The Portland daily press., 1899-01-26

ND DAILY PRESS. THUR
serve 10 consist In time Of peace oil not
more TRAN one battalion and In time OF
war. insurrection.s Invasion OF In immi.
nent danger thereof OF q brigade OF not
more than two battalions
sectiop e-Ihe naval reserve . sna ~. os
and shall be raised In the same manner.
but II shall not be attached to any organ
tzationi OF land troops unless specially
ordered by the commander-in-chief.
Section BIN time Of peace the sutnor-
lied battalion may consist OF not more
than four divisions and an engineer
division.
Section Ito n battalion there shall CO
one lieutenant-commande who shall Dc
chief Of battalion. one lieutenant who
shall be chief of staf, executive ana
equipment office, one lieutenant junitor
grade. who shall be battalion adjutant'
ordnance and navigating officer, one pay
master and an assistant surgeon, each
with the rank OF lieutenant junior grade
Section 5--1ot each line division there
| shall be one lieutenant, one lieutenant
| junior grade, one ensign and not more
than SO petty OIL ers and men. To each
| engineer division there shall be one lieu
II
more than 25 petty officers and men, The
commander-m chief shall prescribe the
number Of petty officers In each division.
Section 6--The administration and In
struction OF the reserve shall conform as
nearly as possible 70 the standard OF the
| United States. The divisions shall be
considered the equivalent OF companies
Of infantry.
Section The pay Of officers and men
| shall be the same rs In the relative grades
OF the land forces Of the state.
Section 8 provides that the rank Is
military rank rs In the United States
navy.
The bill was referred to the committee
on military affairs.
STATE FINAN CEs.
These are the days when this mem ers
of the committee on financial affairs
wear serious look and are seen in the
offjce Of the state treasurer anxiously add
ing long columns of figures. Trey are
engaged in the somewhat difficult task OF
providing for large appropriations and at
the same time keeping the tax rate down.
When the lawmakers go to work, they
soon begin TO appropriate money. Every
| academy which receives state stipend,
every other institution to which Maine
extends support, the various needs Of the
state government and the scores OF other
needs and luxuries for which the legisla.
ture appropriates the the funds, are pro-
vided for in separate resolves. Then after
these have been passed they are put to-
gether in an appropriation bill and be-
come the items which compose the total.
instead of waiting until the end Of the
session and making only oRe bill, takes
the early resolves calling for money, and
the fixed charges for which provision
must be made and puts them into bill
by themselves, which thus becomes the
first appropriation bill. This year, the
measure will include two large items
consider. One Is an appropriation to meet
the temporary loan of g. SO, 900 which falls
due this year. The another is to take up
the war loan of sl00, 900 coming due next
year. The two combined make "a charge
of a quarter of million dollars. of which
three-ffths is a charge on this years
revenues. State Treasurer Simpson says
it will take the most careful Kind of tg-
uring to keep the tax rates ut "a mills
on u dollar. the present dgure. IL the
rate Is not changed, it may be that the
revenues from taxation this year will not
meet all the expenses In that case IL
M ght be necessary to renew the loan
N alatp mr. xxns GODnhIv liberal
to say the least but Its appropriations
were In comparatively small sums. This
year. there are three big items which did
not then appear, the two loans men
toned and $.25, 900 for the Bangor insane
hospital, nearly half million dollars
which must be provided for by taxation
or some other means in the next two
years AS Treasurer Simpson says in hi'
recently published report II the appro-
pratt obs are increased there should be
more revenue either by an increase in
the rate Of taxation or by finding some
new source of revenue. In this connec-
ton, there are Iumors that an attempt
may be made to increase the tax paid by
the street railways Such proposition
might lead to discussion and contest
which would decidedly enliven u rather
dull session. AS one legislature may
make specific appropriations earlier than
another, the total OF the first appropria-
ton bill when compared with that of the
previous session may not be significant
but the presence of such large sums in
tho list as the three mentioned indicate
of themselves that II they are to be in.
ciuded In the payments from the revenues
OF the next two years, care must be used
In other directions.
THE INVITATION 10 THE PRESI-
DENT.
The mails carried two interesting docu
ments to Washington today. One WAS
the official copy Of the resolution passed