The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-05-05

law and the desirab.lity OF getting on
the assessment rolls millions Of dollars
worth Of property which now escapes
taxation altogether, Speaker Adams
made marked departure from the es-
tablished custom. and addressed the
house on the necessity for remedying
these defects in our tax system. His
suggestions and recommend atoms found
expression in concurrent resolution
offered by Speaker Pro TEN. Gillian.
Provisions of the Resolution.
This resolution provides for the ap-
pointment of a joint committee of the
two houses to investigate and report the
true market value Of all the railroad
property in the state; the true market
value of all other taxable property, real
and personal, and the assessed value Of
the same; the total amount Of taxes
paid for all general purposes by the
last named property; the methods Of
taxing railroad and other corporate
property in other states and the results
or such systems. In order that this
committee may have time for its work
the resolution provides that after the
legislature has disposed of the impor-
tant business before 1t, a recess be
taken until the first Wednesday in jan
uary next, at which date the commit
tee is to report. The resolution was
made the special order for tomorrow,
when 1t will be discussed at length and
acted upon.
The only member Of the house rail-
road committee who voted against re-
porting a substitute for the railroad
charter repeal bills was Representative
Pearson of Sanilac, who is a firm be-
lever in repeal and who has fought
from the beginning all moves to COM
promise the matter.
Attorney General Oren has Just given
the secretary of state an opinion that
will doubtless lead to prompt legisla-
ton. The opinion Is to the effect that,
under existing laws, foreign corpora
lions whose capital and term of exist
ence Is many times greater than the
limit allowed to Michigan corporations
doing similar business, cannot be pre-
vented from coming into this state and
enjoying all the privileges granted the
Michigan corporations. This leaves the
state quite at the mercy of the trusts.
The legislature Is, however, informed
that 1t has ample power to correct this
state Of affairs, and II will doubtless
proceed to do so.
Antitrust Law.
There is little doubt that an anti
trust law which will seek to rule all.
trusts and combines, whether of state
or foreign origin, with an iron hand
will be one of the enactments Of this
legislature. Bills OF this nature are on
the calendar in each house. The SEN
ate majority has held a caucus and ap-
pointed a committee to carefully ex-
anime Senator Sayre's bill and report
on the ACCESSIBILITY OF passing 1t. The
house has gone further and passed Rep
resentative Hammond's bill which was
defeated two years ago because 1t was
deemed too stringent in many of its
opinions. The rapid growth Of trusts
has made 1t just what the legislators
want now.
The Lyon bill prohibiting the sale Of
intoxicating liquors within three miles
of any college called out a protracted
discussion in the senate. It's principal
opponent was Senator Ward of Ann
Arbor, who maintained that neither
the citizens of that town nor the au-
thorities Of the university desired such
a law, and insisted that II was backed
by a few Anti-Saloon league officials
who were being paid for just such in
reference as this.
For Revenue Only.
These officials were charged with be-
ing active for revenue only and with
being no better than they should be.
Senators Lyon and Davis defended the
BILL the former saying that so far as he
had been able to learn it had been OPP
posed only by the whisky trust. He
made a strong plea for a law that
would make things so that the young
men Of the state may go to college
without being beset with temptations.
On the final vote, he bill was defeated,
receiving but nine votes.
The committees Of the two houses on
the Industrial Home for Girls are not
agreed as to the gravity of the
charges of cruelty on the part Of the
officials toward the inmates Of the in
stitution. Both committees have held
a session at the school and looked into
these charges The result is that the
house committee will ask for authority
to make a thorough inve stigation, while
the senate committee has formally re-
ported that the charges are unfounded.
The latter committee recommends that
the bars and wire netting be removed
from the windows, hat a woma. physi-
clan be appointed, that an electric light
ing plant be installed and that the cur
rent expense appropriation Of $4,000
per year for the ensuing biennial period
be allowed.
For Additional Buildings.
Instead"of removing the College of
Mines from Houghton to Ann Arbor and
making IL a department Of the univer-
sity as majority Of the senators were
strongly advocating three weeks ago,
these gentlemen have decided toprovde
for additional buildings at the present
location, having passed the bill appro-
priating 100000 for the college for the
years 1899 and 1900. Only $4,000 was
cut from the estimate submitted by the
college trustees. 1t was a great bluff