The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-08
SElsATE KILLS BILLS GALORE Worked Fast at the Closing Hours. NO CAPITOL IMPROVEMENTS Dog Tax and Firearms Bills Meet
 Defeat. Senator TeasIey Worked Hard to Get Capitol Extension Through and Charged Rules Committee
 with Unfairness.
NO CAPITOL IMPROVEMENTS

At the eleventh hour .as the session of 1907 was drawing to a close, the Senate took the dog tax bill and the firearms bill and hit them a lick that killed all chances of their passage. There will be no further improve ment of the Capitol during the next four years. Senator Teasley made a despairing effort yesterday to get the bill to a place in the calendar where he could have 1t passed at the after noon or the night session. but the Sem ate baked him. The Capitol of Ala bama must remain lopsided for four years. On the east the State of Geor- gia has a million dollar capitol, and on the west the State of Mississippi has a million dollar Capitol The Leg | islature made the railroad rates of Ala bama conform with the Georgia and the Mississippi rates, but 1t declined to make the Alabama Capitol conform with the Georgia and the Mississippi Capitol.
 In his efforts to get the Capitol ex- tension bill on the calendar. Senator Teasley ran afoul of the Rules Com mittee. He charged the Rules Com mittee with unfairness. He charged, | too, that the committee had purposely pigeon holed the bill to prevent the
 
 ed that five men composing the Rules Committee had taken advantage of their position to block needed legisla- | tion.
 He tried to have the Senate overruIe the Rules Committee and put the bill on the calendar without it's, consent Senator Lusk took the floor to fight the motion and mentioned with awe the sum of $250,000 carried by the bill. Senator Teasley followed him, saying | that 1t was his purpose to cut the ap- propriation to S2S,000 year for four years and this should be dependent upon the action of the Governor. But the Senate refused the. motfons The Montgomery Senator. however, did succeed in getting upon the call endar the bill making an annual ap- propriation of $2.0o0 to pay the expense of the reunion of the Confederate Vet erans of Alabama.
 Worked HurriedIy. The Senate worked hurriedly but internationally, yesterday. 1t was in feverish haste to get some of the gem eral bills off the calendar, yet the old, old question of the dog and the con- cealed pistol so took up the attention of the Senators, that the entire af- ternoon session was filled.
 On its last day the Senate put itself largely into the hands of the Rules l through the calendar and picked out the bills 1t thought ought to be passed and they were given preferred places on the days calendar. All bills so picked out were passed But this was at the morning session.
 At the afternoon session two con ference reports came over and threw the Senate into turmoil The session was altogether lively and some of the most vehement speeches of the ses- sion ware delivered.
 The Senate was first tied up on the | Deg Tax Bill. The Black Belt Sena- i tors wanted it. The white county
 Senator's as a rule. were opposed to It.
 The owner of the dog in the Black
 Belt, as a rule, had no vote. The man | in the white counties who had a dog
 had vote as well.
 1 The Senate was plainly afraid of the l proposition. Still. the bill had been
 passed previously by the Senate But | the opponents of the measure began to
 tell of the things that would happen
 when the dog owner went around to
 the Probate Judges office and planked
 down his dollar. They pictured the
 Legislature as taxing every sort of property, and when property ran out
 making dogs property so they could | tax them.
 The old tobacco tax was brought up | immigration | among the dealers. The members
 were reminded how anxious they were
 to get to Montgomery to repeal that tax. It would be infinitely worse, they | were told, to tax the dog of the man | with the vote. and they would long in
 vain for an opportunity of repeating
 that tax.
 The Senate fickered on the question | They backed back from their old po-
 sition. A motion to table a motion 1 to recommit the matter to the Confer ence Committee resulted In tie vote
 and President Gray siding with the
 friends of the dog and the dogs owner
 united the tie. Then the knal blow | was administered by a motion to re-
 commit the entire thing. which carried i by a margin of one vote.
 | The killing of the Hinson Firearms l Bill carried with 1t the killing of the | Rushton bill. Both were wrapped up 1 in the same proposition and the propO-
 gition was destroyed by the painless
 method of recommitting 1t to the Con-
 ference Committee
 No Pistol Bill.
 So the Legislature adjourned finally
 without providing any sort of a pistol
 or concealed weapon bill. The law is
 just as 1t was before the Legislature
 convened The Black Belt Senators
 again stood together at the killing of
 the bill and again the white county
 Senators put the finishing touches to
 the matter which would effect the man
 with both a vote and pistol. The fight against the compromise | nistol hill for the last bill had been | so altered that 1t bore but slight TO-
 semblance to the original Hinson bill,
 was led by Senators from the North l Alabama counties, like Senators Hay ner and Lusk. The bill was fought l for by Senators like Senators Hinson. Reese and Thomas.
 l The last bill embodied only a record
 and a tax of every pistol In the coun- | ty, put even this went too far for the white county Senators. They were
 able to beat the bill and leave the | Legislature without the credit of hav-