Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1899-03-22

increasing an Insurance Company's Tax
$4,000 "a Year--Lawmakers Watching
Electric Tricks on the Campns--New
Hitch in Anti-pass Crusade - Possible
Compromise on Harvey school Plan.
Music for Insane.
Madison. March 2l.-The man who
does the most talking ON the floor of
| the assembly is Judge p. A. Orton OF
| Darlington.ra thiek-set lawmaker of Gil,
with round. smooth. plump face and
lots of white hair. As rule, takers
run themselves out, but Judge Orton
has the brains To sustain his leader
ship. for Wheeler. chairman of the judi.
clary. IS much younger lawyer. and
McGrath of Green Bay is not legal
trained and Hall has too many I'M
| popular irons in the fire, and Colonel
Rush is too outspoken to dispute the
| title with the Lafayette county man.
| Judge Orton is fine type of the ru-
raj magnate. Darlington's population
is $500. Had he gone to Milwaukee. in
stead of Darlington, with its 400 peo-
| pie, when the panic of 1856, threw him
out Of engineering. for which he had
been educated at Madison university
in Hamilton, n. ", he would today b.
partner of General Winkler or other
| wise been at the top.
| He lives in a great big, comfortable
| hip-roofed house, on the main street,
| his home since "a, two years after he
| was married
| He is president of banks in Darling
ton and Benton administers estates and
gives advice in a fatherly way to young
1 women who want to get ahead in the
world and young men who want TO be-
| come great. The judge has a Jolly.
J kindly face, with suggestions of ripe
/ pippins in it and the children walk by
/ his side without fear, and when he
passes away he will have a funeral so
long that the rear carriages can't get
! inside the cemetery gate.
/ A Lawmaking Leader at Work.
j The judge is a power on his feet He
I, has. dignity hut tempered With quiet
/ humor He is hard worker on pend
1 ing legislation. This is something new
for us in Madison.
/ Ambitious congressman in Washing
/ ton burn midnight OIL hut for an as
/ sembyman to work until the small
/ hours on his file of bills and pour over
l
| he were bringing case for trial. is al
/ most nnpreceder ted.
! The result is thai he is prepared, and
| I do not know of man of recent years
who has so smashed bin after bill thai
| had the recommendation of committee
/ behind it, and whose passage seemed
| inevitable.
The Judges standpoint is that OF a
| lawyers. and this standpoint is not al
ways right. lie Is an advocate and
! advocates are sometimes too much bent
| on results. When the session opened
with a senatorial fight the judge IN
| dorsed the plan for ballot on me
| nuiet. 1t was his first speech. He
/ Pleaded the analogy of the Australian
/ ballot He intimated that because the
/ voter il turned into a solitary booth
to decide on his ballot with no one but
| the Almighty to know about it, that
therefore a lot of Milwaukee assembly
men should be allowed to come to Madi-
| son and do the dark lantern act with
a United states senatorship OF course
| the analogy was as porous as lime
stone
/ Reporters Didn't Do Him.
| Well, the newspaper men said. Hes
smart but specious. He looks as inno-
cent az a year.ing, but he has talked
to county Seat juries for years. In
| short he's an advocate and wants the
/ decision his way-any way to get it,"
| But while Judge orion in the furry
| and newness of the moment had ad-
| vanced a contention that he would re-
| ject in calmer moments, he began to
gain strength steadily. He has made.
| mistakes, He found himself wrong on
the child adoption bill. and manfully
| got up and withdrew the bill. He is
restless on the subject of higher edu-
| cation and disposed to be suspicious
and provincial in spots. but he will ma
! ture. He is certainly a valuable legal
/ adviser to the whole body.
| Judge Orion was a Democrat until
Garfield's time. He has been candi-
| date for congress and for circuit judge
and attorney general. He was born in
/ New York state. and as boy from IL
| 0 49, lived in Beloit, doing some study
ing there. Major Bundy and Horace
| White were fellow students. He later
| took a full engineering course at Ham
| iton, but coming back to Wisconsin
| the panic had stopped railroading and
| he studied law with the father ofMayor
Rose of Milwaukee. The judges part
| ner, Osborn, has served in the assem-
| bly, and the latter's sister is Mrs orion.
| This lady is welleknown as charming
| hostess and leader in womens club
| work, and a daughter, Miss Susie, does
| the parents proud, having graduated
| at Rockford and about finishing her
| third year in medical studies in Chi
| eago The son, Robert, is in the OAR
| iington bank.
TaxingrHis Own Insurance CompapS
| These straws of culture show that
| Judge Orton has no dark designs on lhe
university. He wants the annual ap-
| preparation of $2SS, 600 made spec fie. the
| amount named, instead of the present
| percentage plan,
| An innovation dearer to him, how.
| ever, is the forcing the life insurance
| companies to pay larger taxes. His
| bin will raise the tax on the North
| western Mutual from $34, 600 to $215 900
| annually. The amusing part is that h
| Is insured in the company for $4,000
| himself and has been its agent lin per-
| son or through his bank) SINCE 1852 and
| Is writing policies every month. As
| a rule giant tax reforIners of this sort
| are easily discouraged by corporations
| but 1t is said the doughty judge has
| made but one political speech of late
/ years. That was when he told a town
| hall full of farmers that il they sent
| him to the legislature he would make
| this company, with valuation equal
| to all the city OF Milwaukee's. pay its
| taxes And ne is making the fight of
| his life, so ne can go back and ask them
! II he has kept his pledge.
| The Free Pass" Dies Hard,
| Both branches have passed an anti
| PASS constitutional amendment. All
| sorts of comforting, however, will be
| necessary to lash it into 81 ape TO make
| ID mutually agreeable. As for the bill
| which is designed to step the issue OF
| passes until the amendment goes into
| effect, the ass mbiy railroad committee
| actually throttled it the other day-a
/ majority reporting against any such
| bin This majority was made up Of
] members who live a long ways Of and
/ they had no reason to give for Oppo-
| sition. OF course the real reason was
! that they objected to surrender their
| passes. The issue will no doubt be
| kicked about until the end of the ses-
| sion when the party leaders viii have
| a conference in Madison and remind the
solonS of the party pledge and order
| legisIat ON TO meet the sane.
| yaw,naL..ts ystcl, EIett rio Wonders.