The Yale expositor., 1898-04-01
THE EXTRA SESSION.

measures in the House on the taxation
question: at the second days session,
which the Pingree followers declare
were intended TO delay action on the
governors bill. The first was intro
duced by Rep. Adams, of Kent, and
provided for broader taxation reform
scheme TO embrace all taxable property
in the state. 1t was defeated by a vote
of go to - in the House, but the same
resolution was adopted by the Senate.
The fact that the House killed il makes
the Senate action of no effect. Rep.
Smith, of IIoughton, introduced a bill
in the House which is an exact copy of
the Pingree bill with the exception of
that section creating a board of assess
ors. Smiths bill would have the board
comprised of the secretary of state.
state treasurer, land commissioner. at
torney-general and auditor-general.
who are elected by the people instead
of the members being appointed by the
governor. 1t was referred to the COM
mittees on railroads and taxation. Gov.
Pingree says that according to the
state constitution the legislature can
not create elective state officers. Should
bill be passed bearing this feature it
is probable that it would be vetoed by
the governor as unconstitutional.
The House had scrimmage on the
question of printing the proceedings
of the House and the speeches of the
members, but it was finally voted To
print them and c. II. Bender, j. w.
Langley, j. w. Stockwell and w. A.
Brown, the four stcnographers who
responded to the call of the governor
and volunteered to report the session
verbatim free of charge to the state,
were made the official stenographers of
the House, and were sworn in.
Rep Foote introduced bill to repeal
the charter of the Michigan Central
railroad. Rep. Bemis offered one To- in
crease the specific tax on railroads. Rep.
Green went at it wholesale and intro
duccd three bills, viz: To provide for
local taxation of express companies.
telephone companies, and telegraph
companies. All of these tend TO com
plicate the situation and are evidently
intended to draw attention from Gov.
Pingrees original bill.
The desire of the Senate TO adjourn
the legislature for one weeh--spring
election weeks being strongly OPP
posed by the House. Neither branch
can adjourn for more than three days
without the consent of the other and
as the Pingree men are dominant in the
House they do not intend to allow a
whole week of necessarily limited
session to be wasted.
In just one week after the calling of
the special session IL measures were
introduced in the House on the subject
of taxation. While some of them are
claimed to be for the object of includ-
ing all property in more equitable
taxation scheme, others differ from the
governors bill only small particulars.
The Pingree people assert that this
flood of bills - intended to draw at
teuI,on from the governors measure
and 20 confuse the issue.
The Pingree leaders figured out that
if the seats of Senators Covell, Preston
and Hughes could be declared vacant
writs of election could be issued and
the governor hoped that three men of
his opinions could be elected. How
ever. the Senate refused to discharge
the committees having under consider
alton the protests against seating the
three Senators. The governor was
upon the floor of the Senate and Sena-
tor Thompson took occasion to score
him for lobbying. The governor was
not to be turned down, however, and
I., lot, Al
ing an election April 4 in senatorial
and representative districts where
members of either house have died, re-
moved or become United States officers.
Senator Preston's district comprises
Lapecr and Tuscola counties; Covell's
district comprises Antrim, Benzie,
CharlevoiX, Kall1asSa, Leelanau and
Wexford counties. The representative
districts where elections have been
called are the second district of Ber-
rien county, where Representative
Williams has become postmaster; the
first district of Macomb, Representa-
tive Rowley having died; second Lena
wee district, Representative Edgar hav-
ing removed from the state; the Lapeer
district, formerly represented by Rep
resentative Lee, deceased. An at
tempt was made to have Senator
Hughes resign. but he refused and no
action can be taken as to his case until
the Senate disposes of it.
Senator Preston caused another com
plication in the Senate mix-up by re-
signing his position in the Port Huron
customs Office in order TO retain his
seat in the Senate. 1t is predicted that
Covell will make the same move and
this will block the governors plan for
a special election in their districts.
The Pingree bill met with a sudden
check when Fred A. Baker, of Detroit,
on invitation of the governor, appeared
before the House committees having it
in charge and proceeded to show that
although the governors intentions
were right and in line with the wishes
of the people, yet his bill would not ac-
eomp1ish the result aimed at. He said
that unless the charter of the Michigan
Central road was repealed there would