Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-05-30
WISCONSIN LAW MAKERS

Madison, May 22.-The senate re-
ceived capitol building bill from g
committee on claims with a recon-
mendation for passage after the adop-
ton of an amendment which makes
no change in the amount of money
proposed to be appropriated but sim
ply gives the capitol commission au-
thority to remove the present old
capitol building in parts from time t.
time as the work or the new building
progresses. The appropriation carried
is 100000 annually for nine years,
which, together with the $3.50, 900 APP
propriated two years ago, makes the
cost of the proposed statehouse $1,000
900. The senate committee on state
affairs reported the assembly bill to
prohibit smoking of cigarets in public
places for indefinite postponemenI
There were only three bills on the
senate calendar and two OF them
were laid over on account of the alb
sence of Senator Barker. These were
the Barker and Froemming excise
bills.
That some members of the legisla-
ture, at least, are tired of the lengthy
session this year became evident yes
terday wnen Assemblyman Roethe of
fered a joint resolution to amend the
constitution so that every session of
the legislature would be limited to 100
days. The present session had al
ready lasted $50 days and will prob
ably continue about 100 more. The
county option bill was reported by
the committee on state affairs without
recommendation. The Bancroft bill
to disfran t,ise students of colleges
and universities and commercial
travellers from voting in any place
but that in which they are bona fide
residents was advanced to engross-
ment Assemblyman Potter into
produced his bill to tax automobiles.
They are taxable now of course like
other property. The Weber social
democratic joint resolution proposing
an investigation of the Dietz Cameron
dam affair in Sawyer county was
killed by vote of AZ to %. Assem-
blymen Roycraft and j. P. Peterson
were in favor of adopting the resolu-
ton. Messrs. Ingram and Norcross
opposed it chiefly on the ground that
the legislature had no jurisdiction
over such an affair and that the
county governments exclusive juris-
diction ought to be maintained. The
Weber memorial to congress to put
stop to the so-called injunction evil
also was killed.
Madison. May 23.-After debating
the wisconsin river reservoir i'm
provement bill for more than two
hours and just as the friends and
opponents of the measure had agreed
to vote and either pass or kill the
bill and settle the wrangle, Senator
Sanborn interposed that he, as a
friend of the bill, was not ready to
say that there might not yet be some
better disposition of the matter to be
found and asked that the bill be laid
over until Tuesday night. The re-
quest was granted. The friends OF
the bill were represented in the de-
bate by Senators Brazeau, Marsh, Bird,
and Browne, and the opposition was
presented by Senator's Burns, Husting
and Lockney. The main argument
of the opposition was. that the state
should itself make the deS1ed i'm
provement, or at any rate the legisla
ture ought not to make a valuable
grant of franchise that to all in
tents and purposes would amount to
Q permanent gift of valuable property,
although the property is now Of
speculative or undeveloped character.
The friends of the bill maintained that
the promoters of the Improvement
could not make much money out of
it directly, for the bill limits the profit
to the rate of six per cent of the
money invested.
The assembly by vote of 49 to
rs, placed itself on record as favor
ing the retention of the present
straight ticket voting system by re-
ferring to the committee on elections
the Peterson ballot bill with instruc-
tons to so. amend that the party
circle would be retained at the top
Of the ballot The entire bill barely
escaped being killed by vote of 40
to 36. Speaker Ekern led the fight
in favor of doing away with straight
ticket voting and adopting the Massa-
chusetts plan He contended that
more intelligent voting would be pre-
duced by such law. Assemblyman
Cleary also favored the bin, arguing
that candidates would be required to
stand on their own merits if the
chances of being carried through on
a party wave were minimized AS
Ingram also was for the
bill But Assemblyman Hebron OPP
posed the bill on the ground that it
lid not provide fer the same rule in
cities where. he urged. non partisan
elections were much more necessary
than in the elections in larger dis