The true northerner., 1901-01-11
MAKE READY TO GRIND
The State Lawmakers Will Soon
Be Getting Down to
Hard Work.
SOME PROPOSED LEGISLATION
Recommendations Made by Governor
Bliss in His Inaugural Message
To BE Carried Out.

Lansing, Mich, Jan. S.-Although
the forty-hrst session of the Michi-
gan legislature convened one week
ago, it will not be fairly underway
until the middle of this week, for the
reason that the standing committees
have not yet beenapp0inted and with
out them practically no business can
be transacted. After hearing the mes
sages OF the incoming and retiring
governors read last week, the legisla-
ture adjourned until tomorrow morn
ing in order TO give the presiding oti-
GERS of the two houses an opportunity
TO arrange these committees. This is
a comparatively easy task for the
president OF the senate, inasmuch rs
he has only thirty-two statesmen TO
satisfy ana has known that the task
would be his TO perform ever since
election day, when he was chosen.
With the speaker of the house, how
ever, it is altogether different. In
the first place he has 100 names TO
chase around the checkerboard until
all have been fairly dealt with, and it
cannot be definitely known who will
have this job to do until after the leg
islature convenes and the speaker is
actually elected. Both presiding otfi-
GERS expect 10 be ready TO announce
their committees tomorrow. But one
change has been made in the standing
committees, the house having divided
the committee of nine onfish and game
and provided a separate committee of
five on each subject. This will give
the speaker one more Craftsmanship
and thus make his task easier TO per-
form.
Listened to Messages.
Michigan had the greatest thing in
the way of governors messages last
week that it ever experienced and it
is doubtful if any state in the union
ever approached it, The two houses
Of the legislature sat in joint conven-
tion for more than five hours listening
to words of advice and other things,
and even then some thirty pages of
tables which constituted Il portion of
Governor Pingree'S message were
omitted. Probably never before in the
history of the country were two such
vastly different state documents SUBJ
mitted to Il legislature, either on the
same day or on different days in diff
ferent years. Considerably more than
four hours were consumed in the read
ing Of the Pingree message, while
Governor Bliss occupied only little
more than thirty minutes. The mes
sage of the retiring governor was de-
cidedly the most Pingreesque docu-
ment ever submitted. and at the nu-
merOus regular and special sessions
during his four years as governor
some characteristic messages have
been sent TO the legislature. He GER
tainly went out of Office i'm n blaze Of
pingree glory, 10 which nothing in
the line of luridneSS could be added.
Inasmuch as he has since declared
himself entirely satisfied with his fin
ish, there is no occasion for anyone
to find fault with il. The relative
merits of the two messages will. Of
course. always be n matter of opinion.
They represent two wholly different
schools of craftsmanship, and, there
fore. will necessarily find both favor
and condemnation.
AS is always the case. both the in
coming governor and the presiding Of
ficers Of the two houses of the legiS-
lature recommended short, business
like sessions. and, as usual. the result
will he a session of about the average
length. 1t is possible that the pres
ent may he n trifle shorter than some
of its more recent predecessors for the
reason that the utmost harmony is
likely to prevail between the two
houses. and there will be no delays
due to fractional OuarrelS.
Until Constitution Is Changed.
However. Michigan can never hope
to cut the sessions of the legislature
to a proper limit until the constitu-
ton is changed so that the legislature
cannot be called upon to 90 a vast
amount of work every two years that
properly belongs to the various boards
of supervisors to perform AS mat
ters now stand a very large portion
of each session of the legislature is
consumed with the work Of consider
ing village and city charters, and bills
extending the time for the collection
Of taxes i'm certain townships. and au-
thoriZing municipalities TO bond, etc.
An idea of the amount of time that
is consumed during n regular session
with this class Of bills may he gained
from the fact that at the last special
session, which lasted less than ten
days, no less than five special mes
sages were submitted by Governor
Plngree recommending the enactment
of bonding bills in order to help mu-
inequalities out Of pending difficulties.
All five bills were passed by the
house. but were promptly pigeOnholed
in the senate, and will now be the
first fruits Of the present legislature.
Legislative Junkets.
1t is doubtful if the adoption of the
recommendation made by both Gov
ernor Bliss and Speaker Carton that
legislative junkets to state institu-
tions be abolished, will tend to short
en- the session any. Nevertheless, the
abolition of the junket will he a
mighty good thing, for it is a state
secret that they have never accom-
plished the least particle of good, and
have been apt TO he somewhat of n
disgrace to the state for obvious rea-
sons. Those legislators who went on
the junket placed themselves under
obligations TO the transportation com
panies as well as the communities
they visited and by which they were
lavlshly entertained, thereby insuring