Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1894-05-24

ments to the Revised statutes-Seyeral
Important Bills Passed-A Review of
the Work Done.
COLUMBUS. o., May 90.
The Seyenty-first general assembly
passed into history at high noon Monday,
after more or less eventful life of near
ly live months. 1t could Just as well
have adjourned month ago if the sem
ate had been as favorably disposed toward
the biennial session movement as was
the house. If that question had been
settled the first week in the session as il
ought, and if the senators on the finance
committee had done their work as
promptly as did the house committee, an
adjournment could have been safely eff
fected as early as April 21, or at latest
May l. But be that as it may, an ad-
Journment for two years on May 81 is
not very bad record, all things consid-
cred This legislature found the states
finances over-aDpropriated to the extent
OF nearly half a million, and had the
sand to issue bonds enough to straighten
up that discrepancy. 1t had to pay nearly
$3OO,OOO of expenses of the last fiscal
year in the shape of deficiencies, which
amount had to come of this years rev
enues. 1t passed several revenue bills
that, it is expected, will bring in enough
money to run the state government and
probably cause "a reduction in the state
tax levy during the life of the next gen.
eral assembly.
The chief thing that this legislature is
to be criticized for is the indiscriminate
manner in which the revised statutes
have been .
Amended, Supplemented and Repealed.
The statute book has been almost lit
orally torn to pieces; there Is not much
left but the covers. Sections have been
amended for the most trivial reasons;
they have been supplemented until the
supplemental letters are nearly down to
the letter z; many have been absolutely
repealed. 1t takes two pages of type
written letter paper simply to enumerate
the numbers of the sections of the sta
tutes that have been thus affected. and the
secretary of states Office has been issu-
ing bulletins for the information of the
members and the public on the changes
that were going on daily. For instance,
the section of the statutes governing the
compensation of county commissioners
has been an especial target for supple
mental sections. All the large counties
of the state have section touching this
subject, and now many of the smaller
ones are coming in and each gets SEC
ton all to itself.
This legislature has been more con-
servative in the matter of authorizing
the issuing of bonds by local authorities
for any purpose. Not one bill for the
encouragement of manufacturing has
passed. The total amount of bonds au-
thorized is not far from $5,OOO,O0O, and
$1,00O,0O0 of this is for the city of Cleve-
land for new city hall, ard not one
dollar. of this can be issued until out
standing bonds are redeemed and paid
off, because of law enacted this winter
limiting the amount of bonds to per
cent of the total appraised value of tax
able property. Another commendable
feature of the great majority of the bills
passed is the submission to vote of the
people that has been uniformly insisted
upon. Probably nine-tenths of all these
bonding bills have had this provision in
serted either by the author of the bills
themselves or by the committees that
have reported them. And eventhe mill
ion dollars for Cleveland was
Submitted to a Vote of the People
before the bill was passed. Many of
these bonding bills were caused by the
hard times and were passed to give en-
ployment and relief to the unemployed
in several of the larger cities and towns
of the state. Altogether the bond record
Of the Seventy-frst general assembly has
been better than any of its predecessors
for many years, or better than any one
session of its predecessors for many
years.
Several members and senators have
worked hard on intricate and important |
bills, only to see the fruits of their ef- 4
forts go down in wreck before the ses-
sion closed. Mr.. Locke of Madison sat |
up nights and worked like a Trojan on a
judicial bill, only to find after he had re- |
ported it to the house and obtained q |
special order for it, that it could not pass |
the senate, so he gave up in despair and |
never pressed his measure farther. Mr..
Ely of Fulton spent all of his spare mo-
ments getting up bill to reduce the
compensation of county officials all over
the state. He got the bill through the
house, but it fell down in the senate last
Friday night through the injudicious act
OF one OF its warm supporters. Mr..
Griffin put much time and study upon
bill to tax railroads on a different basis
than now used, but he reported the bill
so late that the house committed the bill
to the committee on taxation and that
was the last of that measure. Senator
Whittlesey put in much time on bill to
amend the Nichols law. It was once
on the senate calendar for special Or
der, but it was recommitted to a COM
mittee and it was so late in the session
that it was impossible to get it out
again. Major Palmer of Cuyahoga
county spent
Much Time and Gray Matter