The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1897-06-04
THE LATE LEGISLATIVE FIASCO
EILtnr nrmnrrat Siur

As | was fortunate enough 10 have
been on the right side Of all questions
in our extra session, neither | nor my
constituents need any apology, Know
Ing the sentiments OF my cOnStitu
eut>. and fully agreeing with them, !
had an easy task to represent them
and while We regret the failure OF Oul
efforts, we have the satisfaction Of
knowing We did our duty. However
as the CAUSEof the failure is So mud
died and b~efuddled,' thought some
Of your readers may like a short state
mcnt Of the matter.
At our 1896 meeting we appointed
the Governor. Secretary Of State and
Acknowledgement as OUR committee
to receive and adopt plans and specl'
ticatiuns for Jul new Capitol. After
advertising for and examining plans
Of eighteen different architects. they
unanimously selected the one pre-
pared by WrdthcrS 4 WcathcrS, Ot
Memphis, Tenn. This plan "a ac'
cOmpanled hy tuiI and careful spccitl'
cations, by which the work could be
advertised and contracted for. The
Importance Of this was plain to me,
and will be to most Of my COnStttu'
entS. as We are familiar with all these
necessary adjGnctS to work by con
tract, being a contracting people.
But a large majority Of our LegiSla,
,,,.a lr,,.,1 l,,, lttln Of giInh t,.ttnrs
Upon converting Of hiscXtra session
it was apparent that the members
were divided into three classes, viz
About Une-third were opposed tC
building a new house under any cir
cumStances. These were known as the
'lOw pressure crowd and re,olutely
and cu%nningly opposed every effort
made 10y the other twO-thlrdS. The
other twO-thirdS, known as the ''higl
pressure crowd were eager and anx
.iOuS to build. but half Of them, o.
one-third Of the whole, were politica'
enemies Of the Governor and deter
mined that neither he nor his admin
iStration should have any credit fol
the building Of a great new Capitol.
A large majority Of the House were
in favor Of locating the Capitol on tn,
site OF the old one "A majority OF th'
senate were intensely IN laHOr or put
ting the Capitol on the P~enltentIarl
grounds.
And this was made the first issue
On the very first day Of the session
Speaker McCOol appointed a Specia
committee OF twenty i've, to be know
as the New Capitol Committee, Il
which every question eItecting thu
new state House must be referred,
The low prcSSurCs' did not thinl
they were fairly represented on thi'
committee, and at once began to "pu
on the brakes
The Capitol Committee finally pre-
pared a bill locating the new house OF
the old site and providing the Capito
to be built in STRICT ACCORDANCE
with the WeathcrS' plans and fuIl an;
complete specifications, Mr.. Weather
appearing before the House and agree
ing to give a BOND OF 100000, guaran
tceing That the Capitol when com
plctc should not cost over $4,000
and after il long and bitter fight will
the "loW prcSsnrcs' we passed the bill
About this time a Mr.. j. Rilc,
Gordon, Of Texas, appeared on tn,
ground with IA picture and drawing O
a beautiful one million dollar Capitol
but cllimed that by using chcape
material he could and would build u
such a house at amy price from SGll.
600 to $4,000 Gordon had no SPECI
FICATIoNS or any definite or certain
cost or house, ana ana not Oller to Civ
any guarantee as to the maximum
cost Of any building put up accOrdiu,
to his plans.
Now, as the bill that had passed tn
House was gotten up to fit the Wealth
ers' plans and full and complete speci
licatIonS. 1t VIII be seen that thi
same bill could not be used with tn
Gordon plans without any speciica
ti0ns.
When our bill went over to the Sen
ate they amended 1t by substituting
the Gordon plan for the Weather
plan ana thc Ienltcntlary ground
InT Inc mn SItp ANA I1lpn for u nIn