Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-09-13
AGAINST PRISON LABOR.
Convention Passes an Amend
 ment to Abolish 1t.
BIPARTISAN BOARDS OF ELECTION.
The Proposition to Extend the Alien citi- xenship Limit Adaptcd-The Railroad Pass to Bs BMnished From Legislative Haiis-A Lively Debate.

ments for the consideration of tho people next November is concerned, consists of final action upon these measures by the appended vote:
 | citizen for at least 50 days before he shall be allowed to cast a yote-yeas, lo2; uays, 54.
 Providing that legislative annual ses sions shall open on tho first Wednesday in January instead of the first Tuesday after the first Monday, as now-yeas, 123; maya :.
 Making It a misdemeanor to give to any public officer. or for any such official to take, a railroad pass, free transportation, | franking privileges or reduced rates, and granting immunity to corporation officers | who give evidence against public officers accepting such passes-yeas, s6; nays, A. Providing that there shall not be any prison labor competition with outside ia- bor, and that no goods shall be manufac- tured in the state prisons except for the | use of state institutions and for the i'm provement of the prisons themselves yeas, 91; nays, 51.
 Providing for bipartisan boards of cleo tion at general elections in all election | districts of the state, cities included, ex- | cept town and village elections-yeas, l23: nays, 9.
 Prison Labor and Politics. By far the liveliest fight of the day in the convention occurred upon the amend ment introduced by Mr Mcdonald of Albany, to prohibit prison labor competi- | tion and to allow the prisoners to work only upon such articles as arc necessary to the prisons and prisoners themselves or ! for the inmates of other institutions Up to the time of the taking of the | final vote upon the question no politics or aniinus of any kind was displayed, the members merely contenting themselves | with taking sides upon tho issue, as Is | done in the case of any other amendment. Upon a motion of Mir. McDonough to | report the bill to third reading there was | close vote, and the chairman. Vice President Steele, declared the motion de- | feated.
 Mir. McMillan of Erie immediately made demand for a roll call. and in ex- plaining his attitude scored the members who had voted to defeat tho measure for voting against the interests of the work | ing people
 On the roll call there was a disposition | on the part of members to leave the cham | Der, while others remained, yet refused to vote. Some dozen or i1ore members ex- plained their reasons for voting either | way, and MT Bowers startled the Demo crats by signifying his intention of vot- | ing against the measure because he did | not think 1t wise to make the prisoners | idle.
 Following close upon Mir Bowers cx- | planation caIHe almost as startling a sur | prise whom President Choate, from the floor. explained his vote against the meas uro. Ho said: II voted against this meas ure after hearing all of MT. McDonough' 6 | arguments and all tho arguments that | werc presented so faithfully by the friends | of this proposition in committed of the whole. And propose still to vote against | it because nothing they said convinced | me 1t was right. I have been strongly | urged to vote for 1t on the ground that l votes could then bo obtained for other | measures before this convention. l scorn to vote on any such ground as that. Alp plausc.
 II have been urged to vote for 1t upon tho ground that it would gain votes for
 the party to which belong. detest any such argument as that. Applause.
 The welfare and good government of our prisons Is a matter of the highest in | terest to the whole people. It is far better than tho interest of any class I say 1t
 will be a very great wrong to tic the hands of this state for 20 years so that 1t cannot
 accord to the best results of modern science
 in the conduct and good government of our state prisons and the relations of la
 bor inside to that outside"
 | Votes Went on Record. Up to the finishing of the first roll call
 tho measure had s1 votes sS being neces-
 sary to pass it. Mir Barhite demanded
 that the absentees be called and insisted
 that every member of tho body inside of
 the railing should be compelled to vote.
 Nearly q dozen members had tally sheets
 in their bands, while as many more, to-
 gether with the large lobby present, were
 urging the members who had not voted
 to place themselves on record
 Two members, after hearing Mir Choste
 speak, changed their votes from tho nega-
 tive to the affirmative. As successive yeas
 were obtained tho enthusiasm of those in
 favor of the bill grew. and when tho final
 announcement was made that the meas.
 ure had received 9t affirmative and only
 5i negative votes there was lusty cheer. ing. Tho vote follows: Eighteen Demo.
 crats-namely. Mcssrs. Bigelow. Bowers.
 Countryman. Crimmins. Deadly, Emmet.
 Griswold. Maybec. Mcclure. McCurdy. J.
 W. Mclaughlin, Nicoll. Rowley, Sand
 ford. Vedder, Danforth. Osborn and Dav
 enport-voted with those B Republicans
 to defeat the measure: Messrs Abbot, Ba
 ker. Barrow. F. A. Brown. F. R. Brown,
 Cady. Cassidy, Church. II. A. Clark, Corn,
 we'll. Dean. Doty, Foote Gilbert. Goodelle
 Hamlin, Hawley. Lester, c. H. Lewis
 Lyon. anley, Marshall, Mcintyre. C. B
 Mclaughlin. Mcrcness W. H. Nichols
 Parkhurst, Poole, Pratt. Spencer, w. H
 Steele, Wilmington and Mir Choate. Sixty
 one Republicans voted with 80 Democrat, in favor of it.
 The Judiciary Article.
 At the evening session, upon Mir. Lau terbach's amendment extending biparti
 san election boards to all country districti , as well as to city boards In general cleo
 tions, thorc was about half an hours dis cussion, and then the measure was passed
 On motion of Mir. Hall the educationa , article was made a special order on thirS reading immediately after the disposal o
 the charities article.
 , Tho judiciary article was then taken ul with one hour for discussion. Mir. Hirsch
 berg thought that Kings county judicia r district should have moro than thre
 judges of the proposed new supreme court
 He offered to amend tho article to mak
 1t five judges. This created some discus sion.
 Mir. Bowers thought 1t was a very quee I thing to try and mako such an amend l ment after the article had been in tn body so long Mir Johnson of Kings di 3 not think it necessary to enlarge the mum | Der, while Judge Countryman believe that three judges were more than enough . Mir. Towne of Kings spoke in favor of a
 increase and MT. Platzek against 1t r Mir Abbott offered an amendment
 cut down all the proposed salaries an
 expenses just one-half. Laid over unt
 after Mir. Hipschberg's amendment is dii
 nnSed nf