The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1899-03-23
Adjourned Friday Night.

! Legislative mill ut Augusta. Thursday,
MS is apt to he the case so near The slOse
of the biennial session of Names law
making body.
A large number of measures were re-
ferred to the next legislature, II very
easy and not uncommon way of dispos.
ing of such as may have merit but not
enough supporters to command attention
and action. Among these WAS the Gard
ner bill to increase the tax on railroads.
Mr.. Gardner pluckily fought the report
of the committee but of course it was of
no avail at this stage in the session.
Mr.. Merrill Of Skowhegan offered Il
resolve providing for the appointment Of
a commission to be made up of three
members of the House, two of the Sem
ate and two citizrns, to investigate the
whole matter of State taxation and re-
port to the next legislature at the open
ing of the session. Mr.. Merrill made n
comprehensive and able speech on the
general subject of taxation. The resolve
providing for this commission was de-
feated Friday, also a similar measure
presented by Mr.. Gardner of Patten and
one presented by Mr.. Gurnsey of Dover.
The usual rush of business the last
day of the session was decidedly In evil
dence, Friday, and adjournment was
reached just after II O'Clock at night,
of e. -, l.,
1873 acts and 100 resolves were passed.
The appropriations for the two years,
1899 and 1900 aggregate 81, 342 697 81.
exceeding the appropriations M ,de by
the last legislature by $743,4l33 80, or
taking out the two extraordinary items,
1925 600 for the Eastern Insane Hospital
aud $4,000 on account of the war, the
aggregate is still 1865, 4l339 greater
than that of the last legi- lature. Thus
1t will he seen the legislature that has
just adjourned has been liberal one in
appropriations.
The amount of important public legis-
lation has not been large. Most of
measures causing the largest amount OF
discussion were defeated and some that
were expected to attract much attention
hardly created a ripple.
The mileage book question created
much excitement but compromise was
affected by which the public will be
slightly benefited by the unimportant
promise of railroads to allow man and
his wife to ride on The same mileage
book and will be largely benefited by
the conditional promise of the railroads
TO reduce local rates on passengers and
freight if this promise is carried into
effect. The ant-scalping bill passed is
grand thing for the railroads but will
be of no benz fl to the public unless the
local rates are adjusted as stipulated.
The matter of tax reform was refund
ed to the next legislature and the issue
is liable to come up in the politics of the
State unless it is overshadowed by ma
tional issues incident to the presidential
election, which comes off in 1900.
The salaries of judges aud registers of
probate in the several counties were
quite generally raised. For this there
appeared to be quite reasonable excuse
MS the cutting off of fees because of in
solvency business now being done In the
u. S. court, grehly reduces The COM
pensation of these important county
officials.
There were attempts made to amend
the prohibitory law but like other at
tempts in recent years nothing came
of it.
There was codification of the law
relating to Names military force but no
very radical change made. This law
provides for naval reserve that was
shown to be desirable thing in the
actual experience of the recent war with
Spain.
BY far the most voluminous law of the
session is the new one pertaining to in
land fl fisheries aud game. This is an i'm
portant law and is presumed to be an
Improvement over the one that it takes
the place of.