Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-02-25
BISMARCK BUDGET.
From Our Special Correspondent

Among the bills passed by the
House last week are two very i'm
portant ones viz: The revenue
bill and the railroad bill, the lat
ter being nearly the same law that
is III force in Iowa, Illinois and
Ohio, and which has proved
through many years trial All eff
cient law. 1t is understood that
there will not be sufficient oppose
ton in the Senate to defeat these
measures, although 1t is impossible
to predict with any certainty what
action that body may take.
suppose that there must be
some good reason for dividing the
Assembly into an upper and over
house or all the states in the Union
would not d. so, but it seems to
me that there is an equally good
reason why the Legislature should
consist of but one house and
that is the fact that the pre-
sent system prevents the exercise
of the principle of majority rule a
principle upon which rests our
political fabric or ought to. To
illustrate we will say a bill passes
the lower house, every member
voting aye that means sixty.two
votes for it. Itgoes to the Senate
where it receives fifteen ayes and
sixteen nays, the bill is defeated,
although out of total vote of
ninety. three, seventy-seven voted
for it and only sixteen against it.
The time is approaching when the
voter will demand the abolition of
the House of Lords.
Among the bills that will come
before the House next week, is
the one creating the flee of Tenn
perance Commissioner with four
deputies and S2,000per year salary.
Mr.. Rankin the lecturer on
political and temperance subjects
wds before the House on Saturday
pleading for the passage of thi-
bill. His effort WAS not what
might be called extremely success
eul or convincing. There are
many that would vote to abolish a
state fices quicker than they
would vote to create new one, it
would mean an added expense to
the already overburdened re-
sources of the state with very un-
certain results. Whoever filled
the office would have no more
authority than the Attorney Gen.
eral. Mr.. Standish WAS elected to
that Office with the distinct under
standing that he was to suppress
the illegal sale of liquors, he failed
because he possessed only human
power.
The Apportionment Committee
met Saturday night to consider
the redistricting of the state. AS
Cavalier county is interested (ow-
ing to the large increase of in
habitation Of late years) both Mr..
Boyd and myself attended. The
sentiment of the committee SEEM
ed to be agains, increasing the
number of representatives but in
favor of more senators. Senator
ial districts are based upon popu-
lation and to acertain the number
of lnhaFltants q census is nec-
essary. which should have been
taken in 1895 but owing to the
expense (about $l2,000,00) the
last Legislature refused to make
the appropriation, thus leaving
the census of 1890 as the only
authoritive basis, that is of no use
in country where the population
increases as rapidly as it does in
our state. The committee we're al
most unanimous in the opinion
that we had better make no change
until after the census 1900 is
taken. They are to have another
meeting Tuesday night as the
whole of the committee were not
present. when something else may
be sprung.-BUTTERw1CK.