Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-24

State, to adequately supply the whole Stat
with transportation facilities
The Governor gives statistical review Of tn
growth of freight and other trafic and says:
believe that careful review OF the presen
situation In respect TO railroad development
and Investment in this State Will reveal moth
ing that should create serious apprehension
or discouro cement
The Board OF Railroad Commissioners IN thei
last report recommended some additional legis
lation In respect to the functions exercised by
them, which appear to me to be Just ant
adapted TO increase the usefulness and enc
| lency OF that office. The first relates to the en-
actment OF appropriate provisions for the due
| enforcement OF their orders and decisions
| CThe board, the Governor says, represents the
state, and suitable provision should be made Il
give l'gal sanction to their decisions and secure
compliance Herewith The second is OF growing
| Importance It is to confer on the board The
power to require the adoption OF joint freight
tariffs upon freights passing between two points
In the State on two or more railroads In order tc
| prevent unjust discrimination the Governor re
| commends greater power be given the railroad
Commissioners and that the boa be clothed
with unQuestionable power to enforce its or
| ders and decisions1
| TEMPERANCE.
The growth OF public sentiment in support OF
Constitutional Prohibition in Kansas is steady,
healthy, and unmistakable. In the last cam
paign no political party had the temerity to de.
mand resubmission Of the question to the
people. in the face OF popular verdict that has
oeen repeated and emphasized every time tie
popular sense has been taken As an issue In
Kansas folitics, resubmisson is as dead as
slavery. The saloon as factor in politics. as a
moral iniquity, has been outlawed and made a
fugitive and vagabond on the face of the
earth or that part of 1t within the territorial
limits OF Kansas
The present legislation in aid of Prohibitorv
amendment is perhaps not perfect nor free
from objections, but so nearly satisfactory that
doubt II public opinion demands any radical
revision; and law should but be public opinion
pssse over into public will. Results Justify the
opinion. The law generally is being re-
spected and enforced, because by sort
OF educational process it is becoming
identified in the public mind with other
criminal statutes. The records NJ
courts and of prisons, from the city caIaboose
10 the penitentiary, show diminution of crime
and falllng-oh in our prison population, bear
ing the most incontestable evidence of the
efficiency Of the present state of the law and of
the Prohibitory policy which the law is designed
to enforce.
PUBLIC PRINTING.
The work done by the public printer is fully
up to the high standard maintained in that office
for many years. But we are evidently paving
too much for the public printing. The cost to
the State for the fiscal year ending June 90
1885,. was Sl32,771G7, and for 1885, $50 2oS. IA; d
total for the biennial period just past of s19A-
sSl. or this amount there was expended in
1884, $4,000 for paper and binding stock and in
1883 49, ,379 81 for the same purpose-a total of
S5o.319.54 Adding to this s. 329 SO paid for pub
hshlng the laws and for miscellaneous work
not done by the State Printer, there remains
S139, ,270. So for labor and profit
IIhe Governor imputeS no blame to the State
Pr1nter, who is operating under an old law, but
sug ests refo rm in the system of printing un-
necessary matter. In regard to alien
ownership of lands Governor Hum
phrey recommends the enactment of laws to
enforce the constitutional amendment lately
adopted
MINING LAWS.
A serious disaster occurred recently in q coal
mine at Frontenac, Crawford County whereby
nearly half hundred men ut work in the mine
lost their lives in a most shocking manner.
through an explosion, the precise cause or ma
ture OF which seems to be matter of dispute
ana great difference OF opinion, even among
and well-informed persons. Re
yret and sympathy are universal over the sad
event; and without reference here to the dis
outed question of immediate responsibility at
entlon is challenged to the more profitable |
INQUIRY, whether, by any further legislation, |
he danger OF like misfortunes in future may |
lot in degree be reduced. if not largely re- |
moved. The mining interests Of the State are /
apidly increasing, and the Importance Of |
roper legislation regulating the su ject of |
mines and mining can not be over stated 1t |
involves health and life TO those who toll in the |
mines. Humanity demands for them every
'osslble protection. The law would swiftly
nd severely punish any one who shall wilfully
eglect or fail TO observe any precaution re-
uired and imposed by the Legislature on that
ub1ect: and the question OF such further legis-
alton is urged upon your early attention.
Frequent complaint is heard By coal miners
hat they are imposed upon by their employers
n regard 10 the manner Of adjusting coal
Green's whereby their meager earnings are re-
uced and they are made to suffer no inconsid-
rable hardships. 1t is believed that law pro-
iblting mine superintendents, operators or
bremen from widening of screen bars or
hanging the elevation of screens, after con-
ract with the miners, would remedy this evil,
nd urye the matter upon your attention
lit is recommended that the death penalty
'r murder should be either abolished in ex-
ress terms or made more effectuaL The Gov
rnor also deprecates the practice OF deferrIng
ction on appropriation bills until near the
lose OF the sessions OF the Legislature as un-
Use and unsafe.
CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION
It detracts nothing from the acknowledged
isdom OF the trainers of our Constitution to
~ that it is now very defective. Our marvel
Us development and changed conditions i'm
Ossible of anticipation when it was devised
III now for revision. Kansas has outgrown
lany of its provisions and limitations. At the |
me OF admission the population of the State |
ID not exceed 120,00) There were but thirty | ,
rganized counties and five judicial districts, |
lch with population of about 2IOO) The
legislature consisted OF one hundred members.
yenty five Senators and seventy-five Rsore-
'ntatives. If based on population each Repre- |
'ntative would have represented about sixteen
lndred people. Then there was not mir of
ilroad in the State. Now we have 5000 miles ]
operation, with population approximat.ug {
le million and three-Quarters with twenty .
ne Judicial districts, with a population Of ,
'out 1900. There are in the State L. organ
ed counties, maintaining separate county ,
and more than 10000 common !
hools supported. and successfully conducted
lder our grand system of free popular cducs>
On The Kansas of to-day has reached tn.
st proportions Of an empire, requiring re- !
iustment of her organic laws to suit the pre- C
mt needs. v
THE Constitution limits the number Of Rel, 4
sentatives to 125. Eighty-eight only of the II
ganizrd counties are represented in the /
)wer House; an apportionment can OILY be | !
ade once in five years, and consequently ,
yhteen counties organized since the last ap- y
rtionment. with population of "a, 900 people Y
casting 1900 votes at the late election, are II
cluded from representation by the constitu t
nal limitations. Tae Governor however. t.
n see no remedy for these gross inequalities d
lich must be borne until the needful changes >,
the fundamental law shall bring relief .
,der the present system of apportionmen.
which Senators and Representatives arc =
'cted the Governor thinks it apparent that u
3 attempt to secure speedy and equal repre- G.
ntation under existing constitutional condi- N
ms, is not brilliant success. Under the
,nnial system he believes the limitation O;
sessions TO fifty DAYS is no longer adyisahle