Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-05-09
Harrisburg Notes.

On Thursday, the Legislative Apportion-
ment Committee of the House agreed upon
a.SenatoriAl appointment, which eontin-
ues Butler and Armstrong counties, as the
47th district. Allegheny Co. gains q
Senator.
On Friday the House held three sessions
and got through with forty-six bills on
second reading.
The Smith school-bill v hich was defeated
sometime ago is to be reconsldered.
The complaint of the country members
is that under the present system of dis
tributing the appropriation on the basis OF
the number of taxables in each sehooI
district, the rural countries get decidedly
the worst of it. The young people leave
the country for the cities, and mining and
manufacturing sections, where there Ia
also q large number of foreign laborers
without famili es, thus swelling the number
of taxables, while { be proportion OF school
children in the districts is little, 1t any,
larger than in the country. This, they claim,
works them al injustice; and point out
that while the average share OF the sp-
preparation per school is s2O3, many dis
tricts receive from 300 to 5000 and others
less than 500. There were in 1894 90 dis
tr1cts averaging only s64 per school, and
80 that received 1892, To remedy this
the Smith bill proposes to distribute one
third of tae appropriation Oa the basis o.
number of teachers regularly employed,
and the rest on tie number of taxables. It.is
probable that some agreement will be had
on the matter.
Saturday and Sunday all the talk in the
town was regarding Penrose's determine
tion TO Lexow Philadelphia. The resolu-
ton was put in the calendar for Tusstsy.
Regarding the progress made by the
House last week Speaker Walton said he
thought the calendar could be cleared by
the 23d; but others put it a month later
The Congressional apportionment bill
divides the State into thirty districts,
Philadelphia and Allegheny counties each
gaining a member. Butler Co. is retained
with Beaver, Lawrence and Mercer as the
| 9th district.
On Tuesday last Maj. 1. B. Brown, of
Cory, retired as Secretary Of Internal At
fairs and was succeeded by Gen. james
W. Latta, of Philadelphia. Maj. Brown
resumed his old position as Deputy Secere-
tary, which he resigned in January to sue
ceed Thomas J. Stewart as Secretary, on
| the lstter's resigning to become Adjutant
| General Major Brown will have an in
creased salary and added duties, this
Legislature having passed law making
the Deputy Secretary Superintendent OF
| the Bureau Of Railways
On Tuesday, the Judiciary General COM
| mittee of the Senate unanimously decided
to report affirmatiyely the Penrose resolu-
tion to Lexow Philadelphia with the
Senator Osbourn of Philadelphia has said the
investigation was not a necessity. He
was the man who promised to have promi-
nent Philadelphians in Harrisburg to pro-
test, out said he did not think it
worth while. The committee was
Il session but q short sine. Alter Mr.
0sbourn made his few remarks a motion
made by Senator Penro5e, sec onded by
Senator Kennedy, to report the resolution
was agreed to with ont even calling
off the roll.
The power Of Senator Quay was plainly
shown in this resolution. a week ago
score or more Of senators we're declaim-
ing around tho capitol against the invcs-
tigation. They were announcing that
they would vote against the passage Of
the resolution, and making all sorts of
threats. In couple of hours they were
turned by a few words slpGoVe5a a lolg di s.
tanace telephone line, Tuesday they ar
gued the investigation il the greatest ne
cessity Of the hour, and no man should
stand in its way, and even breaking their
necks to get a place on the committee.
They simply prgot they had two guesses.
Wednesday the Woods Water Works
bill passed the House by vote of 116 to
81. The amendments offered by Mr.. Moore
were voted down, and Mr.. Douthett spoke
against the bill II was lively fight, but
the bill was backed by Quay and LYON and
it went through.