The San Francisco call., 1907-02-15
READY TO ACT ON
JOINT PRIMARY
Senate Prepared to Agree
on ld-Wright Amend
ment to Satisfy Assembly
DEMANDS JOINT RULES
By George A. Van Smith
CALL HEADQUARTERS,
1907 EIGHTH STREET.


SACRAMENTO, Feb. 1.-THE Senate
is prepared to agree upon an amend
ment to the Held Wright direct pri-
mary constitutional amendment that
viii be entirely satisfactory to the As
semblymen who objected to the Senate
proviso, but it will be only after the
Assembly has adopted joint rules.
The adoption of the joint rules is a
trifing matter, but the Assembly has
held back, and now that 1t has given
the upper house the whiphand by
throwing the direct primary constitu-
tional amendment in the air the Sena-
tors are disposed to exercise the adj
vantage so unfortunately placed in
their hands. The rock upon which the
Senate and Assembly split was Grove
Johnson's section compelling commit
tees TO report upon bills sent from an
other house within ten days. The AS
sembly tried to dodge the joint rules
proposition today by adopting Held IS
resolution calling for a conference COM
mittee. Beardslee appointed Held
and Johnson of Sacramento and Stetson
conferees on the part of the Assembly.
They will in all probability constitute
the sum total in the conferee line for
several days.
SPELLS JOINT RULES
No Senate conference committee will
be named until it can be done regu-
larly under agreed rules. The upper
house pretends to be ready and asppar-
emily is willing to make the Held
Wright amendment unobjectionable to
the Assembly, but only in the good old
fashioned way The Senate leaders
have agreed upon a compromise pro-
viso that is admittedly acceptable to
Stetson, Cutten and the men who de-
feated concurrence. 1t is equally ac-
eeptable to the men in charge of the
measure. Having gone that far the
Senate has but to say, Come and get
your proviso, but come through regu-
lar channels"
Unfortunately for the Assembly, the
Senate has the compelling position, for
if an agreement is not reached the As
semblymen who voted for nonconcur-
renee will be charged-and beyond the
chance of successful defense-with
preventing the submission of an amend
ment at the next general election and
postponing direct primary legislation
for four years.
The compromise proviso tentatively
agreed upon by the Senate leaders will,
if adopted, permit amendment of exist
ing primary election laws and even the
enactment of such a law as is pro-
posed by Stetson. This only adds to
the difficulty of the thirty Assembly
men VINO permitted the Held w right
amendment to get away from them and
back into the hands of the Senate In
fine, this agrees to what the Assembly
desires, but insists that it be done
regularly, all of which spells joint
rules.
JOKER FROM Los ANGELES
A neat bit Of attempted politics has
been turned up to the Assembly ju-
dietary committee by Assistant City
year City Attorney Hewitt, nonpartisan
or independent, beat George B. Beebe
by something like 5000 votes, as one of
the incidents of the political cyclone
that struck the Los Angeles machine.
Naturally enough, the city charter pro-
vides for the prosecution of the city's
cases by the City Attorney, and he ap-
points assistants for service in the
Municipal and Police courts. Senator
BroughtOn introduced bill placing the
appointment of these assistants in the
hands of the District Attorney The
bill got through the Senate before the
unsuspecting nonpartisans discovered it
and the pretty little scheme to put the
defeated Beebe in the office victor
az a salary of $27O0 a year They ap-
pear to stand fair chance of getting
an adverse report from the Assembly
committee, but the proposition appears
to be too good a chance to grab off a
few jobs for the machine to submit to
defeat solely because a judiciary com
mittee may think it wants to do the
fair thing.