Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-02-16
LONG SESSIONS BRING RESULTS
Social Democrats Are Carrying
Off the Honors on Big
Propositions.
Forestry Question to Receive Serious
Attention at the Hands of the
State Legislators-OId Cap
itoI at Belmont.

week to stand firm on the proposal to
shut off new business at the end OF
the week. Strong efforts were made
to stretch out the time by laggards
and it took considerable Sparring and
generalship to defeat the moves, but
the resolution stuck. However, the
law will be gotten around in various
ways. such as introducing bills by titles
alone (of which many have come I'M
and permitting committee bills to come
in. From indications the total num-
Der of bills will probably fall consid-
erably below that of two years ago,
when some 1900 were introduced.
Assemblyman LeRoy's big bill put
ting all public service utilities under
the railroad rate commission and As
semblyman Potter's bill for regulation
Of insurance along the lines recon-
mended by the legislative investigating
committee came in at the finish and
have now gone to the committees for
final strengthening and revision.
Short Session Talk.
The idea of a short session Is still
urged. but is discouraged by some of
the veterans, who regard it as danger
Ous advice. 1t is pointed out that in
years past the public service corpora
tons always held up the bugabOo of
long legislative session rs an expense
10 the state, hoping under the cover
of short sessions to prevent the pas
sage of legislation which might be Of
injury to them The long sessions
since 1901 have been productive of
much good legislation. 1t was the
passage of the rate bill that delayed
the session of 1905. but had the work
been hurried it would have resulted IN
no rate commission law, or at least a
defective one.
AS it is it is now admitted that the
Wisconsin law is the most complete
and effective of any state and the bacl;
taxes which the railroads have been
compelled to pay as a result of the
legislation of the past six years has
far more than paid the extra expenses
of long sessions.
The Social Democrats.
When it comes to big propositions
the Social Democrats are the fellows
to carry off the honors so far. NO
scheme seems too stupendous for these
dreamers on the golden age to be.
Government ownership of railroads,
postal savings banks, exclusion OF the
Japanese. and an international peace
parliament are among the few re-
quests they wish the legislature to ask
of congress, while their schemes of
state control of almost everything are
most elaborate. Were it not that their
authors are not taken seriously these
measures would be regarded as most
significant. Perhaps the most unkind
pass made at the corporations so far
this session is that by one Of the mem
bers. Mr.. Rerner, who would make
railway officials responsible for muir
der in the second degree in case Of
avoidable accidents. These Social
Democrats are all from Milwaukee.
there being five assemblymen and one
senator.
Much Like Other Men.
When they first appeared on the
scene two years ago they were re-
garded as almost another order Of be-
ingS, a lower one, and for time were
treated as outcasts but except for the
expected tendency to run wild on gov
eminent schemes for amelioration of
public woes, they were found to be
much like other men and to meet the
test of ShylOck's questioning as to the
kinship of the Jew with the human
Species The leader of the delegation
this winter is Rev. Carl d. Thompson,
who was once a Congregational minis
ter at Elgin, H., but who through
studying of labor conditions was led
to leave the church for the large work
Of ameIioration of the working class.
He received so many calls for outside
lectures and organization that he
abandoned the pulpit and settled III
Milwaukee to take charge of the work
Of organization in the state. During
his absence in Madison this W DIRK is in
the hands of Mr.. Gaylord, well
known Socialist, who, oddly enough, is
also a Congregational minister and
was a classmate of Mr.. Thompson at
the Union Theological seminary in
Chicago. Mr. Thompson also holds 4
masters degree from the University Of
Chicago. These Socialists have so far
not been heard from on the floor hut
Mr.. Thompson attracted much notice
to himself when one day recently, in
the absence Of the regular clergyman.
he opened the session with prayer. The
invocation was one of the most elo-
quent and crystal-clear ever heard here
and the appeal for the defeated and
downtrodden most moving.
Forestry Question.
The subject of forestry is going to
raceive serious consideration at the