Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-07

ST LOUIS EXPOSITION appropriation bill
carrying sS5000 passes senate as IL came
from the house.
CFrom a STAFF Correspondent.)
LINCOLN, April 6.-(Special.) with one
stroke today the house swept away from
the people Of Nebraska the opportunity OF
voting on proposed constitutional amend
ments at the general election In 1908, from
the governor the opportunity OF calling an
extra session for the consideration Of
changes in the organic law and imposed
upon the voters OF the state the future
necessity OF passing on the proposition Of
holding a constitutional convention.
This was the elimination of the fight on
the constitutional amendment proposition,
precipitated by Sweezy Saturday night when
he sought to force the senate to recede
from its action in killing a bill OF his to
cut the prices of printing constitutional
amendments and which caused the first
| clash OF the two houses this session. After
bitter struggle this morning the house
voted to indefinitely postpone all the senate
files embodying proposed amendments and
passed S. F. ia. providing for the holding
of convention for the reconstructton OF
the constitution! AS s. F. ia is Joint
resolution 1t cannot be vetoed by the gov
ernor, who is notably in favor OF the
amendments as against the convention. and
the opportunity Of the governor calling the
extra session is therefore gone.
/ 1t required three fifths vote to pass the
| joint resolution calling for the constitu-
( tional convention. Sixty.two votes--two
more than the necessary numbtr--were So
cured, and twenty were cast in the
| negative. 1t took some time and a great
| deal Of rustling, however not q little
acrobatic performance and considerable en-
gineering on the part Of the speaker, to
bring about the result. When the roll
was first called ct least ak votes were
lacking TO pass the bill The aspeaker
stepped down TO the clerks side and took
In the ,simation, Being With the rest OF
i the. Lancaster delegation. in favor OF the
convention proposition, Mr.. Mcckett de-
! layed announcing the vote until he was
assured that the necessary number was In
hand. There was hurrying o and fro, much
time was spent in confused effort to drag
members over the line. FiDally these
| Topped and turned the tide: Gilbert and
Ten Eyck of Douglas, Belden OF Richard
son, Caldwell of Clay. Harrison VI Wash
ington and Ramsey of Gage. One or two
who had not voted were also pulled into
line.
Douglas Men 10 Blame.
All the Douglas county mon present ex.
cept Koetter Shelly and Kennedy, voted
for the bill. Riggs was absent. II Doug
las countys interests are made to suffer
because of the action of the house in de-
| privlng the people of the desired privilege
of voting on constitutional amendments,
! therefore. It need not go further than it's
own delegation to locate the blame. Had
the Omaha men stood firmly against the
bill its defeat would have been assured
and the people would still havo had the
opportunity OF voting on these questions,
| lvvhl oh r,,t,cf no Iaft anAf ~ ha
say-so of few men who will be selected
much on the same order as legislators are
! selected.
or the sixty-two affirmative votes sixty
one we're republicans. and OF the negative
votes, twenty-one were by fusiopists. One
fusionist, Mikesell voted with the ma
jority and three did not vote at all Eight
republicans voted In the negative
The result of this struggle today seems
! to be a distinct triumph for the Burling-
ton railroad interests. The prime motive
for defeating the constitutional amend
ments was to kill that one which provided
for an increase in the number OF supreme
court judges and the one providing for
the abolition of the supreme court com
mission. And 1t is intimated that the Bur.
lington was back of the movement be-
cause II did not care to have the number
of supreme court judges increased from
three for obvious reasons, nor did Il care
to have the commission wiped out. The
adoption of the motion killing all these
constitutional amendment bills, therefore.
cinches the continuance OF the supreme
court commission.
One constitutional amendment bill has
been saved, thus far at least, from the
wreck. This is H. r. 70, by Fries provid-
ing for the safe investment Of the perma-
nent school fund. 1t was over in the senate
when this hght started and Is still there.
sweezy offered a resolution to have It re-
turned, but the resolution was tabled. The
senate has not taken final action on the
bill as yet.
Fight starts EARLY.
Shortly after the house convened this
morning the fight on the constitutional
amendments was renewed by a motion Of
fered by sweezy that S. Fs 2s1 2es. 26i.
266 and 269. providing respectively for the
increase OF state officers salaries, increase
in legislators terms from two TO four
years. empowering the legislature to Ak
salaries OF district and supreme court
judges, the investment OF the permanent
school fund and the creation OF a supreme
court bench with seven members for terms
Of seven years. be indefinitely postponed.
This opened up the whole question which
was fought over last Saturday, when the
house adopted sweezy's amendment not TO
pass any constitutional amendments until
the senate receded from its action &c kill
ing sweezys bill to cut down the printing
. prices Of constitutional amendments.
Loomis Of Dodge offered an amendment
10 the motion, providing that all these
bills should go to the general hle. He
spoke vigorously for the motion, saying that
II the house coneurred in the senate reso-
, Iution for q constitutional convention "A
, would become necessary TO vote on At least