The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-17
TO ABOLISH QUADRENNIAL Lusk Wants an Annual
 Meeting. GOVERNOR EVERY TWO YEARS Bill Introduced to Amend the
 Constitution. Experiment of Convention Acknewi- edged a FaiIure---Members Be- iieved to Favor Greater Ere
 quency of Legislature.

l Biennial elections in Alabama of the States Senate and House and annual meetings of the Alabama Legislature are provided for in a bill introduced yesterday by Senator John A. Lusk. of Marshall, and which will, in all prob ability. pass both Houses with votes to spare.
 But before the biennial election can be restored and before annual sessions of the Alabama Legislature can be held the people of Alabama will have to vote upon the question at issue, for the sought for reforms can be accomplish ed only by an amendment to the Con- stitution. The temper of the House and Senate on the question is not to auadrennial sessions of the Legtsla- ture have been tried and found want ing
 The bill provides that at the general |
 election of 1908 the people will have an opportunity of voting on the ques-
 tion of altering the Constitution. The author of the bill is the recognized leader of the dominant faction in the Senate. but the proposition which he
 advanced yesterday will receive the cordial support of the minority of the House. who are equally convinced that
 a grave mistake was made when the Constitutional Convention so altered law and custom in Alabam that the Legislature might meet only once in
 four years. Qpadrenriai Session FaiIure. The experiment has been tried for six years. Thoughtful men in the I lLee1slatufe and out Of 1t frankly ad- l advocafsa aS n saving to th8 state. tsis | quadrennial sessions have proved most costly to the State. The state treasury of Alabama lost through the decision of the Supreme Court in the oil inspec- | ton act, which declared the act uncon- stitutional, thousands and thousands of dollars-a loss which would itself, have paid the expenses of the legislative ses- sions. The defect in this and other acts declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, could have been remed- fed few months after the decision had been rendered, if tho Legislature had been holding annual sessions. The general belief of the present Legislature in reference to the quad rennial sessions. Is, to speak in the parlance of the street. that the State was handed a lemon" by the corpora tions when quadrennial sessions of the Legislature were ordered.
 Senator Wilson. of Blount, came for ward yesterday with a sweeping anti cigarette bill. The Blount County Sem ator's bill goes after the cigarette as effectively as does the Indiana law. 1t prevents the giving away of any cig- arettes or cigarette material. A simt- lar bIll was introduced In the last Legislature, but 1t got lost rome- where before it safely emerged to the haven of third reading"
 Goes for Dog Stealers.
 Senator Merritt of Macon County yesterday put in bill going after the dog stealers. The bill makes the off, fense a misdemeanor, and Is especially designed to protest high grade regis tered dogs. If the bill becomes a law, the man in the country can feel safe about his fine 'possum dog. and the city fellow who puts on airs with a pump gun and a red setter need not he continually worried over the where abouts of the red setter, But hunters all over the State will heartily en- dorse the measure,
 The appropriation for the School for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. was provid- ed for in a bill introduced yesterday in the Senate by Senator Heacock. oe Talladega. This big school is located in the senatorial district, represented by Senator Heacock. The bill calls for an appropriation og $S0.0OO to the school
 On behalf of the Commercial Club, of Birmingham. Lieutenant Governor Gray yesterday extended an invitation to the Senate to visit Birmingham January IS. during the sessions of the Southern Cotton Association The l Senate heard the invitation with some favor. but the senators were not pre- pared to take action upon 1t. They did not know whether it would be possible for them to go to Birmingham that day or whether an adjournment would be expedient. But a committee will. in all probability, be sent up, to show sympathy and cooperation. if nothing else is done.
 To Honor Confederate Leader.
 The Senate will hold no session on Saturday, that day being the birthday of General Robert E. Lee and all the Senators desiring to commemorate the natal day of the great Southern leader in some way, Beside. previous Legislature of Alabam had made the day a legal holiday The resolution providing for the adjournment on that dav came from Senator E. r. Thomas
 The Senate was asked yesterday to endorse the attitude of President Theo- dore Roosevelt in his immediate dls- charge of the negro troops who shot up" the town of Brownsville. Texas | The resolution was introduced by Sen ator D. Nj. White. of Coosa. It hearti- ly endorsed the action of the President | and rather sharply criticised the pO- sition taken by certain self seeking | politicians who were endeavoring to | make political capital out of the inci- dent to the detriment of law and jus tIce. The resolution recited the fact l