The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-02-27
LEGISLATIVE NEWS.
FOUR CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND
 MENTs FOR CONSIDERATION.

Were Proposed in 19O3-QuestIOn of
 Submitting Them to Popular Vote to
 be Decided-Interest Awakened by
 Senator Paige's Bill to Create Two
 New Superior Court Judgeships-
 Good work of the CIerks-Other
 Notes. L1.
 Hartford, Feb. 25.-There are four
 constitutional amendments to be acted
 upon by the present general assembly,
 the question of submitting them to a. popular vote to be decided by both
 houses this session. These amend
 ments were proposed by the house of
 representatives in 1903, and were pub
 lished in the session laws of that year.
 The first one of the amendments, if
 adopted by the people, will put a stop
 to the practice of electing members of
 the general assembly to salaried of
 fees to which fees are attached dur
 ing their membership of either house, except the offices of United States sen ator. Appointive offices which are fill ed by the governor will be subject to the same restriction, except the office of notary public. The custom of elect ing its own members to position Of profit and emolument in the public ser vice has been growing in the general assembly for long period. Scores Of
 minor judgeships have been filled by
 that method. County commissioners h o,11n riila
 The exemption of the United States senatorship from the effects of the
 amendment is obviously for the public l interest. Since 1850 three United States
 senators have been elected from the
 house. These were Isaas Touoey of Hartford, Speaker Lafayette s. Eos ter of Norwich and William W. Eaton of Hartford. The most noted appoint ment from the general assembly to the | highest court in the state within the last twenty years was in the case of Judge William Hammersley of the SUI
 prenle court. The appointments was made by Governor Morris of New Ha- | ven in 1893, Judge Hammersley being
 a member of the house at the time. i'The second of the proposed amend ments to be acted on at this session iauthorizes the use of voting machines in all elections in the state. The ma
 chine voting is now inadmissible in the
 biennial state elections. One provision of this amendment will make secret l voting part of the fundamental law Iof the state, incorporating that method lin the constitution. Now secret voting lis only provided for by statute. The I third of the proposed amendments pro, Vides that each town shall annually or biennially, as the electors of the town may determine, elect selectmen and 4 such officers of local police as the laws I may prescribe. Under the constitution I at present selectrnen must be elected | annually; in most of the towns in the l state on the first Monday in October I Half a duozen towns elect these off; l cials at other times in the year. but i there is no exception to the annual I election.
 ! The fourth and last of the proposed l amendments embodies, the revision oi ! the constitutions, which was worked l out by the constitutional convention ir l 1902 Tn submitting these amendments l to the people the vote of tWo-thirds i of each house will be necessary.
 x Nothing has so thoroughly awakened J public interest since the beginning oi | the session as Senator Paige's bill fol the creation of two additional superior ! court judgeships. The legislature ir 1 1870 fixed the number of judges, iriclud < ing the five members of the supreme court, at eleven and established thu salary of each at ss,500 In 1889 tws 1 new judgeships were created by tht
 general assembly, placing the limit or the illzfated figure thirteen. Twelve years after that, 1901, the number was made fourteen, and has since remained