The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-25
LUSK ATTEMPTS TO TAKE
 IT FROM ADVERSE CALENDAR
Floor Leader Finally Agrees to Make an Amendment.
senator Gardiner Malxes Enort to Bring Tag Tax Question from Under committee's Ban--Adiourn- ment Prevents
 Vote.

The proposed amendment to the Con- stitution providing for biennial cleo lions and annual sessions of the Leg islature got black eye in the Senate yesterday, although 1t was not entirely knocked out. The proposition will. no doubt, be doctored up and brought back for another light.
 , As it came up yesterday. it was in volved in the proposition of annual sessions of the Legislature, and the Is sue was. therefore. bit clouded. sena- tor Lusk, the author of the bill, agreed to amend the measure so that 1t would make the legislative sessions biennial, but the measure had the flercest of opposition as well as the strongest kind of support.
 There are two or three other meas ures before the Senate, Committed on Constitution and Constitutional Revis-
  have another discussion of this ques- tion Senator Jones, who is the author of ono of these measures, announced In his speech to the Senate that in case ~the pending measure was killed, ne would endeavor to get his bill before the Senate and have the people given chance to vote on the proposition.
 The adverse calendar of the Senate held the center of the stage through n. not do anything that did not relate to fine adverse calendar. Only two mo- lions were discussed, and both motions were to take bills from the adverse calendar.
 Tag Tax Under Discussion.
 The second motion was that of Sena- i4 tor Gardner of Pike. who wanted to get his tag tax measure out frem under tpe bAt of disapproval. under which the senate Committee had placed 1t. The senata talked about this motion for au bour ana a half. and adjourned before it took a vote on It.
 The tag tax, like the biennial session nropositfon, is live wire, and one of those subjects on which every Sena- tof~flas "views" which is is quite Will ing to express if he can catch the eye of the President. The present tag tax is 90 cents on every ton of guano sold in AIabama. MT. Gardner's bill wants this fax reduced to 10 cents ton. The Senate Committee on Agriculture con sidered It. wrote ''adversed on US pack and turned 1t over to the clerk. Sena- for Gardner did not want his pet leg- islative matter given any such step child treatment as that. and he maoe valiant fight to have It brought oue and given recognition. He was ably aasisted by Senator Reynolds. who be- lieves the tag tax is a tax on only one class of the citizens of the state.
 They rode gallantly into the fray while the opposition yesterday con- ducted A guerrilla warfare on the two champions, firing on them from am bush with sharpshooter questions They bore the disconcerting questioning g for awhile in good nature. At one time Senator Spragins asked Senator Gardner:
 will the gentleman from Pike per init a auestion?' It was about the twenty-fifth question of the series.
 "The gentleman from Pike has got ten into the habit of permitting ques- tions," replied the Troy senator whereat the Senate laughed.
 During his address, believing pa tience had ceased to be Virtue' seha- tor ReynoI5s said:
 nI will permit no other interruptions. It is the evident purpose of the other s;da to try to defeat this bill with questions and not with arguments"
 Much Involved in Proposition.
 One of the opposing Senators was trying to say they had not had a chance to make any arguments, as the talking was being done by the other side. but President Gray refused to let senator Reynolds be further inter
 There is a good deal involved in this narticular proposition. The State last wear got more than $90,00O from the tag tax. Out of this, the agricultural departmen. is supported, as well as the nine agricultural schools of the State, and Auburn gets a third of the total of the fund
 It was worthy of note in the dis cusston of yesterday, that either of the two speakers attacked the uses to which the fund was put. Nor did eith- CT of them say anything but compli- mcntary things of Auburn. Both speakers declared their only purpose was to relieve the farmers of the bur den of the tax, and in the event of the massage of the bill they would favor giving Auburn from the general fund an amount equal to that which the col Iege was now drawing from the tag tax fund.
 Nor did theyrenter into wholesale criticism or the dS ScnOOlS Ol the State. The speakers said in many eases these schools were doing a good work. but they had been told. in oth- CT cases they were nothing more than local high schools But neither speak Ner ex essed himself as being in favor of the abolition of the agricultural schools
 Senator Spragins. in rne of his ques- tions. however. intimated that he would tbo abolition Of these schools
 Senator Gardner. discussing his mo- tion to take the bill from the adverse calendar. said that Democrats who denounced the protective tariff as class legislation, had favored the contln- uance of the tag tax, which was ap- pIjed to only one class of c: -zens of inc state The tag tax, he said, was moi an issue in the Black Belt. where the lands were SO rich that but little fertiIize, was used. 1t was an issue in hts country, Southeast Alabama, where