Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-04-02

April 3.
I The assembly ordered to engross-
ment the bill to reduce the one mill
school tax, after the measure had
been amended so that the progressive
principle of the law is retained. The
levy is reduced to threeffths Of one
per cent. on each dollar of assessed
valuation of all property exclusive of
railroads and corporations that are
taxed by the license system. 1t is
calculated that the measure will
raise something over 100000 an
nually for the school fund.
The state affairs committee of the
assembly reported favorably the bill
forbidding the intermarriage of
blacks and whites From the COM
mittee on federal relations came an
adverse report on the I'LL for the
state to care for drunkaris. The
Dudgeon bill permitting the or
ganiZation Of mutual church fire in
surance companies was laid over.
Madison, March 26-The assembly
primary election bill was greatly al
/ tered by the senate after the two Mer-
| ton bills had been killed The meas
ure will now be transmitted to the as
/ sembly, will be refused concurrence
and sent back to the upper house. A
conference committee will then deal
with IT, The only chance the measure
! has Of ultimate passage is the pos
sibility that Senators Kreutzer and
Rogers will at the last test fall in
line and vote for the measure. The
| senate lined up Is to 10, the majority
/ being against the assembly bill. With
j the change Of the votes Of Senators
! INeutzer and Rogers, the division
would be II to 16 in favor of passage.
However, opinion is divided on the
outcome. Some predict the assembly
VIII concur and the measure go to the
governor, while others declare the
: StalWart senators will stand pat and
kill the whole thing. A deadlock be-
tween the two houses seems certain
for time. The stalWarts carried out
their program, after exhaustive de-
bate, and passed the bill with an
part which applies to officers other
than city and county officers shall be
referred to a vote Of the people in the
general election Of 1904. This was
! done after the defeat of amendments,
submitted by Senator KrCutzer in the
form Of a substitute bill, to limit the
scope Of the measure to legislative Off
GERS and preserve the state conven-
ton for nomination of state officers
and congressional conventions for
nomination Of congressman, and by
Senator Rogers, to eliminate United
States senators and members Of the
legislature from the operation OF the
law but including state officers. The
. kreutzer substitute received four
votes while Senator Rogers was the
only one who voted for his amend
ment. Senator Gayeney offered the
amendment to submit that portion of
the bill applying to officers above
county officers to vote of the people
The vote on this was the real test on
the measure. The amendment was
carried by a vote of Is ayes to Is
noes, as follows: Ayes-Senators
Beach, Eaton. Gaveney, Green, Hage-
meister, Johnson, Kreutzer, Nc
Donough, Morse, Mosher, North,
O'Neil, Randolph, Riordan, Roehr,
Rogers, Whitehead, Willy-18. Noes
Senators Bird, Burns, Hatton, Hud-
nall, Martin, McGillivray, Merton,
Miller, Munson, Reukema, Sarau,
Stout, Whipperman, Wolff, Wylie-15.
The Merton (democratic) primary
election bill was defeated by a vote
Of Is to "A. 1t was momentous day
in the assembly also where an en-
phatic negative was given to the pro-
position for the state to go into the
business Of licensing stationery en-
gineers. The assembly killed the
DudgeOn bill by a vote of 81 to 33.
There was no debate and an amend
ment by Mr.. Peterson to include
marine engineers-but not those on
private launches or on boats under
federal law-was lost by a tie vote,
As to As. The bill required the en-
gineers of most stationery boilers to
pass examinations and pay 50 each,
and to submit to biennial examinations
thereafter, paying 81 each time Boil
ers for heating purposes, threshing
machine boilers and boilers on steam
boats did not fall within the purview
of the act. The same bill has been
killed repeatedly by past legislatures.
Such law would take about $4,000 a
year out Of the boiler owners of Wis
consin. In discussing the bill forbid
ding the marriage of whites with
negroes or mulattoes Mr.. Cady dis
closed for the first time the origin of
the demand. ut comes" said he,
from the cOlored women of the state,
and particularly the colored women of
Milwaukee, who want such a law for
their own matrimonial protection" In
the cream city, he went on, there are
81 mixed families and in these ~
black men have white wives. This
means that AZ coloreQ women are de-
prived of the privilege of marriage.
There are annually, he said, 80 such
marriages in Massachusetts and in
nearly every case the bride is white.
These marriages result generally from
the association Of the two races as
servants,-sharp, designing negro men
winning weak and ignorant girls. A
law like this would OrOtpcf SJIch girls