The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-08
LAWMAEINC FOR The STATE
A Jewish Rabbi Oilers the Prayer at
the Opening Of the Session.

The Attendance Very Slim-The Bill
to Repeal the Law Requiring In
spection of Weights and Measures
Recommitted-A Bill to Make Per
Cent. the Maximum Rate of Inter-
est Protection for Newspapers
Against Suits for Alleged Libel.
Atlanta, aGa., Nov. For the first
time in its history, the House was opened
this morning with prayer by Jewish
rabbi Rev. Mr. Farber, of Macon, de-
Hvered the prayer.
The attendance was again very slim, a
bare quorum being present.
a full hour was spent in reading bills
the second time.
The monotony was broken by the in
PRODUCTION of local bill by Mr. Mcbride,
of HARRISON, which provides for the
time of holding court in the counties com
prising the Talapoosa circuit.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
In the state there is law in existence
which requires dealers by weights and
measures to have their machines tested
by he ordinary, they receiving a seal and
certificate. AS the law stands it is in
operative. Even if the weights were
found correct they are known to have
been altered at will afterwards and there
was no way to prevent this. The law
has, in consequence, fallen into disuse
Mr. Boynton, of Forsyth, recently offered
bill repeating that section of the code
The matter came up for disposition this
morning. Twice quorum failed to vote
On motion of Mr.. Boynton, the bill was
then recOmmitted to the general judiciary
committee
THE INTEREST RATE.
Mr. McWhorter of Greene, introduced
q bill to amend the act regulating the
rate of interest in the state of Georgia
1t provides that the legal rate of interest
in the state shall be 6per cent. per annum
where the rate per cent. is not named in
the contract, and any higher rate must
be specified in writing, but in no event to
exceed per cent.
MIR. Fleming, Of Richmond, wants SEQ
coo appropriated by the state to the
University of Georgia, to be used for
equipping and maintaining the state
normal school, located at Rock College,
at Athens. He offered a bill to that
effect to-day. Mr. Fleming also sought
this morning to have both sexes attend
the branch state normal school of the
University, instead of only males as at
present.
PROTECTION FOR NEWSPAPERS.
MIR Boifeuillet, of Bib, introduced an
important bill, protecting newspapers
against unwarranted prosecutions The
bill directs that before any suit is brought
for an alleged libelous publication the ag-
grieved party must, at least three days
before filing his suit, serve notice in
writing on the publishers of the news
papers in question, specifying the state
ments claimed to be false and defama-
tory. If it appears on the trial of
the case that the article was upublished
in good faith and that full and fair re-
traction of the alleged erroneous publica-
ton was given in the next regular issue
OF the newspaper, or within three days
after notice, the plaintiff shall then re-
cover only actual damages. The actual
damages means only such damages as a
party has suffered in his property or
business interests.
The bill amending the charter of the
city of Atlanta in the following respects:
''To increase the jurisdiction of the re-
corders court; to provide for the semi
annual payment of taxes, has passed.