Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1899-04-06
Madison, April 3.


bill for a straight 2-cent railroad pass
age fare was on the calendar ior lu-
definite postponement for three weeks,
the Outgamie county statesman has
succeeded in getting 1t referred 70 the
railroad committee which Will thls
week consider a substitute measure al
ready prepared and probably report II
for passage The committee gave us
its grounds for the adverse report that
the original bill would be unjust to
the smaller roads, and that 1t would
discourage the building OF new lines
and improvements and would not ben
eft the public as it would necessitate
increased freight rates. The new OIL
is practically the same as the Michigan
law and provides that when the pass
enger earnings of any railroad COM
pany operating line in the state ex-
coed $4,000 a mile, that road shall not
be allowed to charge passenger rate
OF more than cents mile, and where
the earnings exceed $1,000 a mile the
company shall not charge more than
2b cents. The only roads which at
this time the bill would affect directly
are the Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul
and the Chicago & Northwestern.
Both OF these lines would have to
grant the 21s cent fare. Should the
bill become law it is felt by many
that it will result in lowering all
passenger fares to 21a cents. AL
though not compelled to by law, UNI
doubtedly all the roads would have to
give the same rate to meet the compe-
tition of the leading lines.
This legislature will certainly not go
down as corporation ridden even if on
ly half of the measures aimed at capt.
tai should go through. In addition TO
the measures cutting down passenger
fares and taking away the privilege of
granting passes from the roads, the
assembly committee has also reported
a new railway taxation bill which If 1t
goes through it is estimated will bring
in SITS, 900 more in revenue than the
present license system does and VIII
more than make up the deficiency
caused by the payment by the state OF
fares for officials who now travel on
passes. The bill differs from the pres
ent law by providing instead of pay
ment of S. per mile on roads whose
earnings are between $1,000 and $4,000
per mile per cent tax, and instead
of the same fee on ROADS whose earn"
ings are between $1,000 and $1,000 a
mile tax of IL per cent. With these
bills and the four big bills now signed
by the governor taxing express, sleep
ing-car, fast freight and equipment
line companies, together with the Or
ton insurance bill, there will also be
bill raising the taxes on telegraph
companies which will probably come
up this week To enforce these laws
bill creating state tax commission
is contemplated The bill is now on
the senate calendar for engrossmeu.
and third reading and will doubtless be
passed by the senate this week The
attitude of the assembly toward tax
ing measures would seem to assure its
passage through the lower house. Just
how much revenue any OF these bills
will bring in, with the exception OF
the Orion bill, is an unknown quantity,
but from the orion bill alone it is es-
timated $220,000 will be obtained and
the minimum estimate for all the bills
is placed by judicious guessers at ST.
000,0 900.
1t is expected the much awaited fish
AND game bill will be reported some
great deal of consideration. Except
for removing restrictions for the fish
ing in the open waters of Lakes Supe-
rior and Michigan, the bill will not be
a very radical change upon the pres
.ent law and where changes are made
they will be for the most part in con-
formity with the ideas OF the unifom
fish and game law. The most impor-
tant feature will be separate bill to
prohibit spring shooting. On this it is
expected a big fight will be made ana
the committee has decided to report 1t
separately that the main fish and game
law proposed may not be endangered.
Some curious arguments have been a0-
yanced before the committee in favor
of spring shooting of ducks. Some
hunters hold that it would be unfair 10
discriminate against Wisconsin sports
men when ducks can be shot at all the
from the Gulf of Mexico northward,
while others argue that spring shoot
ing would tend to increase the num-
Der of birds by frightening them
northward to their breeding haunts.
The True marriage license bill, re-
quiring a license five days before the
. marriage, has passed the assembly and
is upon the senate calendar. 1t has
received careful attention from law
yers and committees and is believed TO
be unobjectionable from the consutu
tional standpoint. The passage Of The
bill will destroy in large measure the
romantic interest attaching to the city
of Hudson, which has for years been
the Gretna Green OF clipping couples