The record-union., 1891-02-20
ASSEMBLY,.

House assembled at 10 o'clock, Speaker
Coombs in the chair. Roll called and
quorum present. Prayer by the Chaplain.
Journal approved.
ing to the leasing of wharYeS, ETC., under
the control ofthe Harbor Commissioners,
be made special order for this afternoon
at o'clock. Carried.
Mr.. Phillips in the chair.
Mr.. Gould moved that S. Is. 176 be sub
stituted for a. B. 17S and be read the first
time. The bills are identical, and pro-
vide Tor the ascertaining of the will of the
people of the State upon the subject of
election of United States Senators. The
motion was carried and the bill read
Mr.. Gould then moved to suspend the
rules and place A. BIS 2, 3, q, % and 40
known as the ballot reform bills" and
now resting far down the file at Nos. 1s6
to 100, incluSiye), upon the special file.
Mr.. Dibble objected strongly to this,
saying that it would virtually set aside
the rules of the House and open the way
for every member. who had bills that he
especially desired to push through to use
the action as precedent
Some debate ensued, when Mr.. Gould
closed by saying that he should not have
thought of making the motion except for
the action Of the House on yesterday. On
that occasion he had taken exactly Mr..
Dibble's position, and had protested
against forcing forward bill which was
solely directed toward an individual case
(Mr. Gould alluded to the married wo-
man administrators bill,' which was
made a special order for this morn
ing). Despite his protest the bill
had been placed under special orders,
and when he found that special legisla-
ton and vicious legislation was placed
before legislation which was demanded
by the whole people, he desired to see
III
in the matter. If they would refuse to
consider these bills, which the people
We're waiting to see passed, and leave
them in obscurity and in danger of being
smothered entirely, he desired the people
of the State to know it.
The roll was called on the motion, with
the following result: Ayes 40, noes is.
Notwithstanding this vote, call of the
House was demanded. The absentees
were many, and included the Speaker of
the House. When the doors were closed
the Speaker pro tenn. declared recess.
AS the question of moving up the bills
had assumed the importance of test of
the House on ballot reform, besides STIR
ring political partisanship to it's depths,
the recess was remarkably lively. A
truce seemed to be declared between the
| belligerent chiettainS, who were the CEN
ter OF large group, dimly seen through
| the smoke of their cigars, fraternally eX-
changing epithets of varied brilliancy.
| The great doors of the Assembly cham
Der and the little door of the Sergeant-at-
Arms room were tightly closed, when
suddenly there appeared on the floor of
the House the truant Speaker, for whom,
among others, the Sergeant-at-Arms was
supposed to be searching. 1t was whis-
pered that he had entered by the window,
which he had reached through the win
dow of the Sergeant-at-Arms' room.
When the HOrSp was called IN Orfjnr
Mr.. Phillips was still in the chair and
pandemonium ensued. Personalities
were indulged in and every inch of
ground fought with all the weapons of
parliamentary usuage. The matter finally
resolved itself into recalling OF the roll +,
on Mr.. Gould's original motion with the
| following result:
Ayes Ames, Barnett of Sonoma,
Beecher, Bert, Biedsoe, Brown, Brusie,
Cargill, Cunningham, Dennis, Doty,
Dunn, Burner, Eallle, Estey, Fowler,
Freeman, Carver, Gould, Harloe, Haw-
Lynch Marion, Martin, Mathews, Nc
Call, Mordecai, Murnan, Murphy, Rem
fro, Rice, Robertson, Shanahan, Smith of
Butte, Smith of Orange, Stabler, Sturte-
want, Tennis, Weston, Young-f4.
Noes-Alexander, Barnard, Barnett of
San Francisco, Baughman, Bruner,
Bryant, Carter, Coffey, Cram, Culver,
Hail, Hayes, Hersey, Hunewill, John
son, Jones. Kellogg. Lowe, Lux, Matlock,
Phillips, Steltz, Tully, Wentworth, Mr..
Speaker-3o.
Mr.. Gould then moved that the same
bills be taken up out of order that they
might be made a special order for Tues
day morning.
This precipitated a fresh discussion,
which terminated only with the morning
hour.
Mr.. Shanahan claimed that the opposi-
ton to the motion was in reality opposi-
ton to ballot reform, and charged that
those voting against it would be found,
when the issue came, voting against the
motion.
Mr.. Dibble said that. the claim that the
opposition to the motion il an opposition
TO ballot reform is not borne out by facts.
He had himself prepared one of the bills
which Mr.. Gould wished to take up, with
view of reaching the evils which We're
justly claimed to exist, but he did not