Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-31
200 BILLS-3 LAWS.
THIS is THE RECORD OF THE OKLA
HOMA LEGISLATURE.
A THIRD OF THE SESSION GONE.
NOT A SINGLE CAMPAIGN PROMISE
FULFILLED AS YET.
Two of the Laws Passed Relate to
Pie Hunters and the other POST
pones Taxpayings Time
The Anti-GOId Contract
Law-Gossip.
A THIRD OF THE SESSION GONE

Guthrie. o. T., Jan. 30.-lSpeciaL.) sixty
days is the limit put upon the session of
the territorial legislature, or at least that
is as long as the members can draw pay
from the government for their services,
and when the legislative patriots pay stops
he stops also. Nineteen days of the pres
ent session have been checked off the rec
ord by the recording angel above and the
treasury clerk at Washington, and. as
Sundays are included in the count, there
are but thirty-four working days of the
session left.
With one-third of the session gone, the
real legislation enacted up to this time is
next to nothing. Though 140 bills have
been introduced in the house and sixty in
the senate, but three bills have become
laws-one providing places for a lot of
favorites at cost of $4,000 to the tax
payers; a second appropriating 5000 to
pay these pie eaters, and q third to eX-
tend the time of paying this years taxes
from the third Monday in last month until
the third Monday in March. Add to these
a couple of resolutions memorializing con-
gress to do various things, and you have
the sum total of the completed business
of one-third of the session.
The senate has passed bill regulating
the meetings of the county commissioners,
one exemptlng certain property of single
men from forced sale, one abolishing the
territorial oil inspector and doing away
with the inspection of oils. one regulating
interest, and one changing the time of hold
ing annual school meetings; the house bill
regulating the width of petitoned roads.
one providing the manner of change of
school districts, and one repeating the Sec
ton requiring probate judges to be attor-
neys; but all of these bills will be amended
and revised so when they get in the op-
pOsite house that their authors will scarce
ly know them, and many of them die in
conference, as both branches of the as
sembly have already expressed n deter
mination of keeping up sort of guardian
ship over the members of the other branch
and modifying their measure to suit the
whimS of their own reform theorists.
The idea of each house seems to be that
all the incompetent and too radical re-
formers are in the other branch, and when
they get Il good chance at each others
measures some lively times are looked for.
What the assembly has done is easily
told, but what it has not done would fill
a good-sized volume. 1t has not as yet full
filed single campaign promise, has not
evidenced the least inclination TO real
ecoHomy. has not reduced any salaries has
not mausurated reforms of any kind. In
fact, 1t has, in numerous cases, directly
violated its promises of reform when it
came TO acting upon measures which had
been discussed during the campaign and.
promised to the people of every part of the
territory. Notable among these violations
is the action of the senate in relation to
the bill exempting q certain amount of
personal property from taxation This bill
was early introduced, but, after a long dis
cusson, was almost unanimously slaugh-
tered. The last Republican legislature
found by 4 thorough investigation that the
exemption of 800 personal property or
even 500. would in n majority of the coun-
ties bankrupt the counties and compel
them to quit business. owing to the fact
that SO little of the land was proven up
and taxable, and almost nobody, outside
of the business men and railway compa-
nies. had more than that amount of per-
the people, but the Populist papers and
every fusion candidate and stump speaker
denounced them for. their failure, and
promised the people that they would pass
an exemption law the first day OF the ses-