Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-11-18
THE LEGISLATURE.
The School Bill, Establishing the Town
System, Becomes Law.

System, Becomes n Law.
The Senate Refuses to Make Women
Noters---Thc Danville Contested IleC-
ton CRse---A New Ballot Law---GOOd
Progress i'm the General Work Of Leg
IslatIOn.
The legislature has advanced the work of
the session with unusual rapidty during
the past week. The most important work
done is the passage of the school law re-
commended by the committee on educa-
tion. But few changes were made in the
bill as originally introduced. The new law
is printed in full in this issue, and it will
be read with interest. The bill appropriat-
ing an additional $14,500 for the Worlds
Fair has also passed both houses.
Next in importance to the school law is
the bill for a new secret ballot law reported
by the committee on elections. The COM
mittee preface the bill with the statement
that they have made up and submitted this
bill, as a substitute for all others proposed,
in order to simplify the statutes as far as
possible, and to prevent adding confusion
to confusion by needless changes. Their
remarks show good spirit toward the Sc
cret ballot system:
The people, so far as your committee can ascer-
tain, desire an act simple, direct and specific,
plainly detailing what is to be done and who is to
do it, On careful examination of the act of 1890,
it seems to accomplish just this, with a few keep
tions, to which your committee have directed
their attention and endeavored to confine their
work. We have adopted and Incorporated into
this bill, now recommended, most OF the sug
gestions contained i'm the various bills introduced
at this session, and have carefully examined the
numerous suggestions named otherwise; but your
committee, keeping in mind that the statutes of
the state previous to 1880 are still IN force fail TO
discover the many defects in the law of 1880, so
numerously suggested since the passage of a law
which, when carried into practical operation,
even as an experiment has convinced many of
its wisdom who were reluctant 10 adopt it; 80
your committee think that the original act should
be as little disturbed as may be- and that the leg
islature should not go further at this stage of the
experiment than to add provisions to meet condi-
tlons in the application of the system which were
unseen or undeveloped when the act was origin
ally framed
We deem il specially important that what the
voter has to do himself should not be changed,
unless such changes absolute necessity,
and to supply certain wants or omissions in some
parts of the machinery The voter has passed
through this system once as it now is. He has
got it more or less fixed in his mind II he is
compelled to do differently ,rwere better that
he never had practiced any system.
Your committee hesitated the most on the subject
OF embamatc ballots. To an educated man an
emblem is inspiring, and tends to promote zeal
In the caus II represents, but il may be doubtful
whether it directs a voter as promptly and accu
rately would the plain printed word DEMO
see, read, the emblem would seldom suggest
to hun the location Of party ticket"
The most important change proposed is
the very wise one that the candidates of
each party be placed in separate columns
by themselves, instead of being placed on
the ballot one after the other as now:
IAN the nominations of each political party
shall be arranged in separate column on the
ballots The first column on the left hand side Of
said ballots shall contain the names of the NOM
inees OF the Republican party; the second column,
those of the Democratic party; the third column,
those of the Prohibition party, and the order Of
such other nominations as may be made shall be
determined by the clerk whose duty it is to pre-
pare the ba4lot in such manner as to most clearly
distinguish the nominations from each other aud
each party ticket shall be separated from the
other party ticket and bordered on either side by
black parallel lines at least one eighth of an inch
In width"
The woman suffrage bill, which went
through the house with such flourish two
weeks ago, met its expected fate in the
senate when the grave and reverend mem
bers of that body gave it a black eye Is to
TO- The members of the house, who so
it their votes, quietly chuckle over the re-
suit with an I-told-you-so' wink. The
yea and nay vote in the senate on ordering
the bill to a third reading stood Yea
Amsden, Ball, Boyce, Dawson, Foster,
t Gleason, Grout, Haskins, Mather, Vail
I Nay-Abell Beeman, Brock, Brownell,
Burnell, Clark Dubois, Hall, Hathaway
7 Hyde Lincoln, Mead, Orvis, Pitkin, Proc
+ tor, Sanford, Turner, Watson.
A lively proceeding of Tuesday evening
was the hearing on the Rutland city char
y rer question before the special committee
r having the bill in charge, and who went tC
+ Rutland and looked the ground over fol
n themselves. Mr.. Clement, the father o.
n the bill, wants the whole town incorporated
. others want only the present village anC
d.. school district put under city government
n and still others think there is no need of
f city government at all. j. c. Baker anC
l. T. w. Moloney of Rutland, ex-Gov. Dill
e bingham and C. A. Prouty of Newpor
/. were the leading legal lights who argued
q for the contending factions. The plan o
g the committee, as finally made up, take
in considerable more territory than tn
- village limits, and is more of victory fo
% the Clement faction than for their oppo
nents.
o The hotly-contested Danville election
n case was decided Tuesday by vote to Civ
). Mr.. Davis, the sitting member, his seat
d although the committee reported agains
n him. The claim was that Mr.. Davis wa
l. not elected according to the provisions q
the new ballot law. From the committed
report it appeared that twenty odd ballot
used in the Danville election had not bee
properly indorsed by the ballot clerk an
Is if those were not thrown out the vot
t. would stand a tie; if they were throw
J. out, Morse, the contestant, was elected
y But there also appeared to be one vot
II which had not been reckoned. The eros
,e was made by the voter below where
If should have been made. Stafford of 81
IS Johnsbury led the fight for Davis agains
$ the committees report, and won it, A
attempt to reconsider, made Wednesday
's on the plea that the action of the hous