The Portland daily press., 1899-01-14
A DULL SESSION.
Nothing Of Absorbing Interest Before
Legislature.
BALLOT LAW FIGHTHAS DROPPED
OUT OF SIGHT.

Demands for BiR Appropriation the
Only Matters Of Interest--The Eliot
Election Case and Senatorial Caucus
the Chief Events Last Week.
nPKcIAL TO THE PREssJ
Augusta, January 10 With today's
adjournment the legislature finished the
second week of the winters session. 1t
is a safe statement that 1t has been many
years since gathering OF the Maine law
making body has been in session for so
long a time and heard Of so few important
measures which 1t would te called upon
TO consider. OF the bills and resolves SO
far introduced the important ones are
those relating TO the appropriation OF
money in behalf of various institutions.
The chief among these is the Bangor in
sane hospital measure, but that can hard
ly he described as new business as IL is to
complete an institution to the construc-
ton of which the state Is committed.
The fight over it, If fight there be, will be
in the nature of an attempt to cut down
the amount carried In the resolve. The
academies are all on hand as usual and
the State college wants an appropriation
for gymnasium and drill hall. Two
hospitals, those at Augusta and Lewis
ton, ask for large sums of money to be
added to their building funds in addition
to the ordinary state stipends towards the
operating expenses. The movement for
the repeal Of the ballot law seems to have
gone entirely to pieces before 1t got to the
Legislature at all. There is little of gen.
eral nature yet demanding the attention
of the railroad committee and all told the
dockets of the principal committees show
few measures of general character In
the midst of the ruck of Legislation
private and special. As n matter OF fact
the two topics which have attracted the
greatest attention during the past week
have been the proposition to raise the
salaries of the judges of the Supreme
the law requiring towns to appoint road
commissioners. This is an act OF the last
legislature under which town was re-
quired to elect q road commissioner, that
officer receiving pay for his services while
employed and having authority TO hire
men and teams and to purchase the
necessary materials. There is no doubt
ms to the dissatisfaction with the law II
the talk made by the members from many
of the smaller towns correctly represents
the public sentiment in thu places from
which they come Two ways have been
suggested for dealing with the question
and bills have been introduced for carry
ing each into effect. One method is to
wipe tn law of the statue books and the
other is to make only such changes in IL
as will make the election of road COM
missioner optional with each town. While
many towns are dissatisfied 1t Is equally
true that in others the system has proved
{, success and the members from these
towns many head off the movement for
he absolute repeal OF the law. When 1t
was first agitated before ths legislature
this statute was regarded rs the opening
wedge in the good roads movement. it be-
ing argued that it would educate the
people in better ways of road building
and lead to vast improvement in the
highways of the rural districts.
The two really Interesting gatherings in
connection with the legislature so far have
beer the caucus which renominated Sena-
tor Hale and the hearing in the contested
| electi on case from Eliot before the com
mittee on towns. The Eliot contest kept
the committee up until long after the
usual bed time of the members. 1t being
nearly midnight when Mr.. Seiders con-
clnded his argument for MIR. keefe, the
contestant 1t was not generally known
thep how speedy was to he the death Of
the attempt to kill the Australian system
and the members thronged TO the hall to
listen to the evidence and arguments be-
cause of the bearing they had on the
larger question. The committee still have
the matter under advisement. One of the
strsws which sometimes show how the
wind blows was the remark made by q
mem ber OF the House at the conclusion of
the hearing. He said: well, If man
can't learn how TO mark his ballot he
ought not TO vote, )" which WAS not exact
ly in line with thu argument of the dis
tineuished Augusta attorney who had
Just been describing the distranchisement
brought about by the operation of the
law.
There will be some matters of interest
in the week to come, the hsaring on the
petit ion to raise the salaries of the judges
being among the topics assigned
A matter of interest to some
Portland people is the hearing on the
amen dment asked to the charter of the
Maine Charitable Mechanic association
This hearing is set for next Thursday
afternoon before the judiciary committee.