The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-30
Measures Precipitated Gen. eral Debate in Lower Branch
The Senate Recommitted the Spencer Labor Bill and Referred Resolu- ton Relating to An Early Recess to Rules
 Committee.

tfves yesterday easily and with votes to spare The opposition which seemed so formidable at Wednesdays session made but sorry showing yesterday and the bill was passed by a vote of 2 to 15. The days session of the House abound ed in talk. Speechmaking occupied the greater part of the time of the lawmak- CTS. The salary bill and thy bill raising the annual appropriation for fncampment purposes of the Alabama National Guard were discussed at length. The House | showed a disposition to hear patiently all speakers and there was no attempt to shut of debate or call down the member | who wanted to speak. The doors were opened for the orators of the House and they availed themselves of their privilege
 to talk without restriction.
 l The two bills which brought on the dis
 cussion were the only measures passed | by the House. Both carried appropria- tions. The objects of the bills were ad-
 mittedly good ones, but some of the mem- | bers were nervous about increasing State
 expenses sat this time when the tax rate has been lowered and such a warm fight | is being waged upon the new revenue bill. | with other worthy calls for appropriations in sight.
 Military Appropriation Reduced. | The talk of economical members against | the military appropriation bill succeeded
 in scaling the appropriation for the Ma
 tional Guard down to s15D00 from $17.0oo, | the amount originally named in the bill.
 The Governors salary bill which had been so widely discussed during We'd
 nesday's session came up at the begin | ming of the session under the head of | unfinished business
 | Speaker Tunstall relinquished the chair | to Mir. Foster of Tuscaloosa and took
 the floor to lead the fight for its adop- tion. MT. Tunstall reviewed the discus | sion of Wednesday which, he said, had
 taken a wide range He took grounds against the proposed postponement of the bill, which he said was Aot called for | unnecessarily. The bill, he said. was a very short one. It contained only one | provision. The subject had been discuss ed in the Constitutional Convention and l with the question of raising the salary l of the Governor. ., ...-.
 He moved that the consideration of the 1 motion of Mir. Lusk or Marshall to post | pone the bill be indefinitely postponed
 and the motion was adopted. The ques-
 ton then recurred to the passage of the bill.
 | Hon. Alex London of Jefferson said that he would support the bill. a decision in l which no personal motives entered inas- [ much as he was not a supporter in the | Democratic primaries of the present i'm cumbent of the Governors office. He ar l gued that Alabama should pay her Chief | Executive officer larger salary. | 'Our State is a great State, he de- | ciared. Tt is small only when we make
 1t small No great corporation with an
 annual income of s2,000,O00 would pay it's chief officer as small a salary as s 1000 a year"
 l MT. London pointed out that there was great discrepancy in the amount of | taxable property assessed in Alabama and l the amount returned from the State by l the census takers.
 Opposed by Bogart.
 Representative Bogart of Jackson op- posed the bill. He said that the Auditor, | in his last report. had shown that there
 would be deficit in the State treasury of
 $63, 900. This. he said, should be met | aan provided for before any addi- | tional appropriations were passed. He
 announced that he favored the spirit of l the bill but argued that the State was | unable to bear any additional appropria- i lions.
 Representative Callahan of Morgan spoke at length for the bill. He denied ! that the Constitutional Convention should | have fixed the Governors salary. That. | he said, was a matter that belonged to the Legislature. Taxes, MT. Callahan de- clared, were not the only income that | belonged to the State. The State, he said, | could secure other income by licenses and privilege taxes.
 Representative Wilkinson of Autauga | I a0to raI &haA aIt Ho Lol | the amendment making the salary 5000 | oi Wednesday he now favored the original
 measure. He had carefully investigated | the financial condition of the treasury and he was convinced that the State could | we'll bear the additional appropriation. Mir Lowe of Lawrence. a member of the Constitutional Convention. was also an | advocate of the bill. The Legislature as did the Constitutional Convention, he | said. agreed that the salary of the Gov 1 ernor should be raised. the only question l was how much. The Constitutional Con vention he said, would have raised the salary only that 1t believed that the mat l ter was one properly belonging to the | Legislature.
 The bill was then passed. MT. Lyons of | Mobile moved that it be sent at once to the Senate without engrossment and the | motion was adopted.
 Routine of the House. The House met promptly at 1O:3o o'clock | the regular hour for converting. | pr. J. A. Rice of the Court Street Methodist Church offered a prayer. l The roll call showed the presence of ninety six members. Leave of absence
 was asked for and granted Representa- tive J. R. Ward of Macon.
 | Speaker TunstalI relinauished the chair ] to Representative J. Manly Foster of l Tuscaloosa who said that the regular order was the consideration of the bill raising the salary of the Governor which 1 came up as unfinished business. The | House gave an hour to the discussion of the hill before the vote was reached by | which It was passed.
 l During the consideration of the Gov 1 ernor's salary bill message was received | from the Senate. The message laid upon | the table until after the salary bill had been disposed of.
 The Senate message notified the House | that the upper body had concurred in l and passed the two resolutions introduced | by Mir. Lusk of Marshall. nlemorializing ' the Alabama delegation in Congress to | support the school land law of Congress- | man Clayton and asking the Alabama | deleEation to use its efforts to have all | appropriation made for the Tennessee