The Portland daily press., 1901-02-06

vessel property. He said that until the
state reduced the valuation Of this class
or property, 1t was transferred 20 parties
outside the state and he thought the
effect would be the same II railroad stock
was subject 10 local taxation. The rail-
roads benefited the country towns as
well as the cities but the cities had been
the ones to assume the burden OF their
construction.
IRUANCY LAWS.
Before the committee on education the
truaucy law and tue new normal school
problems were ths bones OF contention.
A bill has been introduced striking out
the 80 amendment to the truancy law
and leaving the law rs it has been sinoe
1887. l.. q. Cornish. Esq, OF Augusta,
conducted the case for the repeal Of tina
law and there were present agent W. X.
Eaton Of the Cabot Mills, brunswick;
Superintendent Abbott of the Lockwood
mills, Watervills; Agent Miles OF the
FarUell mills, Lisbon; Agent Bean, An
drosooggin mills. Lewiston, while othsr
mills wsre represented by Letters ana teIs
grams. Representative Maddooks o.
Boothbay Harbor also spoke on behalf o
the slrdine industry where many boys
are employed in the sixty Maine factories
Sir. Cornish and the others disclaimet any
hostility to the truancy idea, but made
. plea for law that shall be uniform for
the state and not a matter OF local option.
They were satisfied with the law from 81
to '9g. which prevented the employment
Of children un1er twelve, but allowed ths
employment or those from twelve to six
teen provided they went to school sixteen
weeks year. They showed tue necessity
OF employing young people In the mills
both from the point OF view of the corpo-
rations and the families. The repsal Of
the amendment was opposed by Snperin-
tendent OF Schools Tnton Of Bangor sk1
Principal q. S. Pettingill of the village
district, Augusta.
NEW NORMAL SCHOOL. q
The much discussed matter OF anotheA
normal school for Maine was then taken
up by this committee and several speak-
ers were heard. Ihs claims of PresqIe
Isle were presented with force and at
length by Rev. q. M. Park. Represen
tatlve Pattangall and Hon. 4. l. Camp
bell, spoke In behalf of Maohias. Repre-.
sentative Putnam briefly spoke for Houl-
ton. Senator Plummer spoke with much
earnestnsss and convincing force in be-
half of Dexter and told why the commit
tee two years ago, had recommended that
Dexter as the site OF the new school VIII n
Il be established. The committee then
talked over few unimportant matters
and before adjournment voted TO report
ought to pass on the resolve of S2l2 70 re-
imburss Turnsr for an error maze in the
school returns.
REVISION OF PUBLIC LAWS.
Before the judiciary committee this aft
ernoon, the matter OF revising the public
laws was the most important matter con-
sidered. G. +. Libby of Portland. IL. NJ.
Heath and a. Nj. Goddard OF Augusta
and Representative Haskell OF Windham
explained the great neeu Of saeh revision.
The Maine laws have hesn revised In
ls41, 1857, 1871, and 1883 50 that an un-
usually long period has elapsed since a
revision while at the same time there mas
been a grsa ter and creator Increase Of
laws. There were incorporated into the
1888 revision 1899 acts and $40 pages,
while for the proposed revision there
would be 1893 acts and 1850 pages. Ihsse
ana other facts ware we'll brought out to
show the need OF this work being done by
the state at once. Nobobdy spoke in op-
position. Later In executive session, the
committee voted to report ought TO pass
on the bill amending the charter OF the
Rockland Water company and the same
on the bill authorizing Rockland to cor
troll certain brooks and streams therein
1t was voted to report ought not to pass
on the bin establishing a state boart OF
charities, left over from tbs 69th legisla-
ture. The committee reassigned to next
Tuesday the bill limiting the amount of
stock to be issued by the quasi-i utlio
earrnrakfoua