-
mitted to interfere with an early adjourn
ment