The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-01-13
READY FOR BUSINESS.
Michigan SoIons Can Now Per.
form Their Duties.
OBSOLETE LAWS TO DE DROPPED.

Standing Committee to Weed Them Out
and 80 Arrange Those stili in Force That
They Can Be Readily Understood Other
Work Which the Committee viii Per-
form - Proposed Amendments to the
state Game Laws-I3iow TO Lobbyists.
Lansing, Mich, Jan. l2.-The legis- |
lature is now squared away and ready /
for business. The messages of the re-
firing and incoming governors have
been read and digested. the committees
have all been appointed and nothing
now stands in the way of the transac-
ton of the business which the lawmak-
ers are here TO perform.
One of the most important departures
made by the house. and one which 1t
Is generally expected will be productive
Of excellent results. is the appointment
Of standing committee of ten whose
duty it is to provide for the general
wedding out of obsolete laws and so
arrange those still in force so that they
| will be readily understood. AS Speaker
! Gordon we'll said in his timely address
upon taking the chair, many of the ex-
| listing laws have been so loaded down
| with amendments that even accom-
! plished lawyers have the utmost diffi-
Guilty to understand just what the law
| u.s. while the layman is utterly at sea
on the subject. This new committee
will however. have other and fully as
important duties to perform, for the
resolution under which it was appoint
ed imposes upon It the task of practl-
cally passing upon the ACCESSIBILITY or
! enacting into laws the bills which VIII
he introduced during the first fifty days
of the session. While the members of
the house may not generally UNDER
stand it to be the case, yet the resolu-
ton contemplates that every bill intro
duced shall he carefully scanned by this
committee whose judgment will have
much to do with it's fate. The commit
tee is, in fact, a steering committee,
the principal business of which Will be
to steer to the front such proposed leg
islation as in its Judgment, should be-
come laws, and steer to the rear all oth-
er bills.
These are the days when much Is
read and heard OF what legislation the
various members are going to propose
1t has always been so. but the fact re-
mains that most Of this information Il
unreliable. W hen the average new legis-
lator. reaches Lansing he brings with
him a lot of startling ideas in the way
of desired legislation OF which he rios
| himself very soon after being mere
. short time and exposing his plans &c
the criticism of some OF his more eX
q perienced colleagues. There Is no doup
9 that the schemes embodied in Governor
Pingree's legislative programme. sucf
. as 2-cent railroad passenger fares' th'
prohibition Of the consolidation o
Q steam or street car companies, the pre-
0 vention of stock watering, laws agains
r trusts and combines the abolition
O political primaries, etc, VIII all sooi
r. appear in the shape or DIS, out non
of the latter have yet been drafted s.
= that their exact provisions cannot
stated Whatever might De SAID
them at this time in other than mos
general way would be mere speculatior
It The fact Is becoming more evident q
}. the attitude of the various legislator
h developes that the oft heard or Pingre
|, and anti-Pingree feeling VIII ne II
20 more prominent than the Rich and anti
n Rich or the Luce and anti-Luce feehn
has been in previous legislatures.
g other words, there is every reason &c
ii believing that the relations between tn
y present governor and the ieglsiatui
will he in every way similar to thos
le which have always existed between u
10 governors and legislatures of this stat
a. 1t is confidently predicted that thel
, will he no considerable opposition
ma
>, nioned by the governor. Neither is
:" believed that the governor will be no.
+ file TO any measure simply becau'
Is some one whom he may not love vel
in we'll introduced it. 1t is becoming mo-
is apparent every day that each bill WI
rs he disposed of on it's merits. and TIT
RI tho legislative and executive depar
q nents of the state government w
work together with fully as much ma
mony as in previous years.
W The conference Of the state comm
no ,ees NJ the several parties constitutir
u, the Democratic People's-Union Silv
i'd marty of Michigan, which was held he
h. last week. paved the way for the intr
auction of one of the most interestii
hits of legislation that is likely to
considered this winter. That COME
90 ence was attended by many silverit'
rs aside from the members of the thr
81 state committees. fully $50 persons ire
TO various section of the state being pre-
o. ent. The proposed legislation referr
on IN will result from the adoption by I
tn conference of a resolution favoring I
at enactment of law providing fer 81
ESQ cific state tax on incomes the procee
., TO be used, as provided by the cons
; tuition in the case Of all income tax
ID in paying the expense of maintain
the primary school system. me una
Ter unity and enthusiasm with which
resolution, which was proposed
chairman Fred A. Baker OF the Den
Ter cratic state committee. was adopt'
leaves no doubt that the proposition
m be embodied into bill and vigorous
- nushed before the legislature III
proposed to levy 2-per cent. tax on
comes of 1900 and over. III may
'ut more or less significant that the reso
sc. ton introduced by ex-State, Sena'
samuel w Hopkins of Mt Please
commencing the message of Govern
lnx