The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-03-26


lpanies have been incorporated.
The above is a pretty good sum
mary of The POSITIVE work, y It'll
reference to general laws, done b,
the late General Assembly, but h,
no means shows all or half of tn,
work of that nature done for the in
terest Of the State and its citizens
generally. 1t has been said that tn;
most important work that a Legisla
ture can do, is in checking and kill
ing bad legislation. This kind o.
Legislation is NEGATIVE in its action
but highly POSITIVE in its results
So here and now we wish to congrat
ulate the General Assembly Tor rath.
er with becoming mode5ty we should
say the OTHER MEMBERS Of the
General Assembly, not only fol
what it did, but also for what it had
the courage NOT TO DO. There were
dozens of such bills that were killed
out right or altered and amended So
as TO be rid of objectional features
But as an illustration of this class
we will give only one, viz, the pro-
position of the w. & w. Railroad to
pay ii certain rate Of taxation, (nuch
lower than that paid by the ordina-
ry citiZen), on the express condition
it be allowed certain extraordinary
privileges which the Legislature
would not think of granting to a
new and weak road, which would
most need privileges. This was kill
ed on the ground that it asked the
State to recognize one system or ba-
sis of taxation for the Individual and
another and alower basis fora corpor-
alton, one too that was immensely
wealthy.
This bill never got to the House.
It was killed in the Senate by vote of
% to IA. 1t is true that some of the
best men of the State advocated this
proposition, but we of course must
admit that they were honestly mis-
taken. If this bill had passed, the
bill last referred to in the summary
above, c'uld not have passed-a bill
which will probably within two
years make the w. & w. Road pay
taxes in full.
There were few bills that passed
that should not have passed, but they
were slipped through in the rush of
business toward the last, when it
was impossible for every measure to
be carefully examined. But such is
and has been the evil of the Legisla-
ture being crowded with local and
private legislation; and thus it al
ways will be till such legislation is
restricted. We hope the next Gen
eral Assembly will see the wisdom
in doing this.
There were number of bills that
failed to pass that should have pass
ed; but most of these failed for
want of quorum in the House on
the two last days Of the session. For
instance, bill would come up from
its place on the calendar, forty-two
men would vote for it and only five
against it, but one of the five would
call attention 20 the fact that there
was not quorum (6l) IN the House,
so the bill would fail to pass because
quorum did not vote on it. One
Of the many bills that was killed in
this way, that should have passed,
was the one regulating the damages
to be awarded parties whose stock
was killed by railroads. The defeat
of this and other equally important
bills which failed to pass on Satur-
DAY ana Monday in the House after
having passed the Senate, rests upon
the heads of those who were not pre-
sent.
But the interest bill, much to the
disappointment of, we believe, a
great majority of the people, failed
to pass when a quorum was present.
We fear that the only way for the
people to get such measure through
is to pledge their representatives for
it as they did on the Railroad Com
mission.
Such is Il bird eye view of the
work of the General Assembly of
1891. From time to time we will
discuss various measures of impor-
lance before that body.
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