The independent., 1907-02-28

/
| Omaha when an election is held by
the city, county or school district at
The senate took up the joint COM
| mittle 2-cer. fare bill that come from
| the house, and while refusing to strike
out the emergency clause, deeElcd it
| best to make slight amendment to
allay all doubts as to the constitution
| allty of the bill. 1t amended the D.
cent fare clause. AS amended the bill
will soon go ;.ack to the house, and il
that body accepts the amendment the
| measure will be sent to Governor Shcl-
don for his signature. If the house
does not accept the senate amendment.
aud thero is no reason to doubt that II
+ will, the bill will then go to joint
conference committee.
In the senate there was little or no
disposition to shy from passing such a
bill, but even the friends of the n.cas-
urc admitted that it ought to ba passed
in such a form that there wou.d be 10
doubt as to its legality. Nearly every
member spoke earnestly in favor Of Il
2-cent fare bill and predictions were
made that it would certainly go to tie
governor within a few days. T he only
question was the form Of the bill.
After some red-hot speeches had been
made in favor the passing the joint
committee bill from the house without
amendment, instead of insisting on the
house passing the senate bill OH the
same subject, King of Polk, repub
lican, called attention to what he
feared was a defect, and Ashton I'll
Hall, fusionist, enlarged upon the point
King of Polk called attention to the
word "shall'' in the scent clause,
which states that no ticket shall be
sold for less than cents. This clause
was put in to apply to interurban Dads
or to railroads where stations or stop
ping places are less than one mile
apart.
Ashton Of Hall enlarged upon this
and declared that the title Of the bill
fixes maximum passenger rates, while
the body of the bill, with the 5scent
clause in 1t, fixes not only maximum
rates, but a minimum rate, and tnere-
fore the title was not broad enough to
cover the provisions of the bill Finally
King suggested a change in the word
ing of the scent clause, at the came
time refusing to eliminate that clause
entirely He did not want it made
compulsory upon road not to sell a
ticket for less than cents, az that
would be establishing a minimum rate,
while the title provides only for a
maximum rate of 2 cents per mile
King finally appealed to the members
of the railroad committee that sat IN
the joint committee and drafted the
house bill and asked them il they be-
lieved the bill should be passed in it's
present form. Aidrich of that COM
mittee, who had insisted at first on its
passage without amendment on ac-
count of the delay that would follow,
admitted that he would not EIe said
II would not take a great amount OF
gray matter to remedy the point in
question and that it could be done i'm
mediately. Wilsey of Frontier, chair
man Of the railroad committee, also
said he was not satisfied that the bill
was legal in its present form.
Aldrich of Butler thereupon offered
All amendment changing the scent
clause to read as follows: "Provided,
that no railroad company shall be re-
quired to sell any ticket for less than
5 cents" This was believed to cure
the alleged defect that the 5-cent
clause established. and it was adoDted
Previous to this action the committee
of the whole refused to adopt the mo-
ton of Clarke of Adams that the
emergency clause should be stricken
out. This was refused by an over
whelming vote which was taken at
once.
The debate on the bill took place
with Gibson of Douglas in the chair
President pro tenn Saunders of Doug
las invited half dozen different SEN
ators to take the chair but all declined
The bill Is III. r. No. 267 1t merely
changes the word three" in the pres
ent statute to two" and provides that
no ticket shall be sold for less than
five cents and that children under
twelve years shall be carried at half
fare. The present statute provides for
half fare for children ten years or
under, but the rules of most roads
admit children twelve years to half
rates.
Clarke of Adams resisted the desire
to- pass the bill at this time and pro-
nOaai to mDye that a. IA, lafd ovar