Omaha daily bee., 1906-12-31
TALK ABOUT LEGISLATION
One Of First Bills viii Be Measure to Limit
Hours Of Railroad Employees,
HOUSE COMMITTEE PLACES TROUBLE
Governor Cummins Has Not Yet Conn
menced Arranging His Message or
Inaugural Address, but Con-
tents Decided Upon.
CFrom a stan Correspondent

IL MhTSlOns TepTeSeuldllNe-eleCl ITOm
Cerro Gordo county, will introduce bill
to limit the hours of employment of rail
road men at the coming session of the
legislature. The bill win be along the
lines as advocated by President Roosevelt
in a recent message to congress. At the
thirtieth general assembly Representative
English of Polk county introduced such
bill 1t was known as house file No. 1854
The bill passed the house, receiving sixty
seven votes in it's favor, but In the senate
committee on labor, to which It went after
first going to the railroads committee, the
railroad men made a showing in oppo-
sition to It. A large number OF railroad
employees were brought before the COM
mittee to testify that they did not want
the BILL as 1t would limit their possibili-
ties of making bigger wages. On this show
ing the bill was reported for indefinite
postponement and thus killed in the SEN
ate The bill by Marston will be one of
the first bills introduced in the house. 1t
will be referred to the labor committee at
his request and he will give a principal
part of his time to working for fits pass
age. The purpose of the bill will be to
limit the hours of a railroad employees
work so that there will be no cases Of
overworked employees with resulting in
creased liability to make mistakes to the
danger of the lives of the public.
Committee Appointments Next.
Beginning this week Immediately after
New Years day the Slavery hotel lobby in
this city will swarm with legislators, the
swarm growing thicker with every day as
the opening day draws closer And the all
important thing will be committee assign
ments. 1t is generally conceded that the
senate committee assignments are easy as
compared with those in the house. for the
reason that there are forty committees
in the senate with but thirty-six repub
licans to be given chairmanships, while In
the house there are fifty-four committees
with seventy-hve republicans to be salts
fed. Furthermore, in the senate more than
half of the members were in the senate
the last two sessions and the usual rule
of promotion will settle the greater num-
Der Of the appointments as to chairmen.
There will, of course, have to be some
careful figuring to have things come out
right as to political matters, but, on tho
whole, It is easy as compared with the
house, where only about one-fourth of the
members were members at the last ses-
| sion. nn
I 1t is generally conceded that Senator
Dowell will retain theechairmanship OF the
| judiciary committees 1t has been claimed
| by some that Smith of Mitchell would have
ways and means and Maytag appropria-
| lions. But Smith is the ranking member
| on appropriations and Maytag is next to
him. Neither were members of the ways
| and means COMMITTEES at the last session.
The ways and means committee is the
| ranking committee IN the Iowa Legislature,
not because It ~ ififst' in Importance, but
because It is in congress- where 1t handles
he Gov t. IIxy.o - he
committees This is Smiths last session
of his second term and Maytags first ses-
sion Of his second term. The appropria-
lions committee is much the more impor-
tant and the natural thing would be to
make Smith chairman of appropriations
for this term and leave Maytag the rank
ing member so that he could have the
craftsmanship at the next session and give
him the craftsmanship Of another commit
tee at this session Both are bosom friends
of Senator Garst, who, as lieutenant gov
ernor, will appoint the committees, and It
is known that Smith is very anxious to
be chairman of the appropriations COM
mittee.
The assignment Of the committees is
more or less an indication of who will lead
in legislation. F. NJ. Hopkins of Guthrie
will have the railroads committee, for
' WHICH ne is very duAlDust anu TdIhS next
to Smith of Mitchell who will be promoted
to appropriations. Durham will retain sup
preston of intemperance. whipple insur-
ance, Crossley schools, Bruce senatorial and
: representative districts, Gilliland will sue
I coed to congressional and judicial districts,
Jamison will retain constitutional amend
ments, Young of Calhoun public health.
| Ericsson public libraries. Stuckslager banks.
| jackson compensation of public officers,
! Saunders penitentiaries and pardons,
| Stookey public buildings and Eckles will
be promoted to agriculture, Turner will
probably have elections.
over in the house It is understood that
Weeks will have his choice Of committees
and he will take judiciary Weeks was
talked of for speaker He assured Kendall
/ Immediately at the close of the last session
that he would not be a candidate, but
would support him, and as Weeks would
have been a strong competitor It is natural
that Kendall should feel grateful Jones
of Villisca wants appropriations and there
is every indication that he will get II.
Because of his not pressing his claims for
the position OF speaker Teter OF Marion
will get the next most important commit
tee, ways and means. The rest of the
committees are not so easy Of arranging.
insurance. elections and railroads. Just
which member will have which committee,
however is difficult of determination, and
1t is understood that there Is practically
nothing determined In the house as to the
committees except the chairmen of the
first three A. F. N. Hambleton Of Ma
haska Is thus far the only candidate for
speaker pro TEN and will probably be
elected. in which case he will be made
chairman of a minor committee. Lee OF
Emmett has been mentioned for one Of the
important committees, such as insurance
but he is one of the new members and the
unusual will be followed II he is jumped
over the heads OF Meredith and Darrah
The other committee appointments have
thus far failed to develop.
Governor Cummins Message.
Governor Cummins has not dictated q
word on his message TO the legislature
The message must be delivered in about
two weeks In addition to his message L
the legislature there is this year to be an
inaugural address. Neither one has beer
written or started. Governor Cummins
method OF writing his messages and al
speeches is to prepare them in his heaf
first Then some night he will call hi.
stenographer, Edwin P. Peterson. out q
his home on Grand avenue and he viii
begin TO dictate and will go through tn,
entire dictation. After the manuscript hai
been prepared he reads II and corrects 4
. | a. q and raadv for daIfxrarxr