The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-18
LEGISLATURES
NOW And TO Be
Between the Present Session and
That of Next Year President
SouIe and Speaker Myers Are
Kept Busy
S0LONS LOOKING FOR
COMMITTEE PLACES

YdI ulll9 TIC wal " DC lOhSu
As Running Mate for Hon. John
|. Bates in Next Years Guber-
nat IaI Contest
Especial Legislative Correspondence
Boston, Nov. lit Is difficult to sep
arate the affairs of the Legislatures of
1901 and 1902 under conditions as they
exist at the State House today While
the present Legislature is in special
session, the Legislature of 1902 is get
ting ready for work, and the President
of the Senate and the Speaker of the
House are having a busy time of 1t.
Members who are coming hack next
year seek for conference with them,
and the disposition of the various COM
mittee plums are being discussed care
fully.
1t is pretty generally conceded that
Senator Blodgett of Worcester County
is in the position to get about as much
as anybody, simply from the fact that
he is the ranking man on the great
committees on ways and means and
railroads. Meanwhile, the perspective
demand of Representative Reed of
Taunton that he be placed at the head
of the railroad committee, so far as the
House is concerned, Is likely to lead
to trouble. Two years and a half ago
Mr.. Reed was the ranking member on
the committee, and expecting the chair
manship. He was not even placed up
on it, For the Speaker to return Reed
to the committee as its chairman now
would be a confession that he erred in
removing him, and whatever may be
the opinion of Reed or anyone else
upon this point, the fact must be clear
that to do this would be unwlse. There
fore the chances are that Mr.. Reed
win be told promptly that the honor
he covets is one the Speaker is power
less to bestow, and then Speaker My
ers will proceed to do all in his power
in the direction of recognizing Mr.
Reed in other directions.
The Taunton man Is one of the most
popular men In the General Court, be-
cause of his personal qualities as well
as of his ability, and for this reason,
neither the Speaker nor anyone else de-
sires to offend him; for when II comes
to making trouble, Reed not only is
not afraid, but he carries a good many
guns, and from the vantage point of
parliamentary tactics can not only
delay the proceedings but is very like
ly to carry any bill he desires through,
or else compel it's opponents to bring
up all their heavy batteries, and often
to find themselves discounted, until
the Senate comes to the rescue and
kills the Objectionable measure. Still
after all this 1t is just possible Reed
may get what he asks
The General Court, which convened
on Wednesday, made excellent progress
through the week. of course there
We're only three Legislative days avail
able, but on the first Of these the 227
chapters of the Revised Laws were re-
ported and had their first reading, 1926
of them in the Senate and 101 in the
House. On Thursday they were sew
orally ordered to third reading, and
on Friday each received its third read
ing and several amendments to correct
minor errors were offered. BY Tuesday
and probably tomorrow, the House
chapters should be in the Senate
calendar and the Senate chapters in
the House calendar With ordinary
speed, the whole should be ready for
enactment on Thursday or Friday, and
then final propagation should follow in
quick time. This is the program, but
if some of the members of either
branch wax eloquent the final adjourn
ment may go over into the following
week The program is to place in the
hands Of the President and Speaker
the duty Of selecting competent per-
sons to prepare the copy of the revised
laws as finally enacted for the printer
and supervise their passage through
the press A table of references must
also be prepared. The plan is TO pre-
pare a limited edition for publication
by January /, when, under the recon-
mendation of the Joint special COM
mittee (as embodied in chapter 226).
the laws will go into effect The index,
which is being prepared with great
care by Commissioner Charles N Har-
ris as indeXing clerk will hardly be
ready before May /, and soon after the
final edition in its complete form win
be published
Some little complaints are heard of
the title which the commissioners have
selected for the new codihcation. We
had province laws, colony laws, pre-
coded by the Body Of Liberties" but
each cOdification since the constitution
was adopted has been known as the
Revised Statutes, - General Stat
utes," Public Statutes" etc To call
the revision the Revised Laws" is
therefore considered a new and unde-
A-OUlHE0
utes" has been suggested as a sub
stitute. The original commission.
Messrs Bennett, Butler and Bell. dis
cussed this point at the very beginning
of the work Of revision, in 1896, and
decided that if "Codified Statutes'' was
taken as the name, the marginal ref
erence, &c. s." would altogether too
closely resemble the reference to the
General Statutes. &c s." On the other
hand, Notwithstanding the argument
that the word Laws" is extremely
broad in its meaning. il is evident that
1t has the precedent set by the colony
in its favor. and il is also clear that i'm
successive periods of 20 years the
names General Laws" and Public
Laws" can follow as has been the
policy in the use Of the title General Z
Statutes" and Public Statutes" An |
immense amount Of labor in changing +,
titles, marginal references and head 1
lngs. would result from a change in the I
name at this time.
In the field OF state politics. every I
thing seems to be settling down TO a (,
tacit agreement that next fall Hon. 4
John L. Bates shall be nominated for /
governor Of the Commonwealth with I
out opposition. and that his running
mate win be Curtis Guild, Jr Some .
slight opposition g this plan is expect /
ed to develop in the western part OF |
the state. which will lose its represent
tation on the ticket when Gov. Crane 4
and which is not disposed to
Hon. Herbert Parker a vest J
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