The Portland daily press., 1895-03-15
Especial to the PRESS.

Awaiting the Governors Signature
Especial to the PRESS.
Augusta, March 14.-These are the days
when tue millers in the legislative mill are
turning this cranks so as to keep the hopper
grinding in lively fashion. Today. in tho
Senatorial end of the esta blishment, they
ground out the bill exempting the property
of Young Mems Christian :tssociati ions from
taxation, and the, aipsndedg State College
law, and also prepared some Senatorial
lobster salad. The present law it has been
held by fhe courts. ,exenpts from taxation
only the property ctually used by Christian
assoc iations. The biifS exempts all their
pr operty. 1t was the subject of lively
debate during which Mr.. Hume likened the
Y. NJ. G. A. buildings ;rtoa high class club
rooms The bill now goes 10 to House. As
that body has already passed The state
College resolve. the long fight over that ap-
preparation may be considered asl settled.
The House by large majority passed the
"Oleo'' bill. This is the measure reported
long ago oy the committee on agriculture.
1t permits the sale of oleo under Ger tain re-
strictions provided it is not colored in
imitation OF yellow butter. The Judiciary
committee has also considered the "oleo'
question out has not reported. The House
by vote almost equally one sided. refused
10 pass the highway commission bill.
THE Y. NJ. C. A. BILL.
care Y. NJ. G. A. buildings club houses?
Senator Hume says they are but club houses
of high order. Mr.. Hume in the Senate
today, spoke against the bill TO exempt Y.
NJ. G. A. buildings from taxation. He said
that those buildings generally contained
stores and thus competed with the buildings
of other owners. The Y. NJ. G. A. buildings
are club rooms, with their billiard tables,
gym asiums and other means of amusement
although they are club rooms of the best
I-and.highest kind.
Senator Waterhouse supported the bill.
Y. NJ. G. A.. uildings were duet to the gen.
erous contributions of the people. Mr..
Waterhouse could see no reason then Tor
taxing them 1t is enssalch foundations as
these institutions that We rear the super
| structure of intelligence. and civilization.
Senators Day, Savage and Shaw took the
| same ground. Senator Savage said that this
was an organization doing work which
the chu1c hes could not do. The little in
come eked from the stores did notjpay tho
expt s, and good citizens gladly con, ri
3uted towards them. To tax these buildings
then would be TO lax these contributions.
senator Marston explained that he OBJ
jeet ed the resolve not hat it exempt ed
j.. NJ. {. a. buildings proper from taxation
| for he believed in the good work done by
| the Christian association, He did OBJ
| ject to the resolve because there was moth
| ing in it to prevent the associations from
going into general real estate business
with the buildings exempt from taxation.
Another point is that the bill opens the
door 10 all sorts of societies. and will make
it hard to draw the line. Mr.. Marston said
that it had appeared at the hearing that all
the cities in the state except Auburn. did
exempt these buildings. and he was snr-
prised that Auburn did not do SO.
| MIR. savage explained that the Auburn Y.
NJ. C. A. property had been exempted until
| one man had raised he point against it..
| The matter had since been tested in the
conrts and now any man III any city might
prevent such exemptions. as%
Senator hume said he had not supposed
that he was precipitatfng SO Interesting a
discussion lie opposed thes5exemptions OF
the property of these clubs. where he
said ''are You going to c ray the line. The
| Woman's Christian Tempera noe, = MON is ar
equally worthy organization. Is not that,
too, entitled to exemption, SO with Others "
| Mr.. Hume declared that the people would
not always see the great properties OF
| churches and corporations such as the Y.
| NJ. C. A. exempted from taxation while the
little property of the farmer was assessed.
| Senator Hovey favored the bill. He did
| not believe the time would ever come when
the churches of this state would LIE taxed,
| and thought that the door could be open
much wider than was proposed in this bill.
! Senator Simpson was willing that
property actually used by the associations
should be exempt. but the rest he thought
should be taxed. Senators Walls and
Engel opposed the bill, while paying high
| compliments to the work of the Y. M. G. A
| The president of the Bangor Y. n. C. A
had told Mr.. Engel that his association was
| satisfied with the present law and believed
| itsbetter for the interests of the Y. N. G. A.
| than the proposed exemptions.
a motion to adopt the minority report
that the bill ought not to pass was defeated
! IL to l6. Senators Ames. Engel. Ferguson,
Harlow, Higgins, Hume, Marston. Morrill,,
Renolds, Simpson, Walls and Wood voted
against the bill. Senators Cook. Day. Cor
don, Hill, Hovey. Maxwell, Mitchell Nicker-
son. Prescott. Savage, Shaw, Spofford,
Stone, Waterhouse. Weeksand Wiggin voted
for it. The bill was then given its first
reading. &a# IA
THE STATE COLLEGE REsovLE.s
The amended State College resolve. which
now appropriates $4,000 for each of the
/ Oh ~