Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-03-17
w P GRACE
TELLS WHAT THE LEGISLA- TURF DID AT ITS LATE
 SESSION.
IfIt Did Nothing Else, the Pass age of the Settlement Reso- Iution, He Thinks, Covers
 All Other short
 e0mings
eoInings

PINE BLUFF, ARK, March B, 1897. Editor Graphic
 l notice in the papers that there is some unfriendly comment upon the work of the Legislature or rather the want of work, which has justad- iourned.
 Many people supposed that every Legislature is good or bad accord ing to the number of new laws it passes.
 This standard is by no means the correct rule by which to measure the value of the work of the Legis- lature.
 In fact, the present laws of the state are, in the main, good and should not be altered, only where experience has demonstrated that they could be amended for the better.
 Law is the rule of human conduct and the people who have them to obey should have an opportunity to learn what the laws are before they are changed.
 During the session of tAe Legis- lature there were over five hundred bills introduced into both houses, and it is safe to say that the ablest and most conservative lawyers and members of both bodies did not pro pose and present twenty of these bills. The ablest men felt satisfied that the statutes of the state, with few exceptions, were about as good as could be made and opposed all changes, unless such changes would bring some benefit.
 The journals of the Senate will show upon examination that there was about a dozen members who prevented much hurtful and vicious legislation by killing the bills.
 So far as l myself was concerned, I was far more anxious to prevent hurtful new legislation than l was to change our present statutes. will say there were some new questions that came before the Sen ate of great importance to the peo- pie of the state, chief of which, in my opinion, was the one which looked to the settlement of the indebted ness of the state to the Federal Government.
 IL is a matter of history that there has been an unsettled account be- tween the Government of the State and the Federal Government. This account is of more than fifty years standing, as . matter of fact our State Treasury has never been in a condition to pay the money that was due the Federal Government.
 A few years ago, by an act of the Legislature, the Governor of the State of Arkansas was authorized and directed to go to Washington and with the consent of the Federal Government if possible to cast up the account and see how the State stood with tbe Federal Government.
 Governor Clarke. that energetic and efficient Governor, in the dis charge Of the duty imposed upon him, went to Washington aud after months of arduos labor and consult a.ien in conjunction with the Score tary of the Treasury and Secretary Interior, succeeded in coming to an understanding upon the basis of a settlement. The substance of this agreement was that the total in debtedness of the State of Arkansas to the Federal Government was about two million six hundred thous and dollars, but that Arkansas was entitled to credit on various ac counts for all this vast amount witt the exception of about one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, and tha if this settlement should be ratified by the State of Arkansas, and tn Federal Government, by paying tn one hundred and sixty thousan' dollars, that the settlement shoul be complete and final and that Al kansas should be discharged of tn debt which has been resting upo her for more than fifty years.
 This question, as I have sai
 above, was one of the most import
 ant questions which was presente to the Legislature.
 There seemed to be but one oplr
 ion among all the members of th
 Legislature, and that was that tn proposed settlement was most ad vantageous to Arkansas and shout be accepted, But, during tn )negotiation in Washington the Iro !. '.