Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-05-13

lawyers and experts in legislative pro-
cedure and law are far out in their
reckoning.
The missing amendment inserted
was the word "willfully'' which the
Legislature had ordered inserted in
line 3, section 20 of the printed bill.
the penalty section. Without that
word, carrying intent, violation of the
act might not be an offense, thus
leaving the law practically unenforce-
able. The amendment, providing for
the insertion of the word ''willfully"
undoubtedly was concurred in by the
house after the bill went through the
senate. The error was made when it
went through the hands of the house
enrolling and engrossing clerk for en-
rollment and preparation for the gov
ernOr. Then the word 'willfnIly" was
left out.
The governor signed this bill, as
nearly as can be ascertained, before 4
O'Clock in the afternoon. About that
time it was back to the statehouse
from the executive mansion, and was
filed with the secretary of state.
About o'clock John \. Reeve, clerk
of the house, went to the governors
office in the statehouse asking for
the bill-house bill No. 605-for the
correction of this error in enrolment.
BY Secretary Oglesby or Index Clerk
Brandenberg he was directed to the
secretary of states office. A few min
utes later he went from the secretary
of states Office with the bill on his
way to have the error corrected. He
was asked if it was necessary TO have
the bill enrolled again and the cor
rected enrolment signed by the gov
ernor, and he said no. Mr.. Reeve was
seen again about 1880 o'clock. He
said that the missing amendment had
been put into the bill by interineation,
and the corrected bill returned to the
files in the Secretary of states office.
the bills validity now hangs is this:
The incorrectly enrolled bill pre-
scented to and signed by the governor
was not the bill passed by the general
assembly. The corrected bill now on
file in the secretary of states Office
is the bill passed by the Legislature,
but not the bill actually signed by the
governor. Lawyers say a difference
of one word between copies of bills is
the same in effect as difference by
the omission of whole section from
one of them.
The convict bill. broadly speaking.
provides that all work by conVicts on
contract shall cease in Illinois after
July l, 1904. Thereafter the convicts |
must be employed only ON making
supplies for state institutions and for
the political divisions of the state, |
and in the manufacture of such pro-
ducts as will not come upon the open
market and will not enter into COM
petition with free labor Gov. Yates
explains how the missing amendment
was put into the convict labor bill. |
He says Senator Dunlap, author of
the ''willful'' amendment. discovered
its absence; that the original amend
ment was thereupou sent for and was
brought to him by Ed Mccoy, an as
sistant of the house enrolling and en-
crossing clerk, Thatcher, the regular
clerk. having gone to Oklahoma. AZ |
ter talking the matter over with Lieut.. |
Gov. Northcott. Senator Dunlap and
Secretary Paddock, of the senate. the
governor says, they decided to have
the missing amendment written in. 1t
was interlined, he supposes, by Mccoy
but he did not actually see Mccoy do
the writing. Mccoy has been work
ing with the house enrolling and en-
crossing clerk, but is not actually I'M
der oath as an enrolling and engross-
ing clerk.
Gov. Yates has vetoed the bill in
creasing salaries of members of the
general assembly from $1,000 to 3d.
900 for the regular session In doing
so he sharply scolds the members by
implication. The financial condition
of the state, he says, does not warrant
the increased expenditure contem-
plated by the bill, when there are
many purposes to which the money
had better be appropriated.
The governor thinks the members
of the general assembly are doing
fairly well-they killed a bill increas-
ing the governors salary to $4,000
and prOportionately raised other state |
officers salaries-at their present |
rate of remuneration. In 1895 legis- |
1ative pay was increased from So a
day to $1,000 a session, an increase in |
the gross from $15O,OOO to 100000 for
a whole session.
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