Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-02-26
IN SPECIAL SESSION.
Members of the Wisconsin
Legislature Assemble.
Rep ublican Caucus Decides to Support an
Apportionment Bill.

|
cations it will not adjourn for four days.
Last nights caucus of the Republican
members would seem to point that way.
AS to whether the appOrtionment bill,
which is the subject matter Of the spe-
cial session, will pass, cannot now be
foretold.
The meeting was called to order by
Chairman w. A. Jones of the Repub-
llcan state central committee, and nearly
every Republican member of both houses
was in his chair when the roll was called
Mr. Jones made a brief explanation to
the effect that the caucus was called for
the purpose of considering the advisable
! ity of redistricting the state, and also
Of discussing the new bill to be reported
on by the special legislative apportion-
ment committee. Previous to his MAX
ing this address all save the Republican
legislators were excluded from the room,
| it having been decided to have The SEES
sion q secret one. Mr.. Jones also sug-
| gested that a permanent organization be
effected. This was done by the selec-
ton of Senator T. D. Weeks Of Water
! town as permanent chairman and As
gembiyman Hanson Of Door county as
secretary.
Then the following resolution was
! adopted:
Resolved, that it is the sense Of this eau
| Gus that bill to reapportion the state into
! Senate and Assembly districts, which shall
! constitutional requirements in all respects,
shall be passed by the Legislature as speed
lily as is consistent with due and careful
! consideration of the same and that then an
! adjournment be had.
1t Wcs next decided that a legislative
committee OF N1nty should be appointed
| Immediately upon the assembling Of both
Houses to look after legislation and be q
of the members will be Republicans.
This is the committee which will formu-
late the first apportionment. With this
action the committee adjourned
In separate caucuses the Senate and
| Assembly then elected their old officers
for the special session, with the excep-
ton that owing to the absence of y. i.
Willard of Chippewa Falls, j. +. John
ston of Montfort, the former assistant
sergeant-at-arms Of the Assembly, was
chosen for the place of sergeant-at-arms,
The officers are as follows: Senate.
sergeant-at-arms, w. L. Pettibone, Jul
neau Assembly-George B. Burrows,
Madison, speaker; William Novel;, Mil
Waukee, chief clerk. The House select
ed Edgar y. Hall Of Dunn county as
permanent caucus chairman. 1t was
also decided to limit the employees of that
body to assistants for both the clerk
and sergeant-at-arms and three mes
sengerS.
joint legislative committee consisting Of
seven members of the Senate and thir-
teen members of the Assembly, will re-
ceiFe and consider amendments to The ap-
porhonment measure, and is expected to
present practically a new bill TO the
Legislature. The special committee was
appointed pursuant to a joint resolution
adopted yesterday.
L1eut.-Gov. Baensch announced the
appointment of the following as the sew
en- Senate members: Senators L. w.
and L. D. Weeks, Republicans; and
Senators William Kennedy, Michael
kruskza and John e. McMUlIen, Demo-
Gratis.
Speaker Burrows appointed the follow
ing thirteen Assembly representatives
chairman, Frank A. Arson, N. B.
Treat c: G. Yawkey, II. P. Burdick,
George II. Ray, William O'NeiII, e. r.
Stillman, George w. Taylor and Frank
p. Hurd, Republicans; Herman Scbellen-
berg, Herman Rosenkranz and Robert
PESch, Democrats.
The committee includes all the mem
bers of the old apportionment committee
with the exception of Assemblyman J.
q. Conway. Mr.. Conway was named as
member of the committee, but said he
would be unable to serve, and Mr.. RCsen-
The special apportionment committee,
which met last night, does not take kind
" to the proposition that it's bill shall be
buried without honors and its work ig-
nored. The committee itself has found
new life IN the reappOintment of it's eight
members upon the joint committee Of
twenty ON appOrtiOnment, appointed yes
terday and in the ELECTION OF it's clerk,
a. j. Turner, as secretary of the CONF
mittee. The fate of it's bill does not look
tNJ.fNrN 1IS1r0 bIlf hos, hoo 4cf-
oasis for consideration Of the plan of
appOrti0nment by the new committee to.
begin with. The committee met last
night in open session to listen to objec>
tons to the assembly districts as pno-
posed in that BILL and it met with plenty
of opposition Nearly all districts conn
posed of more than one county were OBJ
jected to by somebody, and there was
some displeasure manifested with di-
visions of mere than one district in g.
county. The committee was without
proper maps to work with, and no action
was taken with reference to any of the
districts last night.
Madison, Wis, Feb 2O-Order is. be-
Ing developed out of chaos, and the 1Aaw
districts for the state of Wisconsin,. GA
the basis of which senators and assem-
blymen will be elected the coming fall,
are being arranged. All the work ON the
new reapportionment is being done by
the conference committee, which worked
from early in the morning until late Last
night ON the bill.
In executive session last night III was
decided by the conference committees that
county lines could be broken. Whether
they would be was, however, left unde-
cided, but a subcommittee of five, con-
sisting of Senator Baxter and Assembly,
men Yawkey, Ray, Rosenkranz and Bur-
dick, was appointed to draft new bill,
with county lines broken, which will be
compared with the old bill, when it viii
be decided which is the better. Three of
the members of the committee are OPP
posed to the breaking of county lines,
and the general opinion now seems to be
that they will not be broken
Madison, Wis, Feb. PIT can be
safely asserted that no bill apportioning
the state of Wisconsin into Senate and
Assembly districts under the census of
1895 will be passed by the Legislature
this week. This was practically de-
! cided at joint caucus of the Republican
! legislators held in the Senate chamber
| l.1,4 oh Two ;r6c