The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-05-16

members themselves who seek the pas
sage of certain bills. Likely enough
they live at the same boarding house
with the men they would influence, or,
perhaps, their victim has a bill for
which the adroit one himself prom
ises to vote. Great charity should be
extended to new members, especially
if they are unsophisticated 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 ''votes right or a weak
ling whom the lobby has made fool
of; or Tin some cases. one of these de-
fiant fellows who delights in getting
on the wrong side Of questions; who in
a blatant voice shouts mo- on every
bill that promises even 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. 1t bears
the name of Mr. Overlook, who is
stanch LaFollette man. but some Of
those who voted for it were frank to
say they doubted its constitutional
ity.
Power of Organized Labor.
Organized labor is a 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 a 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-
perience to bear. He said it was OPP
tionaI with the counties there, and
after some years only one (Cook) had
adopted it. 2ol1@
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
confine 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 a good deal about the direct
vote as long as Governor LaFolIette
is in authority. It 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. It 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
a fresh platform pledge is to be made,
or we may have bitter and unrelenting
war all the way along.
Popularity of Common Schools. p
Teachers institutes receive $14, 900
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-
tenn 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
made to limit this common school
levy to $S5OOO0 a year, but it failed.
Madison j happy over the new law
which apprepriates $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
new existence A good deal was
said of the fitness of styling the county
''Rusk," but nothing came of it. The
frank confession that 100000 gift
secured the honor of the name dis