Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-02-01
MANY NEW BILLS.
Cpe nirgWeek Of the Legisla-
ture a Busy One.
Assemblymans Halls Anti-Pass Measure
Launched.

hAA%SO4-, w To-, c'tAA' - ~ -A0N
week Of real work on the part of the
Wisconsin Legislature was marked by
the introduction of a large number of
important bills, and by the beginning of
the great fight which Assemblyman Hall
Of Dunn county will make to secure the
passage of anti-pass legislation, if it can
be done. Mr.. Hall did not secure much
of a victory in the first round, but no
'ne who knows him will believe that he
will be deferred at all by the setback he
cot. He will no doubt bob up serenely
later in the session, armed with no end
of petitions and force the Legislature to
take some sort of a stand in the matter.
Already there have been two propo-
eitons to amend the cOnStltutlOn-One
TO compel foreigner to be full cltl-
zen before he can vote, and one to give
the people the Initiative, referendum
and imperative mandate" demanded by
the Populists. There have also been q
number of bills to repeal laws passed at
the last session, including one to wipe
out the deep waterways commissioner,
another to repeal the steamboat taxation
law, and five to kill the famous Aeeiey
law.
Bills were introduced to regulate the
practice of medicine, to tax express COM
panieS. to legaliZe the acts OF villages
whose charters have been inyalldated by
Supreme court decisions, to compel the
taxation of mortgages, to provide for the
labelling of goods made in foreign prisons
and shipped to this state for sale, amend
ing the road laws, the laws relating to
Jurors. the banking laws, and great
many other laws.
Acknowledgement Mylrea has earned
such a reputation as smasner 81 trusts
that they are now accusing him OF
threatening in advance to break up
trusts if they are formed. He has re-
ceived a copy of the Wood Pulp News,
published in New York, in which a
writer takes several columns TO score
him for having threatened to break up
the paper-makers' trust if one was
formed. The paper says that he wrote
to one of the Wisconsin manufacturers,
who was going into the trust: IL you
attempt to join that trust, Will DUST
your charter within twenty-four hours.
Mr. Mylrea says that he never wrote
such a letter. but that there is no doubt
that the charter in question could nave
been invalidated if the company lad
Joined the trust.
Some of the members of this Iegisla-
ture are working q scheme which is Civ
inc the hotels and boarding houses black
ewes. They are forming little clubs OF
three or four and renting houses III
which they keep bachelors hall Ihere
have been a number of houses rented Dy
such parties and more are contemplating
the same move. In some instances they
employ a cook and in others they take
their meals at the hotels or restaurants.
The state was saved a pretty printing
bill by motions in each house not to
print the report submitted by the com
mittee on the revision of the laws. The
report made 600 printed pages, and Lad
it been printed as part of the proceed,
ings it would have cost the state SeVeral
thousand dollars.
It will not be long before the expected
anti-express company legislation will be
started, to give the express lobby
chance to earn it's money. This year AS
semblyman J. O. Davidson will be the
moving spirit in the matter. At the last
session Assemblyman O'Neil introduced
bill to tax the express companies ana
fatbered it, but Mr.. Davidson had a
hand in getting it through the Assembly
1t was killed in the Senate, and that IS
stop the bill which Mr.. Davidson will in
troduce. Mr.. Davidson's bill, it is like
lv. will differ materially from the one IN
troduced by Mr.. O'Nei He has been
studying the Iowa law and will probably
model his bill after it, There the com
Danies are taxed by the number OF miles
of road used within the state and it IS
said that the state derives very nice IN IN,
come from the tax. Mr.. Davidson Will
have his bill ready in few days.
Senator Putnam does not like the press
Comment on the pardon board bill to the
effect that it is only a halfway measure
He saws that it is only intended to be
temporary expedient to relieve the gov
crn0r until the constitution can be
amended and regular ooaru can pe t
appointed. He calls attention to the TACT
that two years ago he moved for an
amendment to the constitution to make
The appointment of such a board posi-
bic and says that if nobody anticipates
him he will introduce another resolution
for the same purpose. But to get an
amendment through and have board
established will require four years. and
meanwhile, in his opinion, there is 10
reason why the governor should not be
relieved of large part Of the work
that is now entailed upon him by. the
petitions for pardons. The advisory
board, which his bill contemplates, would
90 through the evidence and make its
recommendation, upon which the gov
ernor could act as safely as though he
had taken the time to go through the
evidence himself. Michigan, Mr.. Put
nam says, has the same constitutional
provision as Wisconsin in the matter OF
Dardons and a law after which he has
modelled his IS working to the satlstac-
ton of everybody.
If Assemblyman Merriman's proposed
amendment to the constitution should be-
come an accomplished fact it would car car
nv CONSERVATION to a very large class
of Wisconsin voters. He wants to strike
ont the provision which enables a tor t
cigner to vote in this state when he has
declared his intention of becoming a cItl-
zen, which would make it necessary for
him to be full citizen in order to have
The right of suffrage That would mean
that he would have to reside in the
country five years before he could vote
of voters in the state. 1t will be a
matter that will go home to good many
Of the members who reside in districts
where the foreign-born population is
large. and they may hesitate to support
it. Then if it goes through the Legisla-
ture it will have to go before the pee
pie, and that will be a still severer trial for
Il. .---,.. L. L.