The San Francisco call., 1905-02-15
Devlin Of Vallejo as Cham
pion of Good Roads Tells
How the Money Is Wasted
BLAMES SUPERVISORS
Assemblyman Declares Pres
ent System of Improving
Highways Is All Wrong
Special Dispatch to The Call.

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 1.-THE AS
sembly this morning defeated a bill by
Johnstone of San Dimas increasing the
tax rate that Supervisors may levy Ior
the Improvement of public ROADS anu
highways from 40 to go cents on each
$780, The measure was deIeateo w
Devlin Of Vallejo, who made speech
on the road situation in the state tnal
impressed the Assembly.
Il believe as strongly as any man IN
better roads, said Devlin. put the
fault lies not in the scarcity OF Iunos,
but in the fact that the money IS not
properly spent If the 40 cents col
lected were spent right the state Woulo
have good roads The system or road
Improvement is wrong. LII CONFESS
have no remedy to offer just now, put
think if this Legislature Wouid go ihto
a plan to better the road lmploVeliieii.
system it would accomplish vastly more
for the farmers than it would by IN
creasing their taxes. There is Scarcely
a section of the State where the IdrHi-
ers and other taxpayers are not coni-
planning of the roads. l hope to see IN
the near future the whole general plan
Of the road laws in this State changeo
so California will stand out among .ne
other States in this respect as she uoeS
in most things else a leader.
The bill limiting the hours OF drug
clerks was passed as 1t came amehueo
from the Senate, and now goes 10 .ne
Governor The amendment proVlues
that clerks shall answer emergency
calls, and shall not be made TO WORK
more than sixty hours each week Oh SIX
calendar days.
An important bill by Waste provldlng
for the transfers of guardianship mat
ters from one court to anotner was
passed Under the present law, no maj
ter how far away from the court IN
which the guardianship papers are op-
tanned the parties interested may move,
all business relating to the matter must
be heard in that court, entailng great
trouble and expense to the partles. in
der the Waste measure transfer may
be made to the courts in counties TO
which the parties may move.
The bill under which San francisco
was to be given half-holiday on sat
urdays was beaten, Treadwell Gaining
attention to the fact that while 1t pro-
vided that all city and county omces
should close on Saturday afternoons, 1t
still provided that legal papers might
be issued on such afternoons, which
would permit officials to issue papers
Tor only those IHey DledSeu ". -,
At the afternoon session Houser's Dill
providing that any merchant must sell
goods dealt in by him to any person
proffering the purchase price was
passed without dissenting vote
Barnes bill establishing certain quail
ifications for notaries public and max
ing it compulsory for them to pass ex-
aminations before Superior Judges be-
fore receiving certificates was also
passed.
At the night session the Dill present.
ed by Jones of San Francisco making II
a misdemeanor to sell any theater tick
cts at a price in advance of that ad-
vertised was passed.
The bill concerning all new railroad
crossings and old ones as introduced py
Walsh was passed.
O'Briens bill fixing the minimum
wages of all laborers employed on State
or municipal work at So day was
passed.