Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1905-04-01
The State Legislature.
Lansing, March 27, 1905.


before the spring election, wh' the
voters will be confronted with three
amendments TO the constitution upon
which they will be asked TO vote yes,
or no he bill OF Senator Lihsley,
heretofore referred TO. 10 give TO such
propositions more adequate publicity
| than has been had her, tofOre, became
a law on the 22nd. too late for carry
ing out its provisions this spring. 1t
requires the secretary of state To pre-
pare statements Of the purpOrt. nature
and effect a. such amendments or
other question to be submitted 10 pop
ular vote. and three times to send cop
les TO every newspaper in the state,
not less than sixty, thirty and fifteen
days before each election. with reques,
for publication without expense 10 the
state and also to supply at least Il n
copies to each voting precinct to be
posted at the polling place, four copies
In English, and two each in the Ger
man, Holland AMI Polish languages
Only one of the proposed amend
mrnts is OF general application, That
| in the interest Of road Improvement,
| introduced in he senate bl Ely ot Al
ma. Section 8 of article 10 OF the con
stitution prohibits the state from be
| ing party 70, or interested in, or car
~ Iug on. any work or internal i'm
provement. except in he expenditure
of grants land or other pr pcrty TO
| the staLe. The amendment now pro-
posed excerpts ir, NJ hat prohibition
''rhe improvement oi aiding in the
improvement Of public wagon roads. J"
making il competent for the legislat-
urt 10 Appropriate moncy for such puf-
pose, + TO devise Ol hci measures for
ecuring under state direction "A bet
ter system OF highways. In his inaug-
ural message Governor Warner paid
special Alteration 10 the great and
growing importance of go ID rold,, aud
the need OF better provision for secur-
ing them and anticipated sUOn some
general scheme OF aid for such inter
esls from the general government.
Such aid wUut. u, dOubt,diy be con
d!tiOurd upon stat partlci al ion Ia
the work, and for that purpose an
amendment 70 our constitution such
as is now proposed would be necessary.
! The commercial value that should re
suit To the people OF The STATE fium
such a combination of natioual, state
aud loca effort, is beyond any that can
be expected from any ihcg form Of
community effort.
Both OF the Other anieLdcnts relate
To the county OF Geuesre alone. One
authorizes the beard OF supervisors 70
provide such additional salary for the
circuit judge, above the present cor s.
i,utional limit of $500. as they shai
| from time 10 time dctermine-as was
done two y,as ago for Bay and Wash
tenaw. The other prov ideB for a
board of county auditors, which re-
quires modification If the e. nsi}iu'.
ional deposit Of exclusive auditing
powers In the board or supervisOrS-as
was also done two years ag) for Kent,
Saginaw, WaShtenaw and Jackson
count es These two are in the ne
Of specia atd IOcrl laws which are be-
coming such a clog upon legislation,
and more SO upon administrations. III
is generally felt amUng hc Legislators
with ref renee TO a local bill, and sim.
ilarly among he voters with reference
tO these special amendments. thNt il
it is What is wanted by The people
effected, let 'em have IL; il little con-
Germs us. But The correction of that
sort of lawulakinp is fast becoming
imperative. and can only be corrected
by a constitutional convention and 2
new instrument.
The two houses convened at Mn,
O'Clock last Monday evening. as usual
but on account Df the death OF GUyer-
nor Luce they adopted resolutions ir
VI blIdO tNFut,
committees to represent tn M at the
funeral on Tuesday, and adjourned
until Wednesday without the trans
action OF any other business. Th'
presiding offic' RS OF the two house:
headed their respective commit aes
All OF the state departments wer,
closed during Tuescay, by order OF h,
governor, who attended the funeral nj
the CHIEF executive officer of the state
The house session Of Wednesday wa
awaited with much expectancy. be.
cause Of the special order for consider
alton OF the Stone primary reform hill
which had been reported out by tn,
elections committee. somewhat precip
itately az IT. seemed at the time, Othe
general bills on the same subject hav-
ing been only briefly before lhem and
one OF them, that of Mr.. VanKeuren