The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-24
THE NEXT LEGISLATURE.
SOON TO MEET AND BEGIN ITS
 WORK.

SOON TO MEET AND BEGIN fTs
 WORK. sous os the Interesting and Notable Meas urss to Come Before the Asssmbiy-rhe secret Ballot Law Imperfeotions-im- porsant Action by tho Connecticut Jewel ers' Association.
 The new general assembly will meet in Hartford on Wednesday. January 3. when Governor cofiin will be inaugu' rated. There will be general disposi- ton among the members to cut down the session from a month to six weeks. adjourning not later than the middle Of May. The house will be In working order within week after the inausura- tion.
 The speakership contest is considered as settled. Samuel Fessenden of Stam- ford will no doubt receive the honor or a nomination by exclamation, and VIII be able to appoint the committees at the beginning of the second week or the session. The chairmanship Of the judiciary committee will be the chief bone of contention in the house. It's po,ssssion, by common consent. carries with 1t party leadership on the floor. Invariably the honor Is given to law yer. Speaker Fessenden will have an unusual number of lawyers to pick from, not only for the judiciary. but also for other prominent and influential committeeships.
 An important interest that will come up at the next session will be secret ballot reform. The present statute pro- yiding for a secret ballot was adopted in 1889. The legislature of 1893 made no attempt to change the law. The imper- fections of the statute under which the deadlock session of 1891 was brought about were not even removed. There are features of the law that could be wiped out without loss. and improve ments that are necessary. The print ing of the tickets by letters other than uniform, so that the candidates name may appear in its customary form, should be allowed. The decision of the style and form of letter, however, would be safely left as now, in the hands of the secretary of state.
 There has been a world Of confusion over the present method of using but one form of letter in printing the tick cts But the chief trouble with the law has come from the distribution of off, cial envelopes at the polls. They are now given out from the envelope booths, but there Is no possible opportunity for determining the hour of their issue. The number of official envelopes that have been illegally secured is, no doubt, considerable throughout the state. The reform that will be asked in this direc- tion will be the stamping of the hour of issue of all envelopes distributed from the booths by the envelope tend CTS. The ballot-box tenders will be re- uuired to note the hour at which the envelope was issued, and call the voter to account if there is any marked dis crepancy between the time of receiving the envelope and the moment of its de- posit with the ballot-box tender. This would cut of the possibility of secur- ing off1ciat envelopes for fraudulent purpoeeA
 A strong and united effort by the jew elers of the United States is being put forth to obtain legislation to provide for the stamping of silver manufactures as a means of protection to the public and to prevent glaring frauds upon buyers which are consequent upon the absence of a law upon the subject, In this state the jewellers association re- gently formed has taken immediate and decided action in the matter and the incoming legislature will be asked to pass a law on the subject for the pro- lection of the public and in the inter- est of honest dealing. The Jewellers Circular in its last issue reports that action on this subject has thus far been taken dn two states requiring the stamp ing of silver goods and that action which will no doubt be favorable will soon be taken in nine other states, with more to be heard from, and the pre- sumption is that all the states will fall in line in the matter. General George H. Ford of this city, who is president of the Connecticut Jewellers association, says that the association will, at it's next meeting, act upon a proposed bill for an amendment to the Connecticut law on the subject. The proposed amendment provides for an alteration of section of an act so that 1t shall read $500 instead of $500, and imprison-