The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-05-17

| they live at the same boarding house
with the men they would influence, or,
perhaps, their victim has bill for
which the adroit one himself prom
Uses to vote Great charity should be
extended to new members, especially
if they are unscphisticated and wish
! to be popular. But it is interesting
! to see how every man by the end
| of a session has a reputation-one
who always ''yotes right" or weak
ling whom the lobby has made fool
of; or lin some cases. one of these de-
fiant fellows who delights in getting
on the wrong side Of questions; who in
| q blatant voice shouts mo- on every
| bill that promises even a just advan-
| tage for somebody, and sometimes his
is the only negative to some routine
! measure whose merit appeals to ev-
| erybody.
The bill taxing ice shipped out of
! the state was finally passed in the
| senate to go to the governor. It bears
| the name of Mr.. Overlook, who is a
! stanch LaFollette man. but some of
those who voted for it were frank to
say they doubted it's constitutional
! ity.
Power of Organized Labor.
! Organized labor is power in in
fluencing legislation, although the
members sQuirm under it. This has
, been instanced in two bills, one Ii
! censing engineers stationery of en-
! gines of more than 12-hOrse power. A
| good many engineers wished it be-
cause it would make something of a
monopoly of their business-we all
like to limit the number following the
! business in which we are engaged, in
| hopes of raising salaries. The bar
| bers' license bill, which was killed,
! was Of this order The engineers bill
| passed the senate and was advanced
in the assembly by large majority.
| The legislators did not like it, but
| they did not wish to offend the inf1u
entail engineers who looked on from
| the galleries. Finally however, after
some hard fighting by members, who
| themselves used small boilers in their
home factories, and wished to hire
| whom they pleased, the assembly had
| a chance to rescind it's action. Having
once gone on record as friends of the
engineers, they gladly proceeded to
| bury the bill face downward.
The bill forbidding the running Of
| freight trains with two engines
"double headers"--was another bill
| that did not strike the members right
| but it went through the assembly
| with flying cOlOrs only to fall down
| in the senate. The Dahl bill, intro
| ducing the Torrens system of land
| registration, met it's fate in the senate
| after having been put through the
assembly by hard work on the part of
| the Vernon county aSSemblyman.
| Senator Jones brought his Illinois eX-
! perence to bear He said it was Op-
| tional with the counties there. and
after some years only one Cook had
adopted it.
The Split over Primary Elections.
Primary elections are dead for this
| year, the closing act being four
column veto by Governor LaFollette
Of the senate BILL which the govern
or interpreted as pit dug for him.
| The governors veto is in vehement
| English. He was at first disposed to
cOnfne himself to the dement's of the
measure, but concluded to canvass
somewhat the history of the move
! ment for primary elections in this
state. Opposition senators went on
record as denying his charges of I'M
worthy motives. We may expect to
hear good deal about the direct
vote as long as Governor LaFollette
| is in authority. 1t took Hall six years
| to bring about the abolition of the
free pass, and it is not strange that
| so radical a change in the nominal
| ing machinery should require more
time. 1t is unlikely that his Oppon-
ents will hold out against all forms
of the direct vote, now that they have
offered to concede the use of it in
| county nominations. 1t may be that
the next compromise of more sub
stantial character will be at the next
state convention when Governor La
Toilette comes up for reelection and
fresh platform pledge is to be made,
or we may have bitter and unrelenting
war all the way along.
Popularity of Common Schools.
! Teachers Institutes receive $4,000
this year, an increase Of $4,000.
The popularity of the common
schools was shown by the refusal of
! the senate to interfere with the sys-
| TEN of turning in one mill off each
dollar assessed for common school
! purposes. The system will raise more
money than needed under the in
creased valuation and an effort was
levy to $S5O.OOO a year, but it failed.
Madison is happy over the new law
i which appropriates $4,000 toward the
paving of the four streets about the
capitol park.
! The bill establishing the new coun-
! ty of Gates goes to the governor
whereby twenty-siX townships have
+ a new existence. A good deal was
! said of the fitness of styling the county
''Rusk,'s but nothing came of it, The
! frank confession that 100000 gift
secured the honor Of the name dis
pleased many, but the governor could
hardly be expected to veto the bill
on that ground. There was some
grumbling against the assembly's
committing itself a second time-as
is necessary-before submitting the
anti-pass constitutional amendment to
the people, but the deed has been done
and it is altogether likely the people
will incorporate in the constitution
a prohibition against the use of free
passes by public officials. And once
| tbnrn If will povor no roScin1oI