The Green Forest tribune., 1901-03-16
LEGISLATURE DOINGS.
Regular Weekly Letter From Our Special Correspondent.

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 Well, as predicted a month ago, the house has refused to ap- propriate money for the salary of the commissioner of mines, man. ufactures and agriculture. We very much doubt the wisdom of this action. It may be true that the commissioner is incompetent, but Arkansas has had incompe- tent officials before and we man. aged to worry along somehow. MT. Hill was elected by the peo- ole of the state, and that election carried with it the guarantee that this salary would. be paid. We hope, and rather believe, that the action will be reconsidered.
 The Huddleston franchise bill was talked to death in the house last Tuesday and finally tabled. MT. Mccain, the brilliant young member from Pulaski, has intro = duced new bill which we think will reach the wealthy tax dodg- CTS of the state and of Pulaski county in particular.
 The house passed the senate concurrent resolution for joint committee to consider the new state capitol, and to report bill looking to completion of same. Speaker Humphreys appointed Messrs. Moore of Phillips, Pon- der and Neal, on the part of the house. On the part of the sen- ate, Dowdy and Norwood.
 There seems to be some op- position to completing the new state house. It comes princpally from a coterie of bankers in Lit { tie Rock, who own much prop Aerty in the vicinity of the old .Jfookery now occupied by our state officers and by courtesy called the state house. As mat ter of fact the new capitol 'occu- pies the prettiest site in Little Rock, commanding view of the entire city and in plain view of all trains arriving in the city. It will when completed (and it will be completed), be splendid ad- vertisement for the state. The opposition to it's completion are actuated by but one motive, and that is a selfish one.
 Again, property in the vicinity of the new capitol is enchancing, and will continue to enhance in value. The state owns hundreds of acres in sight of the new build- ing, which in a few weeks will be valuable for residence lots. The raise in price of this property will be great enough to build two or three million dollar buildings. If the Little Rock gang owned the property referred to there would be no kick on the completion of the building. They would reap the profit instead of the state.
 The fate of the gambling bill of.Senator Tom Wilson is awaited with breathless interest. We are under the impression that there is a large sized Ethiopian in that woodpile, and we will keep you posted on it.
 Of course. A bill was sent from the senate to the house last Friday which evidently had pass ed the higher body providing that after this session the pay of members of either body shall be S6 per day for the regular session of 60 days, and S2.50 for any ex- tension. It was killed in no time. It would be a great saving to the state if the members were placed on salary of, say, S400 year. A session of sixty days would then be long enough, and we would have less foolish legisla- ton than under the present sys- tenn.
 The legislature, at present, is receiving much censure to which as whole it is not entitled. There are, say eight members, of the house who occupy about two thirds of it's time. They mistake wind for eloquence, and are full of it. They keep the body in a continual turmoil, and of course IL. lxoe e.E lx;xa adc, nE dcrsa