The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1895-04-24
DOINGs At HARRISBURG.

erhlly tnouRnt that the senate VIII
amend to extend the time two or three
weeks, fearing that the House may not
be able to pass on all the Senate bills. II
both branches would get down to busi-
ness there would be ample time TO pass
all the good, and kill all the bad, meas
ures on the calendars. The latter feat is
often more difficult of accomplishment
than the former. Something will be
gained, however. in the direction of
greater industry by the passage ofa res
olution to adjourn by the House, and
bringing matters to n focus sooner.
The event and surprise OF the past
week was the passage in the House Of the
Judges pension bill. 1t was the hottest
fight that has thus far taken place. Mr..
Mattox, Vensngo's courageous represen-
tative led in the opposition to the bill
and made vigorous protest against its
adoption. He was ably seconded by his
close personal friend Merrick OF Tiogs,
both Of whom threw some solid chunks
of wisdom and sound judgement into the
discussion in opposition to the bill. GEN
eral Niles and the veteran George V.
Lawrence also admonished the House IN
very strong logic not to establish 80 dan
gerous precedent. Representative
Focht Of Union, quoted the venerable ex-
Chief-Justice ARnew in opposition to the
bill, and gave the substance of an inter-
view had with that distinguished jurist
on the pension bill. Mr.. Herman, Sny-
der corptio,. thoroncvllx, ;ndo,ondant
and bright young Representative. also
gave the bill some hard knocks. Mr..
Ritter, father of the bill, defended his
measure vigorously,and Speaker Walton
took the floor for half an hour and with
all the force at his command pleaded for
the passage of the bill.
1t may be said right here that all the
support which the measure had, out
side OF Philadelphia and Allegheny
counties, which were solidly for it, was
due to the personal efforts of the speaker,
and il passed 10y vote of l07 to ~. 1t is
thought by some that the Senate may
kill 1t, but that is not at all probable, and
it is altogether likely that Governor Has
tings will have an opportunity to attach
or withhold his signature to the bill long
before the session closes. Outside of
Philadelphia and Pittsburg it is safe to
say the people of Pennsylvania are solid
ly arraved against this most dangerous
and un-American proposition, and it will
be interesting to note how those country
members who were wheedled into cast
ing their votes for it, will explaine their
action when they come face to face with
their constituents. who are struggling
for an existence, aud none of whom will
ever reap any of the benefits of the
$4,000 AMI $4,000 retirement chunks that
| fall into the laps of this new list of PEN
pensioners. The party may he able to
carry this load and it may not.
The friends of pure butter were thor
oughly in evidence on Thursday, when
two Of the oleomargarine repeal bills
were called up on second reading. Very
little speech making was INDUCED in,
only few, who were anxious TO ''get on
record" taking advantage of tho occa-
sion to relieve themselves of their peut
up oratory. Neither of the bills ever had
wiz thSSb VI ShC" VI pooSlhS8 thCIS
upward of a hundred votes against them
when the yeas and nays were called.
After lively scrimmage on Wednes-
day the House passed on second reading
what is known as the Smith bill, provid-
ing for an equitable method of distribut.
ing the State school appropriation, but
it is going to take some fine engineering
to pull the bill through on FINAL passage.
The measure provides that one-third OF
the appropriation is TO be distributed ac-
cording to the number of schools in each
| district, the other two-thirds as now
| based on the number OF taxables. The
large cities and more thickly populated
counties lose by the proposition. while
the smaller gain largely. For instance,
Philadelphia loses something like $780,
| 900; Allegheny county about 100000, and
a number of others in like proportion.
To be exact, seventeen counties-Alle-
gheny, Bucks, Can bon, Chester, Cum
! berland, Dauphin, Delaware, Lackawan-
ma, Lancaster, Lehigh, Luzerne, Mont
gomery, Montour, Northampton, North
umberland, Schuylkill and Philadel-
phia, lose all the way from S2l3 to Sl29,-
900, while the other fifty counties gain.
Forest county's share of the increase un-
der this bill being S34OO. But the II
counties which are affected adversely,
unfortunately have the most votes, and
unless some of them can be won over it
is going to be an uphill job to pass the
bill. Representative Smith OF Bedford is
the father of the bill and his efforts to
pass il are being vigorously seconded by
other members from the country whose
counties will be the gamers. special
order has been granted for the bill next
week and the fight will he hot one.
Speaking Of especial ORDERS" the
House was in a good mood for granting
them on Friday last, when something
like fourteen were asked and obtained.
A number of the Allegheny delegation
voted for the Smith bill special order for
the sake of their "Greater Pittsburg"
bills, which were among the favored on
Friday, and will come up this week 1t
is expected that a number of them will
vote for the Smith bill in order to keep
down opposition to the Greater Pittsburg
and it is hoped by this method TO pass
this bill. OF course, Philadelphia is
making big kick, but she is not in po-
sition to do much on that line for the
reason that all her legislation is still 10