The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-10
Members Said It Was Too
 Drastic. EIGHT MEASURES PASSED
COodwyn's vagrancy Bill
 Among the Number.
Proposed Appropriation of $15,OoO for St. Louis Exhibit and MT.
 Halls Sunday Baseball Bill Were Reported Favorable.

The House of Representatives spent a busy day yesterday in the exclusive con- alteration of general bills passing eight of these measures and defeating several , others.
 The House displayed an iconoclastic dis position in yesterdays proceedings. The bill that was not liked was remorselessiy put to death, and no time was lost in the operation. The Maner gaming bill. the Thomas fine and forfeiture measure, the bill fixing the pay of County Comnis- sionsrs were laid away for all time.
 Health Bill Sidetracked.
 The general health bill, endorsed by the State Medical Association, was side tracked 10 the Judiciary Committee, after 1t had been favorably reported by the Committee on Public Health. The House took this action over the united protests of the friends of the bill who regarded the move with manSfest apprehension. The bill was attacked as a drastic meas ure which involved some of the rights of Alabama citizens, a charge which, true or untrue, had its effect upon the disposition of the measure The bill was ably defended by MT. Starr of Dallas, Mr. Bankhead of Walker, and MT. Cal lahan of Morgan.
 Mir. Starr, who is Chairman of the Committee on Public Health, explained that the bill was the old health code re- written and made to harmonize. Health Boards, he explained, were only given power to carry out certain of their recom- mendations in contagious cases The biii, he declared. was of grNat importance to every man, woman and child in Alabama.
 MT. Hickman of Jefferson, was the chief assailant of the bill. He declared that it established a judiciary of doc tors. It gave. he asserted, the doctors the right to decide whether man had nuisance on his place. Some of the pro- visions of the bill, he admitted, were good, but he said the bill invested the doctors with too much power. They had come year after year wanting little more authority. sAshaiI ~N submit te this graveyard tfustY'' asked Mir. Hickman. at the con eiusion of one of his assaults upon the measure. s
 MT. Lusk of Marshall, intimated that he was opposed to the bill because it placed an additional expense upon the counties of the State.
 lChampioned by Callahan.
 The bill could be.amended, if it was too drastic, MT. Callahan of Morgan, con tended. There was unquestioned merit in the bill, he said, and that had not been denied. The attempt to recofmit the bill he said, was a direct assault upon the honesty and intelligence of the Health Committee. There seemed to be a disposition on the part of the House to assail anything with an appropriation, he declared.
 If the only thing we are here for said MT. Callahan, lis to save money, we had better adjourn sine die and go home.''
 The recommittal of the bill was favor ed by MT. Rich. of Mobile. who said, however, that the Judiciary Committee was not anxious to take hold of the mat ter.
 Immediate consideration of the bill was Insisted upon by Mir. Bankhead of Walk CT If any change was to be made in the bill it could be made at once in the Committee of the Whole
 The House, however wanted recommit- fal and it worked its will upon the bill.
 Vagrancy Bill Passed.
 The Goodwin vagrancy bill, founded upon the Georgia law. to suppress idle ness and vagrancy. went through the House with remarkable ease. The House members were very cordial and sympa- thetic towards the bill. The House en- dorsed the measure with practically a unanimous vote.
 The paragraph in the bill classifying as a vagrant the man able to work, but who hired out his minor children and did no work himself, was repugnant to MT. Callahan of Morgan. Mir Callahan, who tights as cheerfully and willingly in a hopeless minority as he does when lined up with an overwhelming majority, en- Eered the lists against that paragraph. It violated he said, the constitutional rights of the man who. wearing out his life in labor for his children, was enti- tied to receive aid from them when they hay become able to work. As a result .pf Mir. Callahans tilt against the para Kraph, it was so amended that 1t was made to apply only to the able bodied men who willfully idled or loafed while living upon the earnings of his minor children.